 When you go to a restaurant to order the food of your people, do you use your mother tongue or do you just use English? Yeah, this is a good question because sometimes I don't know. The ABCs are proud or not proud of, you know, their language because they're talking to me in English, but I know they understand. Are you a self-hating Asian or a shy Asian? That is the question here today posed on Reddit, guys. The question goes, when you go eat the food of your people, do you order in your language? So it's like when you like David, for us, if we went to a Chinese restaurant where the server spoke Chinese, would we try to order in Chinese as much as possible? Right, right. I mean, this is a good question. It sparked a variety of responses, but I will say this. It might say more about how you as a second generation immigrant feel about your own culture than you might originally think. All right, so please hit that like button right now and check out other episodes of the hot pot boys. But you know what? There's nothing to be ashamed of. Andrew would be bringing Sma La Sauce to your favorite restaurant, whether it is from your country of origin or not, from Sichuan, Sicily. This is an amazing finishing oil. Get it at SmaLaSauce.com. You know, ultimately the true answer is, Andrew, the PC answer is, it just depends on your identity. Some people feel really Asian-American. See, people feel really American. Some people feel really tied in because they spent summers back home in the motherland or whatever. But I do think in generality, you should. You should, if you have the capacity to speak to the waiter or the Uber driver or whatever service person in your language, you should try to as much as you can, just because what else lets you know that you have roots in Asia? Right, that you care about being Asian. But the weirdest thing is when I'm out with some Chinese people or other Asians who actually can speak the language, but they actively choose not to at the restaurant. And part of it is embarrassment because they're just like, man, I don't want to like, I might say wrong, and then they're going to question me and I feel small and I feel shy. So here's my thing. Shy boy. Yeah. Here's my thing. David, you know my Chinese. It's not that great, but I will, whether it's a Cantonese restaurant or Mandarin restaurant, I will try to at least say all the dish names in Chinese, if not, try to order in Chinese. Now, you speak Shanghainese at the Shanghainese spot. I'll try. You get some sholombo? Yeah, I'll try. I'll do that. At least hopefully they appreciate it. But you do have to have thick skin and here's the thing. I have thick skin partially because I don't look at those interactions as times where I would be embarrassed because, you know, we, I perform on stage. I can get embarrassed there. I can feel nervous there. I, we film YouTube videos. I don't want to say the wrong thing here. One time I mispronounced the thing in the restaurant and the waiter corrected me and it crushed me. Let's just say I'm used to being berated by a Chinese auntie. About my pronunciation, it's happened for years. I don't care anymore, man. What happens when they switch back to English, though? I speak my own dialect of Chinese. Have you guys ever heard of it? It's called Chinese. It's just me trying to speak Chinese. It's where you mix Cantonese and Mandarin and you disregard any tones whatsoever. So I'll like literally be at the restaurant and be like, and then the waiter's just like, it's okay, it's okay. I just speak English. I speak English. It's okay. Don't, don't turn your head against, get some. Okay. All right. Here's my thing. If they switch back into English, then we do English. That's fine. But I'm going to take it as far as I can with Chinese. That's my way of being Asian and showing that I'm proud. I think you got to try. Anyway, let's just get into the comments section. Like I said, this is going to be a personal, individual thing, person to person. Somebody said it depends on what the language, the menu is in. I don't assume the waiters can all speak the native language. Okay. No, no. So, so sometimes at the cool Chinese restaurants, not all the waiters are Chinese. Right. That's true. But at the fobby spots, you'll kind of know that they probably speak it, right? But they're interestingly enough, there is like a first spot in New York where not all the people who work there are Vietnamese or even speak Vietnamese. So I guess that would be a time a Vietnamese person would try to order something in Vietnamese and to one of the waiters, maybe they wouldn't understand it. Yeah. I think this one is city to city neighborhood to neighborhood. But yeah, like you said, I mean traditionally, theoretically, spots owned by each culture usually speak that language, but it's not a hundred out of a hundred. But I don't think it's wrong to start off speaking it if you want and then realize they don't and then just switch to English. There's nothing wrong with switching back to English though. Right. Somebody said there's a lot of stuff I don't know the English names of and there's also a lot of stuff I don't know the Chinese names of, but I also order in Chinese still. I think that one thing that I realized is I can't read the whole menu. My Chinese reading ability is maybe like two out of 10, 1.5 out of 10. I could read some stuff, but I don't really have a problem asking the waiter like, how do you say this in Chinese? Yeah. Like you know what I mean? Like I think that that is a valid question. You know, you can feel free to use them as a language learning tool. Yeah. Like you're paying them money. Like what are you scared you're sharing? Listen, they're about to tip them and at least also let them know that you are of that country of origin or culture of origin. So at least like you shouldn't be so embarrassed is what I'm saying. For sure. Somebody said, I don't know how restaurants translate the name of their dishes, but it can be all over the place. I definitely would order in English in America unless the servers preferred Mandarin themselves. So this person was just saying like they just, you know, because they just don't want to get it wrong. How much of it is people are just a little shy boy for themselves? Yeah. But I mean, again, I think that not that many people have those type of interactions. They're not used to it. Maybe you work a kind of insular job. So now you look at every human interaction that you have as a bigger deal. But if you work in a very social environment, you don't look at every single interaction that you have with a person with so much weight. And it's like especially like, I'm not saying don't care about what the waiter thinks, but as long as you give it a good effort, I would say 99% of the time they appreciate it. Right. You're saying if you work a job where you see a high level of pings and sometimes the pings go good, sometimes they go bad, sometimes they're in the middle. It's like very muddied to see what the outcome was, how to rate that ping. You're just like, dude, why not? Yeah, I think it comes down to a lot of people not wanting, they feel ashamed by like someone from the motherland correcting them and they take that with a lot of hurt. But I'm like, dude, just have fun with it. Like why can't we have fun with our immigrant servers? Bro, and you know what I learned that from is from all Mexican people back in LA, but I know a lot of Dominicans in New York, they're constantly speaking Spanish to everybody. Even the other Dominicans that can speak English, they're like primo, papi, papi. And I'm always like, man, I love that interaction that they have with each other. That's so cool. But then how come it feels like we Asians, we can feel so much shame about it? Right, right. I don't know. Just don't be ashamed. It is different. And then somebody said, I start speaking Chinese in the way to switch over to English. That's the ultimate insult. This stresses me the hell out. Sort of backs up your point. So I understand why it does stress people out, but I think that it's such, what a little thing to stress you out over. Dude, like you got to almost view your identity not as something like, oh, if I might strike out, like if I speak enough incorrect Chinese, then I'm not Chinese anymore. I'm like, nah, you actually have to keep speaking it or else you'll lose it forever. Right, right. That's actually the truth. You will lose it if you don't at least use it at the restaurant. Yeah, this person sort of backs up in the same vein, not to get too many went all way too many awkward moments. Mandarin isn't as universal amongst mainlanders as you would think in the US. Actually, that's not true. All mainlanders are going to speak Mandarin, but they might not speak it natively. They may prefer to speak Fuzo Nese or Kanto, obviously as their initial language, but they will be able to at least get by a Mandarin. I guarantee that almost. If I start talking with each other in the original language, then I know yes. Otherwise, then I would just start with English. I don't think there's any rules, man. For me, when I'm stepping into the Chinese spot, I'm greeting them in Chinese, man. That's what makes me feel sorry. How about this? How about this? How about this? Because I understand sometimes some of the Asian people commenting, they're like taking out their non-Asian friends and they don't want to mess up in order, right? And have a miscommunication. How about this? You at least start off greeting them. Like, I always greet all Chinese people with Ni Hao, even if I'm going to speak English, because I just want to kind of let them know, like, hey, I might be Chinese, man. Right, right, right. So I'll start off with that, but then ultimately, if I don't want to embarrass myself and get the whole thing confused if I'm afraid of that, then yeah, you can learn, use English and then just sprinkle in Chinese. You know what I mean? This person says they even order at Panda Express in Mandarin if they know that the person speaks Chinese. That's hilarious. And somebody said, oh, that's cringe. And then somebody else said, I don't know. Why not? Yeah, you know what? Have fun with it, man. Yeah. Why can't I? I could see it being a little cringy, maybe, because that person can speak English because they're working out of Panda. Panda's probably predominantly 90% of non-Asians. But why not? Why not, man? Spanish people would do it, man. That's what I learned. I learned it from my Spanish friends. It's all good to just, if you speak Spanish and I speak Spanish, let's just bust it out because it's tight. Yeah. I think that for Panda Express, I don't know if that worker wouldn't necessarily want to use it because they probably speak English. But anyways, listen, I get it. Sometimes I start speaking Chinese. I'll try. I speak Chinese, which is me trying to speak Chinese. I'll try. And then the waiter will switch to English and be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, we can just speak English. You know, I speak it, you know, or like. But you could even go back. I don't think you would be out of pocket to be like, no. Like let's bring it back. You're about to pay this person. You are going to pay them. You're about to tip this person. So it's okay. Let them take a minute to understand what you're saying. You get to dictate. Because let me tell you, at a Chinese restaurant, oftentimes they'll try to rush you, but be like, hey, you know, you get your half a minute. So anyways, guys, don't be ashamed. Have fun with the language. Have a thick skin about it. There's so many other things in life to be embarrassed about. You know, there's presentations. There's interviews to get embarrassed about. There's meeting your in-laws' parents to get embarrassed about. There's, but to be embarrassed while ordering food at the restaurant, try to, don't be. Use it as a fun open mic. Don't be like messing up on purpose. Like I always took every open mic I did serious. But at the same time, if I did mess up, it's just an open mic. It's a cultural moment for you. It's a cultural opportunity. And I would say eight out of 10 times, the waiter or the waitress is going to be completely cool with it. Nine out of 10 times, they're going to be at least chill with it. And maybe one out of 20 times, they're mad or whatever, you're holding up another order. Dude, even if they don't love it, that you do that, who cares? Dude, they're not going to love you anyways. These are waiters at Chinese restaurants. Anyway, guys, let us know what you guys think in the comments section below. Does it vary culture to culture? I know we spent a long time analyzing like Chinese comments today, but that's what we had available to us. Let us know. Do you speak your mother tongue exclusively when you step into the food of your people type restaurants, you know, regardless of how fluent or not the waiter staff is. And until next time, we'd hop up, boys. We out. Peace. Peace.