Something amiss – Cultural gone awry at Starbucks

Walking into Starbucks after our years in Central Asia, I knew something was amiss – the culture had gone awry. In language learning, we are taught to speak the language of those we have come to serve. Even culture anthropology says that “we should seek to understand another person’s beliefs and behaviors from the perspective of their culture rather than our own.”^[1] https://pressbooks.pub/perspectives/chapter/the-culture-concept/ Yet, I had to learn a new language and culture at Starbucks.

I used to enter Starbucks, needing clarification on how they described the sizes. A Grande should be the largest since the name means great. A Tall, for me, speaks of something that is not small or short, so how can tall be small still confuses my mind. In sharing this frustration with my wife, she said that in coffee culture, there is a short and a tall, which Starbucks has, but they do not normally advertise the short. On the other hand, the name Venti throws me for a loop. As a non-Italian speaker, I had no idea this was the Italian word for “20” ounces.^[2]https://www.travelandleisure.com/food-drink/starbucks-cup-sizes)

Therefore, this company is ethnocentric for its own purposes – ignoring everyday vocabulary and the customer’s terminology. I initially did not want to conform and just said small, medium, or large – hoping that the customer was always right. Yet the company wants to form its own community, with a particular behavior to attract those wishing for the Starbucks experience.

From Business to Community

Yet, business-wise, the company has made its mark and set up a cultural setting that many people want to be a part of. So, how does the counter-experience tell us how to create a similar community?

The Lord Jesus said we are the light and the salt of the world – a spiritual setting that attracts and creates a thirst for others to be a part of what we have.

Western consumerism destroys culture. The coffee business could be accused of creating a new cultural consciousness that ignores the cultural identity of their customers with their terms. However, at the same time, they gave a thirst for community.

For years, others have accused Christians of doing this in the mission and academic fields. However, a cultural identity forms community, belongingness, and acceptance that Christianity grants when one comes into the spiritual family of God. How attractive are we? Do new believers need to learn new terminology? No one can fault anyone for forming a community—something the West lacks.

Tea, Misto and English Fog at Starbucks

So, my Starbucks order is different. I want a firm, strong tea with milk but no sweetener. Living overseas, in places where they do not give a tea bag but steeped tea, I ask for only tea with hot milk. Once, at the Newark airport, I wanted a good portion of my tea with milk – the uninformed barista gave me a tea with cold milk that defiled the concept of steeping. In that case, I guess I needed to learn their nomenclature better…. an English Breakfast with Hot milk.

I sometimes felt that Starbucks baristas were attempting to teach me new terms. In the States, the barista will give the official and correct name of what I want….that sounds like an unsweetened tea misto. Again, misto has no meaning to me despite knowing at least four languages.^[3]Actually, misto means “mixed,” so the milk factor still is not there. Yikes, I guess they have vocabulary training to teach the customers to become Starbucks disciples.

Other times, they say, “Oh, you want a London Fog,” but this is Earl Grey with milk with an unpleasant sweetener. In jest, responding, “I want an English Fog” (attempting to teach them something new ) since an English Breakfast is on tap, not Earl Grey. Yet even with this attempt, they thought I wanted a London Fog and that I was acting like an Ugly American and messing with them.

Ugly American

In college, when I had extra time working as a night librarian at the McCallies’ Boys School in Chattanooga, I picked up a copy of The Ugly American—thinking that the ugliness referred to an American’s lack of cultural sense and adaptation in a foreign country. I was pleasantly surprised by the twist in how Homer Atkins, the story’s hero, related and connected to the people. He willingly got his hands dirty. His ugliness was not associated with his actions but with his plainness and grungy, greased hands.^[4]my review of the book – https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit/40180100 He connected with others.

Interestingly, the American Ambassador remained aloof in the book, only speaking English. Mean while the Russian communist Ambassador learned the local language in his highly interactive political style. My decade-plus in Central Asia gave me a different impression. The Russians who came to settle there during the Soviet period and stayed in Tajikistan did not know or even attempt to learn Tajik. Early during my time there, the Central Asia plot flip-flopped, and an American in Samarkand was celebrated on TV for speaking the local Tajik language.

I recall buying something from a Russian couple during our first year in the bazaar. They did not know Tajik, and I did not know Russian. I asked a Tajik standing nearby what they were saying. The smile and honor of translating for a Russian came into focus for this Tajik. I was begging the question of who was ugly and culturally non-sensitive in the bazaar setting.

How has your cultural adjustment gone? For most of us, attempting to understand or relate often gets a laugh.

Cultural Awry Moments

I have attempted to teach that New Year’s is not Christmas in the former Soviet Central Asian society. In Tajikistan, I noticed that the social homes we worked in kept referring to New Year as Christmas. I wanted to teach them the correct understanding of when Christmas should occur. Yet, the former Soviet Union eliminated religious holidays. They responded that the New Year was the accounting of years since Christ’s birth year, which eventually made sense to me.

Also, when working with Iranians, I wanted to say this is the birth of Christ (Mavlude Masih), and not call by its English name, “Christmas.” Despite my limitations, I need to listen and apply the Christian principles of listening and understanding my audience while keeping the main thing the main thing.

Have you had cultural moments gone awry? Please share in the comments.

Here is my backstory in my narrative about the life and calling of my best friend, Daniel Bubar.