assumptions are for fools

Here's a clip from yesterday's scene:

SETTING: Costco Wherehouse. (Standing in the checkout lane, waiting to pay for my items.)

Cashier: "Please sign."

Me: "Thanks."

Cashier: "Domo arigato."

Me: (Eyebrows raised) "Thanks." (Cue fake, placating smile. Exit store.)


This is a classic example of how I'm treated in public sometimes. I guess people don't think they are racist or offensive when they do this, and they must think they are being polite or something by trying to speak "my language" to me, but it annoys me so much. (An old manager of mine once said, "Assumptions are for fools" and in a moment like this, I just can't figure out why people feel the need to assume so much without knowing anything!) And, this guy wasn't even Japanese! He was just trying to show off or something, who knows?! It was bizarre. I certainly don't have time to explain to random people that I am not Japanese and I don't speak Japanese. I just have to cue a fake smile--which I hate even more than being spoken to in Japanese or whatever language people assume I can speak--and pretend like I know what they are saying if they keep rattling off more sentences to me.

It was only after I told James about this incident when he got home from work that I realized what I should have said to the cashier: "Mr. Roboto." (Perhaps if I had said that, I could have raised his eyebrows, instead of mine.)


Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto