A viral video of Islamabad's Cannoli by Cafe Soul owners has sparked a controversy as the two owners are seen making fun of their manager for not knowing the English language fluently.
In a viral video, the two women can be seen ridiculing their manager over his inability to speak English.
The two women elaborated how their manager, Awais has been working with them for nine years and has taken three English language courses throughout that duration. Then they asked him to introduce himself, which he did. Yet despite him being an able communicator, Uzma and Thea felt his fluency wasn’t up to the bar.
"I have been working for you for the last nine years", he responded. Adding to his answer the women said he was the first hire when they started the café Soul.
She went on to ask, "how many classes have you been taken to learn the English language?" The manager replied that he took three courses; each course is for 6 months.
The owner, laughing hilariously at the situation, then asked Awais to introduce himself in English, to which he replied, with fumbling, “my name is Awais Aftab and I job here manager, and that's it.''
Reacting to the answer, the first woman said, "Shabash" while the other continued, "this is our manager who is been working with us for the last nine years and this is the beautiful English he speaks."
The video was even posted on the Cannoli Cafe Soul Instagram page but later deleted, perhaps due to the public backlash.
People have called out the behavior as elitist, tone-deaf, and plain prejudicial. Especially given the comment about Awais’ salary and implying that he didn’t do his job right just because he isn’t fluent in a non-native language.
While one was persistently mocking the manager, the other woman ended the clip by saying ‘this is what we paid you for.’
After receiving heavy criticism from the Netizens, the owners of the Canoli Cafe have issued an apology. The official page Of Canoli took to Instagram and said,"We are saddened and appalled by the reaction of the people, how they have misconstrued our banter with a team member. This video depicts the gup shup between us as a team, and is never meant or taken in a hurtful or negative way."
"If anyone was hurt or offended we apologise, however that was never our intention. We are not required to prove or defend ourselves as kind employers. Our team has been with us for a decade, that should speak for itself. We are proud Pakistanis who love our language and our culture."