Do SMRT or SBS launch Speak Good English Campaign for BCs?

tintinspartan SG

Well, this is a fact. Majority of BCs are Chinese and out of that, most speak broken english and worst comes to worst, some never speak or know English at all. This is a serious topic that needs to be touched on.

A Chinese BC on 178 driving TIB369U P shift could not speak English and talk Mandarin to an Indian Lady. The lady was angry and frustrated about the BC.

If SMRT and SBST were to leave the problem as it is, this may cause confusion and delays. So, I want to know if SMRT and SBST did anything to touch on the topic.

201911 SG

both companies, when recruiting drivers, state that 'drivers need to know basic conversational english', and that they have given english training for their china BCs. actually based on my observation most drivers, including china ones, do know how to speak basic english. what u saw might have been an isolated case. nevertheless, u could always feedback to SMRT about that incident, and hope they do something about it.

ZYX2005 SG

BUSWAY in 80s say got BEST trg courses for BC to learn engllish

ZYX

SBS n SMRT SG

And chinese, malay, indian for all races to benefit

TIB744U SG

Just two cents about this (:

First of all, we would have to realise that some of the Bus Captains / Service Leaders out there did not receive good English education when they were young, being born from our neighbour country which their national language is Bahasa Melayu. And our Mainland Chinese too, where their country of origin uses their Putong Hua (Mandarin) as their Language of Teaching (Correct me if I am wrong for this)

Even if they do know English, their usage of words and phrases to describe things is limited. Honestly speaking, if they have had a better education in their younger days, they would not have been Bus Drivers now.

But despite all these, I do firmly believe that our bus companies should at least have basic english speaking and understanding courses for our Bus Captains / Service Leaders. This is one way to allow their service staff to provide quality service to their customers, us (:

TIB537B SG

It is good if they can communicate and respond in basic english and their mother tongue. At least the commuters can understand. If there are difficulties to communicate our intentions to the bus captains, then there'll be some problems for both ends.

Also, route knowledges and quality service are a must.

carbikebus SG

Just two cents about this (:

I agreed with you,If they can interact in better English they would find other jobs..But Chinaman?No offence many of my Chinaman colleague thought that Singaporean Malays are from Malaysia.Even though i've shown them my red IC they still thought that i was granted citizenship.Most of them didn't know that Singapore was formerly part of Malaysia