AITA for replying to a rude customer in the language they were speaking in front of me?

A Starbucks barista overheard an insult in Dutch from a rude customer and decided to reply in the same language, surprising the customer. While she was polite during the exchange, she wonders if responding in that way was unprofessional, given her position in customer service.

‘ AITA for replying to a rude customer in the language they were speaking in front of me?’

I’m a slave to the siren (a Starbucks barista). I’m pretty decent with most customers and I’m pretty good at having convos with customers and sensing when someone just wants the line moved forward. Anyway, I was on register the other day, taking people’s orders. Two older men were ordering from me. One of them said “a coffee, black”, so I just asked to clarify the size he wanted and the roast (blonde, medium or dark) to which he first spoke to his friend and said, rudely.

“Nou zeg, niet de slimste meid die hier werkt, hè? Ze zouden en beetje kunnen leeren om hun hersenen te gebruiken”. Which is Dutch and translates roughly to. “Wow, (this is) not the smartest gal that works here, huh? They could learn to use their brains a little”.

Then he told me he wanted a medium dark roast. So I nodded and then replied to him in Dutch, asking him the regular questions I would to complete an order (anything else to eat or drink today?, What was your name for your other drinks? Do you have a Starbucks rewards card?). I was perfectly pleasant and smiley for the rest of the transaction but just conducted it in Dutch.

He answered the questions in English but his eyes were bulging out of his head. His friend looked kind of worried but burst out laughing when they walked away. I realize it might not be the best look for someone in service, and when my coworker asked me what it was about and I explained, she seemed kinda confused as to why I would do that.

I don’t think it was an a**hole move because I was still nice to the guy but I definitely called him out and made it clear to him that I’d understood the stuff he was saying. But maybe I shouldn’t have because of the position I was in at the time (like customer service?). AITA?

Here’s the feedback from the Reddit community:

ilovehockeysosomuch −  NTA – to the power of infinity.. Who says this? “Wow, (this is) not the smartest gal that works here, huh? They could learn to use their brains a little”. Fast food is rough. To survive I recommend looking at it as live theatre. He probably is going home to 101 Dalmatian puppies that he is going to turn into a jacket.

MagicMauiWowee −  NTA you were simply making sure he understood the questions you were asking, since he started speaking Dutch and didn’t give you an answer. You should never use another language to trash talk someone. He got caught and was upset at it. Not your problem and good on you for courteously (and hilariously) checking him.

Jockle305 −  NTA. The guy was being a p**ck and you called him out in the most polite way possible. There’s no need to give crap to service employees who are trying to help. He also isn’t as special as he thinks for speaking a foreign language. Great job.

stealthdawg −  NTA. Good story for r/ispeakthelanguage. I don’t get why he would even say that if he hadn’t told you his size/roast. Edit: Others have commented, and I wanted to answer my owner question here. It’s probably because where he is from, a “black coffee” has some default characteristics, like a medium-size and a dark roast, or maybe he just doesn’t care that much. That may be because the place he goes only has one option, or because they deem it to be the default. So while he was still rude, that is the likely motivation.

This probably isn’t an uncommon thing. If it isn’t already policy, it’s probably in a company’s best interest to train their employees to meet in the middle. So if someone orders an unspecific drink that can reasonably be assumed to have some ‘regular’ characteristics, the cashier can ask clarifying questions that make an assumption, such as “OK. Medium size, Dark Roast?”

silasfelinus −  This is not an AITA post. For that you deserve a YTA, but not for the scenario, just because this is not an ambiguous situation and there’s no way a reasonable person would consider this to be an a**hole behavior.

cstatus94 −  NTA at all. It would be one thing if you responded rudely back since in customer service that isn’t great. But you just let them know subtle you understood them.

Blooper_Chu −  NTA, if he can talk crap about you in another language why would it be offensive for YOU to say something back in Dutch that wasn’t even rude?

[Reddit User] −  I have to ask what city this in, because I know two Dutch guys who constantly use Dutch to trash talk customer service. They’ve gotta be the same guys, right?

[Reddit User] −  Why would you even think youre the a**hole in this situation?

[Reddit User] −  YTA for posting something this dumb to try and get internet attention and appear a s**age when you’re clearly not TA.