Sushi Stories 2
I grew up in a small, Oregon town where there wasn't a whole lot of racial tension because there weren't that many races to begin with. This isn't to say that there wasn't racism or all of that, because there definetly was, but when there are eight black kids and 20 asian kids in your whole high school, you don't think about "demographics" a whole lot. There weren't really any racial cliques because there simply weren't enough people to form them.
Here in California, there is of course a lot more diversity, and also more "clumping," and it's been interesting to see how race, which was something I mostly just read about in textbooks in Oregon, plays a part in people's personal identity down here.
For example, at the sushi bar he front of the house staff is pretty much entierly asian (although not entierly Japanese) and everyone who works in the kitchen is hispanic. I don't think about it much, but as far as I know, I'm the only white kid working there.
My biggest cultural dilema there is how to talk to the cooks and dishwashers, who all speak English, but are clearly more comfortable speaking Spanish. I can speak Spanish, but am much more comfortable speaking Spanish. When I was in Spain I wanted people to speak to me in Spanish, but I guess part of that was because I was trying to learn the language at the time. Now that I'm back in the states, I usually speak in English, partly because it is the lingua franca, and partly because I am afraid of messing up in Español. I don't want to make a fool of myself, so I say "good morning" instead of "buenos dias" at the resturant. Sometimes I say "hola," but once I was asked "que pasa?" and replied "nada mucho," then spent the next fifteen minutes kicking myself because I should have said "nada mucha." I think.
I guess it doesn't matter that much, since I don't have a whole lot of contact with the guys in the kitchen except for when I am ordering food from them, where the difference would be between "two piece shrimp tempura, please" and "dos shrimp tempura por favor."
Do they even have a word for tempura in Spanish?
posted by Aaron at 8:35 PM
3 Comments:
I was right there when I started working at Gaucho. All the cooks speak Spanish and English, and when talking to us they speak English. However, I know that they are more comfortable speaking Spanish, so I do what I can. Which is very little. Oddly enough, they will still respond in English. So a conversation goes like this:
cook: what happened Queso?
me: nada...nada
cook: everything good?
me: si, todo bien, gracias
I'd say just speak Spanish if you want. They'll appreciate it.
nada mucho is completely correct! i say, don´t worry about messing up--how will you improve otherwise? Nonetheless, i get the same feelings sometimes too. i think Grant´s right though--they appreciate any effort.
I asked a Spanish friend of mine and she said that you really don't say "nada mucho". Not to say it's not correct, but I was told you would simply say "nada" or possibly "no mucho", but not "nada mucho." eh...say whatever you like.
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