As some of you know, there is some great cheesesteak in Philadelphia. Probably the two famous ones are Pat’s Cheesesteak and Geno’s Cheesesteak. During this past AMI Revolution in Philadelphia, some of the staff people got a taste of it for the first time.
Since our group was fairly large, we divided up into 2 groups and one went to Pat’s and the other went to Geno’s. I ended up going to Pat’s and I was not disappointed. It was really good. When we finished, we went over to meet up with the other group at Geno’s. I decided since we ate at Pat’s we should try Geno’s and then decide who had the best cheesesteak.
As we were waiting in line I saw a sign that blew me away.
When I saw this sign, a couple of things were running through my mind. First of all, I was thinking about ordering in broken English and seeing how they would respond and then maybe start a riot. But then the wisdom took over and I decided to be friendly and talk with the person behind the counter. Ha!… I got the cold shoulder because Philly people don’t really want to talk, especially when they are busy working.
After this incident, I realized how many people respond differently to globalization.
The one scenario that kept coming to my mind was a Japanese tourist. What if the tourist heard so much about the Philly cheesesteak and he decided to order one. But the problem is that he is not able to speak English very well. With this kind of “sign” and attitude toward people, it will not help Geno’s image or the tourist’s experience with America. So would Geno’s deny service to the Japanese tourist because they can’t speak English… hmmm.
Another thought came to my mind. People who put up signs like that have probably never experienced life outside of their hometown or America. If you have ever traveled in a foreign country, you would understand some of the struggles of communication. There are some people who are very helpful and nice and there are others who just wish all Americans would go back home.
Sometimes I wish I had all the money in the world. Then I would pay for people’s trip out of the country to get a cross-cultural experience. I think this is the only way people will understand how the world is getting more global and that the United States is NOT in the center of the universe!
