So I had a time at the 7-11 tonight. You'd think that having memorable events at a 7-11 probably wouldn't happen, unless you've been to a 7-11 during the wee morning hours. Besides the usually inebriated (myself included) clientele, you get the night shift employees.

I usually expect maybe interesting conversation from the late night employees and not so stellar service. But this time around, I ran into something that was somewhat unbelievable. Apparently the one debit machine wasn't working, so the Chinese lady working the till put up a paper sign with plainly spelled English saying that the debit machine doesn't work, so that till was cash only. When I walked up to the till, she pointed to the sign, I nodded I understood. She re-explained the sign in broken English and I nodded I understood again. Finally, she scanned in my items and I paid.

Probably a fairly common exchange at more than just 7-11s. Maybe a little frustrating, sure, but nothing that we can't work through. Now that got me thinking, if places like 7-11 and McDonald's put up buttons on their employees saying "Hi, I'm training, please be patient" or whatever, why can't they put up buttons on their employees saying "Hi, I'm learning English, please be patient"?