twain-sane? not really

[alenxa_classic]

So we inherited this scanner from kelson's parents, who had upgraded. It's very flat, lighter than a laptop, and draws power by USB, all good things if we ever want portability. (We can't figure out why we might want to carry a scanner around, but maybe it'll come in handy someday.) It purported to work with either Windows or Mac, which pleased us very much. Unfortunately, we discovered the included drivers only work with Mac Classic mode...which we had just eliminated on both Macs. Bugger. But the XP drivers worked, and whatever was on the Linux box worked too, so not much of a problem.

Until I really, really needed to scan something. And that's how I found out that Windows will detect the scanner, and pull up all the dialogs to let you try to scan, but won't actually import anything. I'd downloaded a trial version of UltraMegaSuper Driver Collection software onto the laptop, but unless you fork over $40 to $80 (which I need for groceries, thanks), it adds little $ watermarks all over your picture. Not really what I was looking for. And the filesharing on the Linux box had been sort of messed up, so I didn't want to deal with it.

I ended up walking to a copy and sign shop around the corner. There was a "fax service" sign in the window, and the peasant rejoiced. I also noticed, for the first time, that there were "cool stuff we can do" window wraps at the bottom of the storefront windows, in both English and Korean. Most of the time there are cars parked in front of those bits, rendering them invisible from the street. No huge deal; their main sign's in English only. Then I walked in and noticed that every sign inside, both the ones they had on display as samples and the ones in the right place to be advertising their services and prices, was primarily in Korean. Something in my mind said uh-oh at that point, but I did my best to ignore it and said brightly to the woman sitting at the counter before me, "Hi! I need to send a fax."



"Uh-hah." She kind of stared at me. The college-age guy behind the other half of the counter didn't look up from his computer.

I was a little rattled. Most of the time, people say something in return like "Okay, it's $1.00," or "How many pages?" She just stared. I wondered if she might be staring at my shirt, which was from a Farscape con I didn't actually go to and had a quote across the front. Then I wondered if her English was maybe not fantastic, and went on, trying to throw out varied phrases (which I've learned is a better way to go than speaking sloooowly, as it doesn't give any impression of insult--especially in case you've misjudged their skills). "I have the document here. What do I need to do? Um, where...?" I saw a bunch of copiers behind the counter, lined up like the self-serve area in a Kinko's, but no faxes. The woman said nothing in reply, and kept staring, occasionally looking toward the back of the store.

I was about to ask whether it was self-serve when another woman, about the age of the computer guy, came out of the back. "Hi," she said.

Acknowledgment! "Hi! I'd like to send a fax...what do I need to do?"

"Um, OK. What's the number?"

"Oh, it's right here." I'd printed an email with the number in, and I folded the sheet so it was right at the top, and handed it to her along with the document. "Do you need me to make a cover page?"

"Oh, no. ...Where's the number?"

"It's right there, I folded it." I pointed.

"Oh! Is this inside California?"

"No, it's to another state."

"Then it's--"

"Two dollars," the first woman interjected. It didn't occur to me until I got home that her saying this probably meant she'd fully understood me all along.

"No no, one fifTEE," the second corrected. With the emphasis on the second syllable, to the point that I couldn't hear whether there was an N at the end or not. It sounded like 15. I'd grabbed all my on-desk change, so I had plenty and said okay.

As the second woman was faxing, the first one either got or made a call on her cell phone. It was conducted entirely in Korean, so I have no idea whether it was personal or professional and I don't have a problem with her having done it. What I do know was that it took a good two minutes for the second woman to send the fax and another two to get the confirmation, so that the first woman had hung up by the time it was done. I've sent many, many faxes on slooow machines, and it's never taken me that long to send. I started to get worried.

I was also starting to sweat. Walking around outside in this weather, wearing jeans and a black shirt, will do that to you. I caught both women looking at me curiously as I blotted my face with a tissue, and said, "I'm sorry. I walked here." Neither one of them changed expression, and I don't remember if either said anything.

I had $1.25 counted out when she handed my documents and confirmation back, and gave it to her. "Oh...one fifTEE," she said, with a sort of nervous smile.

"Oh, fifty!" I said, half-laughing, and got out another quarter. "Sorry, I heard teen."

She took the quarter and thanked me. No response of any kind from the other two, though I didn't really expect anything.

This was Friday. On Sunday, I got an email saying that only part of the fax actually came through, and could I resend it? Jeez, how did I know this would happen? Fortunately, the Linux box handled it and the scan went through. But in the end, I essentially paid $1.50 to learn that I shouldn't have walked into that copy store.

The question I'm left with is, was walking in and expecting to be helped a stupidly privileged thing to do? I know it was privileged to some extent, just because I'm white (and my neighborhood isn't, much), but the fact that the store was labeled 90% in English on the outside would seem not to mark it as a culturally safe space. There's more Korean on the window signs at the Freshia down the street, and their inside signs (and the cashiers, or at least the one whose line I went through) are fully bilingual. And if I had decided to go elsewhere, would that have been any better? A white girl walking out once she saw Korean signs and people? How can that not look insulting?

If they didn't want to help me, I think they should have just said so. They wouldn't have had to tell me exactly why; the first woman could have just said they were busy, or the fax was broken, or she didn't speak English. I'd have accepted any of those at face value and gone somewhere else. The way it went down, though, I felt as though I were a horrible person for asking the employees to do what their signage clearly advertised they were able to do. I've only ever had that happen with restaurants before, and this is the first time I can remember thinking of race as a factor. It royally sucked. And I really don't have any idea what I could have done, aside from not going to that store in the first place, to have kept it from sucking.

Comments

[akabetina.livejournal.com]

Wow, I've had things go that badly and just kept smiling and, like you, using different phrases. I've got this mindset I call patiance mode, that I slip into whenever I deal with folks like that. Until it takes more than a half-hour, I seem to settle into my standing it line, caught in horrid traffic, pleasant little fog until it's over. If I've got other things to do, y'know a schedule, I just smile and say, "Well, thank you, I'll try somewhere quicker," and leave. I figure that if they are unable to respond to meet my needs, then all I can offer is polite rejection.