Looks like Geno’s is taking matters into his own hands.
English only at Philly cheesesteak joint
Situated in a South Philadelphia immigrant neighborhood, Geno’s — which together with its chief rival, Pat’s King of Steaks, forms the epicenter of an area described as “ground zero for cheesesteaks” — has posted small signs telling customers, “This Is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING `SPEAK ENGLISH.'”
You can’t have a policy like that without a journalist taking a swipe:
Of course, it’s not as if native Philadelphians speak the King’s English either. A Philadelphian might order a cheesesteak by saying something like, “Yo, gimme a cheesesteak wit, will youse?” (“Wit,” or “with,” means with fried onions.) To which the counterman might reply: “Youse want fries widdat?”
I would say that learning the word “Cheesesteak” will start an immigrant on his way to enjoying the many gastronomical delights we have here in the USA.
And “yooze guyz” is a perfectly acceptable way of addressing your homies.
And “yooze guyz” is a perfectly acceptable way of addressing your homies.
And “Mi amigos” is not. :)
What happened to ‘the customer is always right’? Who does Geno think he is: the “Soup Nazi” of Seinfeld? “No sub for you!”
Verily, I say that far too many of these barbaric colonials have neglected the *Queen’s* english and speak all manner of foolishness in their dialects and accents without giving proper due to Her Britannic Majesty.
B-)
In words clear enough to be understood by most reporters, you say King’s or Queen’s english depending on the gender of the current holder of the throne. Don’t be an english pedant if you can’t get it right.
There’s also the delicious little irony that it’s an anti-bigotry story that’s dripping with class condescension towards the lower-middle class Philedelphia accents commonly found in “those places”. These days, only PC bigots may apply.
Frankly, I think that as long as nobody gets refused service there’s nothing wrong with the policy and it might do some good. A more widespread form of this sort of commercial speech correction happens near everywhere with sodas. Try ordering a Coke where they have only Pepsico products and you’ll find that they very often will correct you. They know what you want but they won’t give it to you until you acknowledge that, yes, you’ll take a Pepsi (or vice versa). John Belushi did some hilarious send ups of this real behavior in Saturday Night Live.
Verily, I say that far too many of these barbaric colonials have neglected the *Queen’s* english and speak all manner of foolishness in their dialects and accents without giving proper due to Her Britannic Majesty.
B-)
That *is* Queens English. Haven’t you ever been to Queens? :)
Bistec con queso?
I wonder what would happen if I ordered a ‘flatbread wrap’ at a Mexican restaurant. Do you think that they would understand that I meant a burrito?
Wassup, EJ-to-the-USMC, my beeeutch.
BTW, what’s this “parla”? Were you thinking of addressing the message to Italians too?
good catch RC. I changed it.
Technically, I think it is “Por un bistec…”, but I’m not certain. “Para….” I think is used when associated with a verb, eg “for you to dance with me” would be “Para bailar conmigo” (the “For you” being implied). “Por” is used with nouns – eg “for ten dollars” = “Por diez dolares”.