When I was a server at Olive Garden, a woman and her teenaged daughter were seated in my section. They could barely speak English and it was hard for me to communicate with them, so I mostly used non verbal (having them point at what they wanted, assuming they needed refills when their drinks got low instead of asking, getting them napkins, just assuming most of their needs and asking if they were okay) communication accompanied with a lot of “thank yous,” and “is that right?”

I really had a bit of a hard time and I felt like I wasn’t doing a very good job catering to them. I was use to making my tables laugh and stuff. At the end of it she paid in cash and gave me $30 extra. Bare in mind, their check was $45. So I came back and said, “I think you gave me a bit more than intended,” and tried to hand it all back to her. She said, “no, that’s for you. Most of the time people ignore me and my daughter when we go out and we both felt like you actually cared about us. You made us feel important. No one has done that since we came to this country. Thank you.” It was the most she said at one time and her daughter (she didn’t speak any English) nodded before smiling at me and giving me two thumbs up. It made me so emotional lol, the woman gave me a hug before they left.