Service Staff Who Can Only Speak Chinese

last SG · 2008-12-01T12:54:45+00:00

either way we r TIONG-ed!it's a good thing i'm more comfortable in speakin mandarin.n one more thing, sinkies r not very good in english either, tok bout cri...

fudgester SG

Precisely! Even our old retiree taxi drivers, postman and cleaners at HDB block speak simple English. If they can do it, why can't the PRCs (who are our gahmen's precious foreign talents) do it?

We don't go to Paris to work and speak Hokkien to the French there. So the PRCs should have the decency to respect our culture and language here.

x2. If you go to Paris to work, then you should at least learn basic French. One who doesn't know Jacques about Francais and mixes up his quiche with his baguette deserves to be shown the door.

Same logic applies here. I'm a friggin' Mat, and I don't see why I should have to learn Mandarin in order to buy resistors from a Sim Lim Tower shop just because the China salesgirl has poor English and poor product knowledge.

Whoever wants to work in Singapore in a job that requires selling, then I say he or she had jolly well learn basic English.

skythewood SG

I hate the damned frogs.

obnoxious, snotty surrender monkeys with a grossly exaggerated sense of self-importance.

they are famous for losing wars all the time.

skythewood SG

x2. If you go to Paris to work, then you should at least learn basic French. One who doesn't know Jacques about Francais and mixes up his quiche with his baguette deserves to be shown the door.

Whoever wants to work in Singapore in a job that requires selling, then I say he or she had jolly well learn basic English.

i have a friend who's name is mat too. mathew chow.

Mymoja SG

They want cheap labour? I would rather they get Malaysians (they speak Eng, Malay and Chinese dialects) or Filipino (they speak English). Or are the employers hiring PRCs because it's easy to get work permit for them? You know lah.. our gahmen love PRC foreign talents.

no la , malaysia demand more pay den prc.... and our gahment want to suck up to china ........... wat to do...........we in singapore, our gahmen decide wat kind of ppl they want and wat kind of life we should live........... den we SINGAPOREAN just suck it up andd live the SINGAPOREAN LIFE....

skythewood SG

the question will be, is it the government who hires the PRC or the free market forces making the business owners here hire PRC?

the PRC that the government bring over are all high level, confirm can speak english scholars..

rainee SG

i have a friend who's name is mat too. mathew chow.

Mat is not a name, it refers to Malay guy in general.

rainee SG

the reason the businesses were hiring those ppl is becos they are cheap. i dun think they will spend money on them for training.......

It won't have to cost if their supervisors spent some time each day teaching them basic phrases. Or give them a booklet containing all the basic phrases and then test them on the words.

skythewood SG

It won't have to cost if their supervisors spent some time each day teaching them basic phrases. Or give them a booklet containing all the basic phrases and then test them on the words.

they can't read english. their chinese reading might not be that fantastic too.

rainee SG

they can't read english. their chinese reading might not be that fantastic too.

Then the supervisors have to teach. There is no other way around it.

skythewood SG

Then the supervisors have to teach. There is no other way around it.

yup. but than, their supervisor is not getting fantastic pay to want to do extra work like teaching someone a new language diligently. guess the process will probably be very slow.

LazerLordz SG

It's a problem that is getting very out of hand. Singapore is a multi-racial country.

Anyone who cannot speak/understand simple English or Singlish, should not be in the service industry. It is an insult to the kind of reptutation we have built up over the years as a tourism destination.

As for people who say that Chinese should know their mother tongue, please be reminded that technically, Mandarin is not your mother tongue. Your mother tongue is the dialect group you are born in. Mandarin is just the adminstrative language of China.

rainee SG

yup. but than, their supervisor is not getting fantastic pay to want to do extra work like teaching someone a new language diligently. guess the process will probably be very slow.

Why do you think so much for the employer? If they can't even provide something as basic as this, then don't hire PRCs at all. In the end, they will be the ones who will suffer cos all the customers run away and their shops are getting bad reputation.

rainee SG

It's a problem that is getting very out of hand. Singapore is a multi-racial country.

Well said. That's what I think as well.

Mymoja SG

yup. but than, their supervisor is not getting fantastic pay to want to do extra work like teaching someone a new language diligently. guess the process will probably be very slow.

agree......... the prc pay already so low.......... and the reason they came here to work as waiter is because they nvr study much........ those ft that can study one wont work as waiter lor..... so even the company want them to study i think they will fall asleep during the training ..............

skythewood SG

It's a problem that is getting very out of hand. Singapore is a multi-racial country.

technically, if you can speak the dialect, like hong kong people speaking in cantonese, people won't make noise that you can't speak mandarin.

the problem is with people that can't speak mandarin or dialects.

skythewood SG

follow the money and you will know why and how things get done. how can i defend the employer if in actual fact, they are hiring people to jobs that they cannot do? but by understanding the logic of the money, we will see either

1) the PRC starting to learn english
2) the employer realise that this is not going to work out
3) the employer forsakes sales to people who cannot speak chinese.

the situation is now (3). now is waiting for either (1) or (2) to happen, or whether (3) will work out fine.

Kuali Baba SG

technically, if you can speak the dialect, like hong kong people speaking in cantonese, people won't make noise that you can't speak mandarin.

the problem is with people that can't speak mandarin or dialects.

So Malay, Indian, Korean, Japanese, Indonesian, American, British, Australian, Filippino customers (and so on) are a problem? Then we can jolly well flush our reputation as a tourist and expat-friendly destination down the toilet.

rainee SG

Does it hurt them to learn it on their own? It all boils down to their determination. It never hurt to learn more languages and English is a very important language to learn if you want to continue working here and remain in the front line business.

rainee SG

technically, if you can speak the dialect, like hong kong people speaking in cantonese, people won't make noise that you can't speak mandarin.

the problem is with people that can't speak mandarin or dialects.

The problem here is not bilingual people. It is about people who stubbornly want to hold on to just speaking Chinese, and nothing else.

skythewood SG

if the prc is working as a helper in a hawker centre, than Malay, Indian, Korean, Japanese, Indonesian, American, British, Australian, Filippino customers (and so on) will not be their target customer range.

if he is suppose to work as a customer service in let's say orchard, than the employer is not very smart to employ them.

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