Video: Woman gets angry at Starbucks customers for speaking Korean
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (KRON) – WISH-TV’s sister station KRON has obtained new video of a heated exchange in a California Starbucks.
It shows a woman appearing to get angry at other customers for speaking in their native language of Korean. It caused such a stir that she was eventually escorted out.
KRON spoke to one of the Korean speakers involved in the video, and he doesn’t know why the woman had such a problem with hearing a language other than English.
At the time, Sean Lee was tutoring a community college student, Annie.
After Lee said, “We might need to brainstorm this way and write the essay that way,” in Korean, the woman spoke out.
“Out of nowhere, we didn’t provoke her,” Lee told KRON. “We were just minding our own business. This lady just suddenly says, ‘Don’t you dare say that again.’”
At first, they didn’t realize the woman was talking to them because she was a complete stranger to them.
Annie pulled out her phone and hit record. For a while, the woman tried to hide her face behind her binder.
Two Starbucks baristas came to Annie’s defense. They politely asked the woman to leave, but she refused, so they called the police.
“This was actually my very first time interacting with someone like this, and that’s why I was even more surprised,” Lee said. “I mean, I see videos like this online, you know, I see it on the news, but it’s not something I would ever imagine happening to me or anyone I know.”
Lee told the news station the woman didn’t say much more until police arrived, but then again berated Annie as officers finally got the woman to leave.
The video has gotten over 100,000 views, along with comments very supportive of Lee and his student. He hopes the surprising conversation will spread awareness and help erase some ignorance.
Lee told KRON he doesn’t hate the woman in that video, but he wants her to know she made a lot of people mad. He says this is a good opportunity for her to explore the different cultures around herself.