These differences can manifest in even the smallest things - like ordering lunch. Today, in the cafeteria at work, I went to the Mexican food station and ordered a burrito. When it came time for me to indicate what condiments I wanted on the burrito, I gave my standing order, "Everything except sour cream." Of course, I literally meant everything except sour cream.
However, that wasn't what I got - I got everything but sour cream, jalapeños, and hot salsa.
In a little mini-experiment of my own, I have been doing this once or twice a week for several months. I have had multiple servers, at multiple different times of the day, and they all interpret "Everything except sour cream" differently. Some leave off the hot salsa and sour cream only, others leave off the jalapeños and sour cream, others leave off all three, and so on and so on. The only commonality is that none of them has ever given me "Everything except sour cream."
I've been watching this behavior with some amusement, wondering at the cause... Is it that there is an accepted cultural definition within the patrons of our cafeteria that defines "everything" as something different than the literal definition? Is it a bias within the ranks of the servers which causes them to assume that a person who looks like me couldn't possibly want jalapeños and hot salsa, but some milder, Americanized combination? Or am I simply asking for a combination of condiments that they automatically dismiss as "weird," so they think, "She can't possibly want that!"?
