Mirabelli- Learning to Serve: The Language of Food Service Workers

    Mirabelli starts off by facing the issues of stereotypes. In many discourse communities, the outsiders can be turned away do to the stereotypes of the group. Many people may pass on jobs due to the looks of it from the outside when in fact, it can be very beneficial to those on the inside. The insiders may become very educated in both teamwork and people skills that others wouldn't be. Mirabelli spoke specifically about waitresses and waiters at the beginning. He said that the assumptions most people have of waiters are that they are stupid and ignorant when in fact they very understanding and have fairly complex tasks to perform.
    I liked how Mirabelli got straight to the point and didn't necessarily drag it on to tell what he was talking about. I also liked how he directly chose the key points he wished to focus on for his observations. One thing that can be very complex for those in a restaurant scene is the many variations of the menu. He speaks of how it creates many of the main interactions with customers so if one were to be illiterate with the menu it could cause a great problems. Also menus and experiences can vary with different restaurants. He spoke of a 30 year professional from one restaurant becoming inexperience when he was placed into an unfamiliar restaurant. Also the coworkers may have a specific language to translate the menu in a shorter way.