Natalia Kolganova
04/07/20007
Write about a time when someone disrespected you because of your accent, nationality, religion,
etc… Explain exactly what happened and what have you learned from this experience.
Look around! Look at people that are surrounding you. Everybody is different: blonds and
brunets, gays and lesbians, black and white. New York is a special city, because here you can meet
people from all over the world. Therefore everything differs: language, skin color, religion, etc. And
when some people start thinking that they are better than somebody else, when they see that some
person is different, they begin to judge. The majority of people can say that they have been
disrespected at least once in their life. Unfortunately I am not an exception from a common rule and
here is my story.
When I was a kid I used to be a little bit over weight, and other children were always making
fun of me. At that time it was the biggest tragedy in my life. Now, looking back at my childhood, I
can say that if that problem of a little girl was really the most serious one in my life, I would be the
happiest person in the world. I can not say that there were a lot of cases when I was disrespected, but
I remember one of them very well.
Half a year ago I was working at a French bistro in Manhattan. That place was located in the
Port Authority Bus Station, so we had different kind of people coming in. I was working as a hostess
and did not have a lot of responsibilities, just to welcome people, smile, and simply be nice to
everyone. The main rule was to treat all guests the same way. There was one old lady, who used to
come to my station almost every day, trying to talk to me. I could hardly understand her, because her
speech was a mix of English and Spanish. The lady looked very poor to me, so I never thought that
she could afford to buy a meal in our place; besides, she was so boring and irritating, that I just tried
to ignore her. Although the lady did not expect me to respond to her speech and was satisfied with a
1
one way conversation, it took a lot of patience even just to listen to her. For me she was one of those
crazy people that never stop talking. The lady was always asking about the menu, our every day’s
specials, how the owner was doing, but she never came in. So every time when I saw her at the
doors of the bistro I was getting nervous and angry, at the same time praying God to save me from
her.
One day the lady crossed the entrance line and went straight to the table, expecting me to
bring her a menu. I was not going to do that, because I thought that, maybe she was just tired and
wanted to sit down and rest for a little bit; there was no chance that a crazy lady would have a lunch.
However when I saw my manager on the horizon, I changed my mind immediately and brought her
a menu (just in case). Can you imagine how surprised I was when the lady took the menu and
ordered food, not the cheapest one? I was shocked! But there was still a hope deep inside, that
maybe she would try to leave without paying or would find some bugs in her food in order not to
pay. Nothing like that happened. However there was another kind of surprise for me – lady paid,
came to me and started yelling. But, the reason of her indignation was not that I did not treat her the
right way, but that I could not speak Spanish. For 5 minutes continuously she was saying something
in Spanish. One of the waiters translated her words to me and the main idea was that I was a
miserable and uneducated person. She could not understand how low the intellectual level of a
person should be not to speak Spanish in America. Though I knew that I should not listen to that
crazy lady, I was hurt by her words. “What a big deal? We are in America, I speak English and that
is enough! Why is she saying that?”, I cried inside.
I think that this situation is a good example of how can people unfairly disrespect each other.
Now, remembering this story makes me laugh. I disrespected poor old lady, tried to embarrass her,
but at end was embarrassed myself. I have learned one more lesson in my life – never judge people
by the way they look!
2