That’s a tad broken logic. We’re supposed to believe that it will take longer to look through a 3 or 4 page menu than it would literally going back and forth to and from the kitchen bringing out dozens and dozens of entrees, appetizers, sides, etc...? Good grief that’s really poor thinking.

The story can be great and also have an extremely obvious issue re: plausibility. When you publish a story in a column that is typically about real-life events, readers are naturally going to point out something so glaring, especially when the whole story, cute as it is, hinges on this detail.

Because if it makes no sense, it’s not a cute story, it’s a “ha ha funny foreigners with their accents” joke that isn’t even funny.

Errr, you could’ve just asked them to point in the menu what they’ve picked? Clearly at least one of them should’ve been able to read English so he could order to begin with, no? So what was the big deal? Do idiots work in that restaurant?

It’s relevant because as a person who has been on the other side of this situation several times, I much preferred having the option of pointing it out on the menu if they couldn’t understand me. I would have felt more embarrassed than usual if I had to keep trying my pronunciation to three different people.

Amen to that. Doubling down and snapping at people probably isn’t the best next step to take either.

This is a lovely solution that allowed your customer to save face. Good on you for thinking quickly and putting the onus on yourself in this situation.

The problem is that you describe this story as detailing what a server “should” do in this situation, and it really isn’t, at all.

Maybe it’s time to switch to decaf?

I once had a table headed by a woman with a very thick Deep South accent and a few missing teeth. Try as I might I could not understand what she wanted to order. To avoid offense, I smiled brightly, explained to the whole table that I was a little hard of hearing, and asked if she wouldn’t mind writing down what she…

But they’re asking for it. They even said it phonetically. Where did they get the idea that the restaurant even served it? They MUST have seen it on the menu. I would have just asked for them to point to it. Problem solved.

I wondered about that too. I thought maybe it was something that had another name in Ghana. Like Americans use the word truck and British use the word lorry for the same thing.

Yep, arguably a more intelligent person would’ve passed up this comedy opportunity for the sake of doing their job effectively and minimizing headaches. But because he did not, we are fortunate enough to have this Abbot and Costello routine to entertain us.

You think it was faster to have several people go over and then cook everything on the menu? Okay.

Yeah, that was my first thought. How is the way he handled it the “right” way. Seems absurd and time consuming.

He said taking time to comb through the menu himself would have, but it would have taken only a few seconds for the customers to do so.

This is nonsensical to me. Between the server, his manager, and the GM, nobody had the time or insight to ask them to point to what they wanted from the menu? Unless I’m missing something obvious, this is a highly unlikely scenario. Which is the polite way of saying “I call bullshit.”

Followed by a multipart Shakespearian comedy of errors where nobody bothered to point at the menu? Also, English is Ghana’s official first language and is pretty much what is spoken in urban areas and among elites, so it would be very strange if diplomats to the US were unable to speak it clearly.

Umm, Ghana’a official language is English. While they may have had accents, I highly doubt the diplomats grasp of their official language was poor...

That’s the first thing that came to my mind. That would have taken less time than rehashing the order with a couple managers and coming up with the “give them all the things” idea.