It all started with a free little coffee. A Colombian entrepreneur living in Texas was offering coffee samples at a supermarket, as friendly as ever: “Good morning, how are you? Would you like to have a little coffee?”. Nothing out of the ordinary for someone who grew up using informal address even with strangers. But a Mexican customer did not take it the same way. He stopped, upset, and complained that customers should be addressed as “usted”, not “tú”, and even warned him that he would never sell anything that way.
The Colombian, without losing his cool, tried to explain that this is how people speak in his country, with no bad intentions. The man insisted that he was no longer in Colombia. That was when the vendor delivered the line that sums up the whole mix-up: “You are here too, not in Mexico”.
The customer left insulting him and without trying the coffee. The video is already circulating on social media and has reignited the eternal dispute over expressions between countries that, in the end, speak the same language.