Na, it’s easy. They’re saying, “Something something something dai jobu! Some something desu ka?”
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NANI?!
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I wonder if she hears ‘other voices’ in other languages when, perhaps, no one is speaking. Mental illness comes in dilute forms. Racism seems always full-strength. Kudos to the Starbuck-ster! Zero tolerance for bigotry and/or assholery. If she’s mentally unwell [though I concede bigotry and racism and indeed habitual assholery are illnesses or conditions] then get well soon. Interesting ‘Anglo-Saxonism-Englishism’ privilege. “I don’t want to hear your language so you shut up rather than me move out of earshot.”
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It seems very strange to me that there have been several such stories coming out of California, especially the bay area. I would have to assume that she has been in public before, and almost certainly has been regularly exposed to all manner of Asian languages.
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Around the holidays, one of the unique pleasures where I live is hearing the people across the back fence practicing for their Christmas chorale – in Tongan. Last year during Oktoberfest, they were singing German drinking songs in Tongan (I recognized the melodies); I was half expecting them to finish up with a rendition of the Liberty Bell march 
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I don’t get why some people find that annoying. If you don’t know what two white folks at another table are saying because they’re simply too far away for you to hear it, is that annoying too? If not, then why the difference?
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“I don’t want to hear your language.”
Some people have a unique definition of “foul language.”
I’m not a linguist but I feel the same way. I like trying to identify the language, and also feel secure that I’m not technically eavesdropping.
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Actually. YES. But again I’m not an asshole and find the need to move closer to hear what they are saying.
Also. Side note. Skin color isn’t a definitive marker for foreign or common language. It could be two white folks speaking a European dialect too. 
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I suspect that (if indeed they are speaking English) it is much easier to tune out and/or recognize as being of no consequence, especially if they’re too far away to be properly heard. There’s probably a flowery name and extensive studies of the particular psychological phenomena involved.
(And if they’re speaking so loudly that people far away can hear them, well, that’s a problem.)
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I actually find the opposite. We have a lot of immigrants, and a lot of foreign tourists, and it’s fantastic. I love that walking through town all I can hear is one babel after another. I can’t understand any of them. I don’t want to.
When I can hear 10 different conversations, my head tries to keep track of all of them. When I hear 10 different languages, it’s just a glorious wall of white noise.
Hopefully this isn’t normal, but it works for me.
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하지만 한국어는 아름답잖아요!
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Its surprising how much you can pick up from cadence, context, tone of voice etc as well. I spent a whole hell of a lot of time with a Chinese American friend in college. After a year or so of hearing her speak Cantonese to family you could pretty much understand the full, accurate jist of the conversation even if you didn’t actually understand more than a word or two. I would imagine you’d get that a lot quicker if you actually have the proper background in how language works.
Since the election assholes are newly empowered. A friend of a friend of mine was glassed at random on a street corner in the hipster end of Brooklyn for being gay (or so the attacker assumed, not sure how he could be so sure). Was shouting something about “this country is ours again” and “Trump means you can’t be a faggot”. I think it was two days after the election.
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“Glassed”? I hope that’s a typo (not that gassed isn’t bad already).
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Glassing typically means getting it in the face with a beer bottle.
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Yep! Me too…or then again maybe not but I’ll defend your right to say it regardless.
Ugh. Fucking hell…
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tfw white people only speak one language
I know what you mean, though. I live in a college town in the midwest and we have snowflakes who have a fit about people “makin’ fun of me in their own language”
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This is my neck of the woods (though since there are about 8 Starbucks in WC, not necessarily the one I frequent) and it’s not every single day you bump into non-English (other than Spanish) but often enough.
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Oh FFS. The Bay Area not turning out the way you like since you got here in 2011?
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