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...

charlize SG

nowadays, the average coffee shop also have chinese helpers.

yesterday experienced a chinese lady helper at a kopi tiam who also didn't understand orders in english.

this customer asked for 7-Up, but the woman had no idea what it was. so the customer got fed up and ordered Coke Lite, but end up he was given Coke. :/

but at least the helper in this case was quite apologetic. after tt, when an indian guy asked for chinese tea and she din understand, she asked another customer to help her translate.

I once ordered "Barley, guan (canned)" and the chinese lady gave me a blur look.

For a moment there, I forgot how to say barley in mandarin until my regular singaporean koptiam lady came and took the order for me.

Rock^Star SG

Mi lu bing is lost soldiers right?

Tell her that.

But i wana order a drink man, not soldiers lol. I wasn't really irritated too la...was just pure bemusement.

BrUtUs SG

complain here no use.... should jz complain to watever restaurant managment n tell them u will boycott their store if they keep using these cheap cheena ah tiongs...

Rock^Star SG

Karang guni men also chinamen now. Taxi driver, bus driver.....maybe next time traffic police also. Haha cant imagine if the TP stops next to me and asks, "Qing nin jiao chu nin the shen fen zheng. Xie xie nin de he zuo."

rainee SG

complain here no use.... should jz complain to watever restaurant managment n tell them u will boycott their store if they keep using these cheap cheena ah tiongs...

I am not against employers hiring them...but should at least teach them how to speak basic English if they want to broaden their customer base. If the waiter/waitresses only want to speak in Mandarin then they are limiting their customers to just Chinese.

BrUtUs SG

employers wun care if they can speak english or not as long as they r still earning profits... so 1 way to make them to increase their service standard is by boycotting their branch n send them a good feedback...

Mymoja SG

I recently noticed a lot of people in the service industry, especially restaurants, who expect you to speak Mandarin to them. If you can't, you wil get a glare or they might even refuse to serve you.

Does it mean that if I look Chinese I am assumed to be able to speak Mandarin automatically? Apparently it has also got to a point that they expect other races to be able to speak Mandarin as well, including Malays and Indians.

Is this place turning into China?? I don't have anything against speaking Mandarin, I am learning to speak it more fluently as well but I don't like the idea that if I can't speak it fluently, I can't order my food or something. What do you guys think?

I am Singaporean and tired of service staff who can only speak Mandarin

wat to do.... cos all the singaporeans are so well educated, some educated till dun know how to speak mandarin ..... i thot we singaporean are Bilingual? why some cant speak our own native language? i just wanna say remember your root.... not trying to be ahmoh

Rock^Star SG

Agreed. Others who cant understand chinese will find this sort of dining environment a big turn off.

cherrycola SG

Who will be willing to spend the extra time and effort to teach them English?

Chelzea SG

liddat spore becum more cosmopolitian mah. wif diff languages n races mah

honeymouse SG

Quite true.But some dishes are very hard to be written in English lolz. If you do a literal translation, it will probably come out sounding quite..wrong.

Like a few weeks ago.... when we went to a Chinese restaurant with a group of friends (majority of them are Caucasians), I ordered the Ginger & spring onion venison in sizzling plate which was only in Chinese but not in English. As it turned out, all of them actually like that dish.

These poor people just have no idea what they miss out on....

rainee SG

Do you realize that there are other people here with other roots as well? What about Indians and Malays? You want them to remember their "roots" and speak Mandarin?

rainee SG

Who will be willing to spend the extra time and effort to teach them English?

If you hire them, then it is your responsible to ensure that they are taught those basic phrases. Otherwise, it is your own loss.

cherrycola SG

If you hire them, then it is your responsible to ensure that they are taught those basic phrases. Otherwise, it is your own loss.

I guess the very reason why they are hired is because employers can pay them a lower wage as compared to hiring a local.

So if they are trying to cut cost here, they may not see the reason to spend money, time, and effort to teach them.

Kuali Baba SG

I guess the very reason why they are hired is because employers can pay them a lower wage as compared to hiring a local.

So if they are trying to cut cost here, they may not see the reason to spend money, time, and effort to teach them.

Cutting costs? In the long run, they'll lose their customers...oh wait, they'll simply get more customers from the mainland.

Convincing people that Singapore isn't part of China is harder than ever now.

rainee SG

I guess the very reason why they are hired is because employers can pay them a lower wage as compared to hiring a local.

So if they are trying to cut cost here, they may not see the reason to spend money, time, and effort to teach them.

Seriously, how hard it is to teach them a few simple phrases?

Some are so atrocious they can't even understand what does "water" mean.

And there are some who can't understand common Mandarin used here and expect us to speak to them in Mandarin complete with China accent.

cherrycola SG

Cutting costs? In the long run, they'll lose their customers...oh wait, they'll simply get more customers from the mainland.

Convincing people that Signapore isn't part of China is harder than ever now.

Agree. I guess they have yet to realise the impact.

~N3RD~ SG

better don't let them work in the Bank... one or two missing zeroes make a very big difference...

cherrycola SG

Seriously, how hard it is to teach them a few simple phrases?

Some are so atrocious they can't even understand what does "water" mean.

And there are some who can't understand common Mandarin used here and expect us to speak to them in Mandarin complete with China accent.

Haha. Speak with Chinese accent? Oh gosh

cherrycola SG

better don't let them work in the Bank... one or two missing zeroes make a very big difference...

Ya. Banks cant afford to make that kind of mistake!

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