A guy called Oiga
My aunt and uncle started travelling to Spain every year (where I've lived for many years now) and one evening we went to a small pleasant restaurant they'd been to several times before. While looking at the menu, someone in the party wondered if they had any specific vegetarian dishes. My uncle promptly suggested that we ask 'Oiga'. When I asked who 'Oiga' was, my uncle pointed at the waiter, whom I knew went by the name of Pepe. It took a minute for the penny to drop. Often in Spanish restaurants the customers will call out ¡´Ç¾±²µ²¹!, in English 'listen!', to attract the waiter's attention. My uncle had obviously heard many people call that out and then seen the waiter react. Knowing that 'waiter' is camarero, he had deduced that 'Oiga' must be the waiter's name. After I'd dried the tears off my cheeks I explained and it was my aunt's turn to buckle up in pleats.
Sent by: Peter
Comments
In Mexico we don´t say camarero, or ²Ô¾±Ã±´Ç, we prefer mesero (waiter). Yes, sometimes joven, but if the waiter is in his forties or older, that word is not really used. Oiga is employed when the waiter seems not to hear, and you get desperate. If it is a waitress, we use simply ²õ±ðñ´Ç°ù¾±³Ù²¹ (miss).
For native English speakers it takes some getting used to get a waiter/barman's attention by shouting oiga. It sounds so abrupt and rude until you work out that as well as being the imperative it's also the subjunctive, which sounds nicer! Down here in SW Andalucia I've heard old ladies call out ²Ô¾±Ã±´Ç. The waiter, who must have been in his fifties, didn't bat an eyelid.
I am from Colombia, South America, and I never call a waiter oiga, I find it really rude, I would just say joven or ²Ô¾±Ã±²¹ / ²Ô¾±Ã±´Ç.
I have a similar story to tell. Many years ago I was a tourist guide, and whilst travelling on the motorway from the airport to resort, I heard a gentleman behind me say to his wife "That Salida must be a big town as I keep seeing signs for it". Salida actually means "exit"!
Joven, ²Ô¾±Ã±´Ç, camarero (oiga not so much) are very commonly used words to call any waiter's attention in some regions in Spain or Latin America; it is not demeaning at all; it changes from region to region, and since it is regionally used, nobody will ever take those words as rude or disrespectful. It is the beauty of knowing and understanding different cultures.
Calling everyone joven, young, is pretty much the same as calling everyone 'guys' in English. No matter what your age, you're young; no matter what your gender, you're a guy. I imagine saying 'you guys' to a group of girls could be entertaining to some people, particularly foreigners.
In Honduras, joven is used for everybody, almost like oiga. It's like saying hey you! in English.
I find it odd that waiters are addressed as joven, young man, despite their age. It seems almost demeaning.
It's 'Boy-san' in restaurants in Japan. A male waiter has generally and unanimously been addressed as 'Boy-san' in Western-style Japanese restaurants. Drop in at an English conversation class at English juku, and you may chance upon an occasion where you hear one of the pupils utter in his or her smattering English: "Boy-san, I'd like to place my order, please." The remark may go unnoticed by careless instructors, or pass uncorrected by experienced ones, who, tactfully, try to avoid correction on the spot lest the learners feels ashamed of errors. A female waiter, or rather a waitress? I have often heard elderly people call her 'Waiter-san'. They are apparantly aware that calling her 'Boy-san' is improper. Groping for a word and not hitting upon the right one, they hastily call out: 'Waiter-san'. It serves for the moment. An appellation in English is sometimes assumed to be more polite sounding than a Japanese one. And they are seated in a Western-style restaurant.
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