November 19, 2009 by admin
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Written by our Correspondent
An irate Australian tourist from Brisbane by the name of Lilian
Reutens had written to the Straits Times Forum to complain about
PRC service industry workers who cannot speak proper English!
Ms Lilian was sharing her experience of encountering service
staff who were unable to communicate in English:
“I have found the inability of current service industry
workers to speak English unacceptable. I understand these new
workers are Chinese nationals. The fact that they do not or will
not speak English but simply shake their heads and continue
speaking in Mandarin and ignore you with a ‘take it or leave it’
attitude does not reflect well as they are on the front line of
service, serving many tourists and foreigners as well,” she
wrote.
Mr Lilian did not specify where the unhappy incident took place,
but PRC workers have become ubiquitous in Singapore’s service
industry due to their easy availability and low labor cost.
Despite the efforts of the Singapore government to promote
Singapore as an attractive tourist destination, Ms Lilian is one
tourist who will probably not return to Singapore again.
She minced no words when she wrote a veiled criticism directing
at the Singapore authorities:
“Foreign workers who are employed to serve the public should
be taught basic English so they will not shame the image of
Singaporeans who are all taught basic English in school. After all,
tourists probably cannot tell Chinese nationals from Chinese
Singaporeans.”
Most Singaporeans are bilingual while the newcomers from China
often receive only rudimentary training in the English language, if
any at all.
In other countries like Australia and Canada, foreign workers
have to pass a basic English proficiency test before they are
allowed to work there.
In contrast, the Singapore government has opened its doors
indiscriminately to foreigners, especially those from China who are
hugely “prized” for their uncanny ability and willingness to work
for long hours with a low pay.
In response to the rising number of complaints on the ground,
the Singapore government has set up a $10 million Community
Integration Fund to help the newcomers “integrate” which includes
free language courses for them.
Senior leaders from the government has been urging Singaporeans
to accept foreigners of late, claiming that Singapore needs them to
work in industries shunned by locals such as construction.
MM Lee Kuan Yew implored Singaporeans to “bear” with the tide of
foreigners which has now grown to become a “flood”.
Jobs in the service industry where command of the English
language is essential can be filled easily by locals instead of
Chinese Nationals who are preferred now because they cost much less
to employ.
For cost-conscious employers, they care more about their profit
margin than the image of Singapore. The situation is exacerbated by
the liberal and flexible labor laws introduced by the government to
keep business costs to a minimum.
The Singapore Tourism Board spends millions of dollars each year
to promote Singapore as a “cosmopolitan” city overseas.
It is a shame that tourists like Ms Lilian have walked away
thinking that Singapore is a “province” of mainland China.
Not that the ruling party will care much anyway. New citizens
will usually vote for the government and increasing their numbers
surely help to entrench their power in the next fifty years or
so.
As for true blue Singaporeans, they have no choice but to
content with a future where they will soon belong to the minority
of the population if the current influx of foreigners remains
unabated.
Source: The Temasek Review
