Statement: I never needed Chinese in my work
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From The New Paper:
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He deals with Chinese nationals but says...
I never needed Chinese in my work
On 26 Dec, we ran a report on whether not knowing Mandarin can cost you a job. Readers respond
By Shree Ann Mathavan
December 30, 2005
MR ALVIN Ho (right), 40, is a business development manager in an IT company. He failed his Mandarin in school.
Mr Alvin Ho.
But he doesn't have to use Chinese at work.
The Chinese nationals he deals with usually understand English.
'Unless the company intends to send a successful job applicant to China for an extended working stint of three to six months or longer, I would say there is probably no need to understand Chinese while working in Singapore.'
He added that many Chinese want to learn to speak English as they know it is the only way to improve their grasp of this international language of commerce.
Mr Ho was among many readers, both Chinese and non-Chinese, who responded to The New Paper's 26 Dec report, I Put Bosses To The Test.
The gist of it: Do job advertisements which mention Mandarin skills as a requirement discriminate against non-Chinese Singaporeans looking for work?
The New Paper sent me, a non-Chinese, to 'test the waters' by applying for jobs which had Mandarin as a requirement.
TOUCHED A RAW NERVE
Reporter Shree Ann (left), asking Ms Cynthia Yeo, manager of a travel agency, whether knowledge of Mandarin was a job requirement, for her Boxing Day report.
We decided to do the story after letters on job discrimination appeared in the press.
This was followed by several political and community leaders, among them Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and labour chief Lim Boon Heng, cautioning employers not to use Mandarin to discriminate against applicants if the job did not require such language skills.
For a few readers, the subject touched a raw nerve.
One thing was clear: Whatever stand they took, no one was sitting on the fence.
Some non-Chinese readers wrote in with examples of how race was involved when some firms hire workers.
Ms Kamaleswari Balakrishnan, 29, who can speak Mandarin, has been looking for a clerical job for the past six months.
She said administrative work involved mainly English, yet the employers asked her if she was Chinese and rejected her when she said no.
She wrote: 'What potential employers ask is: 'Are you Chinese?' They fail to see my skills and potential for the job.
'I have told many employers I can speak Mandarin, and I have even been put to the test. But, eventually, they wanted a Chinese, as in race, not someone who can speak the language.'
Another reader, Ms Niza Hamzah, who has had a similar experience, said: 'We live in a multi-racial society where English is important.'
Other readers shared their positive experience in predominantly Chinese workplaces.
One of them, Mr Muhammad Putra, 17, a graphics designer at Pearl Centre who often designs and prints materials in Chinese, which he does not understand. His customers, mainly Chinese nationals, have helped him.
'For example, they were willing to write down both the Chinese character and its hanyu pinyin pronunciation to help me type out the characters.'
He said he was lucky that his employers looked at his abilities, not his race.
A few said some bosses were justified in looking for Chinese speakers for certain jobs.
Mr Tan Ying, 61, a retiree, wrote: 'Some bosses really need to employ someone who can speak a little Chinese so that they can please their Chinese customers, especially those from Hong Kong, Taiwan or China.'
'It is easier to clinch business contracts.'
Mr Koh Juan Kiat, 53, from the String not found, STYL = STYL.INL, PC = 3B33 Singapore National Employers Federation, said that mentioning language abilities in ads are 'legitimate requirements for the job'.
'Language abilities like English, Mandarin, Malay, Japanese, Korean to handle customers, or for developing businesses in specific countries are business requirements.'
Madam Halimah Yacob, 51, NTUC assistant secretary-general, said recently that when bosses ask for knowledge of Mandarin in jobs that do not require it, people can become resentful and view the requirement as discriminatory.
EDUCATE EMPLOYERS
On employers who discriminate based on race, she said publicising such cases can help correct the situation.
'We need to educate employers that all forms of discrimination, whether on the basis of race, religion, gender, or age is bad for business as it deprives them of the best person for the job,' she said.
Madam Halimah added that racial discrimination was not a major problem in Singapore. -
Why are we all so upset about employers that demand Chinese speaking applicants while we ignore Jpanaese employers that demand Japanese speaking applicants? Isn't it the same thing?
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I think this is a spin-off from a thread I was involved in the chit-chat forum. The point was not the language as a legitimate requirement, but the idea that sometimes if the language is not really needed to do the job, it was more of a racial thing.Originally posted by SilverPal:Why are we all so upset about employers that demand Chinese speaking applicants while we ignore Jpanaese employers that demand Japanese speaking applicants? Isn't it the same thing? -
I do agree that racisim in the workplace is very sad and should not happen. Sadly, it is close to impossible to create checks and balances to prevent racisim.Originally posted by Northwind:I think this is a spin-off from a thread I was involved in the chit-chat forum. The point was not the language as a legitimate requirement, but the idea that sometimes if the language is not really needed to do the job, it was more of a racial thing.
I'm local chinese and many of my closest friends are non chinese. They do tell me about the racisim they face especially from older chinese but yet there is very little that can be done.
Perhaps education is the best solution. -
If my business contacts in HK,Taiwan and China cannot see beyond racism and not do business because I employ a person of another race to deal with them, then they can go kiss my ass and feck back to their North Asia.
This is Singapore, respect us or get the farkk away. -
Unfortunately, not all businessmen share your sentiments and let $$$$ dictate the bottom line instead .Originally posted by LazerLordz:If my business contacts in HK,Taiwan and China cannot see beyond racism and not do business because I employ a person of another race to deal with them, then they can go kiss my ass and feck back to their North Asia.
This is Singapore, respect us or get the farkk away.
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Maybe that's why I'm not studying business..I feel that we all have to be socially responsible even in business, ethical investment and all that jazz.Originally posted by fudgester:Unfortunately, not all businessmen share your sentiments and let $$$$ dictate the bottom line instead . -
Sadly business is all about money and maximizing monetary returns. If you insist on sending a malay or indian to negotiate with the taiwanese or honkies, with the language and cultural barriers, extending negotiations due to translations and broken mandarin...
Your competitors who hire chinese who can relate (relatively) better to these same clients might manage to win the deal from you.
I'm not implying that taiwanese and hongkies are arrogant or stupid, nor am I insinuating that malays and indians are incompetent. All I'm saying is that ppl relate better to those to have more in common with them... -
If I were to send anyone to conduct business, I would logically pick a person who can speak that language, no matter his skin tone.Originally posted by SilverPal:Sadly business is all about money and maximizing monetary returns. If you insist on sending a malay or indian to negotiate with the taiwanese or honkies, with the language and cultural barriers, extending negotiations due to translations and broken mandarin...
Your competitors who hire chinese who can relate (relatively) better to these same clients might manage to win the deal from you.
I'm not implying that taiwanese and hongkies are arrogant or stupid, nor am I insinuating that malays and indians are incompetent. All I'm saying is that ppl relate better to those to have more in common with them...
If I have to resort to racism to earn my business, then I personally will not deal with those people.As I said, it's my opinion that ethical investment should be propagated and encouraged.
the same goes for MNCs who should boycott nations who breach human rights and utilise their products to suppress their citizenry.If we do not take a small step, who will do so? -
Fully agree.Originally posted by SilverPal:Sadly business is all about money and maximizing monetary returns. If you insist on sending a malay or indian to negotiate with the taiwanese or honkies, with the language and cultural barriers, extending negotiations due to translations and broken mandarin...
Your competitors who hire chinese who can relate (relatively) better to these same clients might manage to win the deal from you.
I'm not implying that taiwanese and hongkies are arrogant or stupid, nor am I insinuating that malays and indians are incompetent. All I'm saying is that ppl relate better to those to have more in common with them...
The end result is money but the way to earn the money is complicated and there are always choices, depending on who are you doing business with and where is the market; what is the short term investment and the long term convenience involved in selecting the people. (japanese traders send their expats into vietnam for the first year to learn vietnamese before putting them in the jobs).
If we look at it from the opposite side, other things being equal, chinese businessman giving the deals to a fellow chinese suppliers, are being socially responsible; having a chinese speaking suppliers is convenient in the long run, anybody from my office can call him in singapore and talk with no problem, otherwise everytime must use translators. If the customers can speak english they would go directly to the suppliers in US or Europe, don't need middleman from singapore, or HK.
It is a matter of OUR choice in business and our ability to see the problem facing the customers. Ability to speak our business partners' language is a big advantage in business, whether it is chinese, vietnamese, indonesian....
Talking about social ethic the first we should avoid is to impose on our english on others, like the PRC chinese trying to impose their beijing qiang pu tong hua on us, and in business, we do not always assume that everybody will come to singapore and want to do business with us here.
The bz world out there is tough and bloody, we have no money solely for the promotion of singapore culture. Let the people putting in the money decide how to spend their money, they are the one who lose the money if they make the wrong choice, or they lose the opportunity if they do not employ the right guy.