Pirapong See De Liang
Tue, Jun 03, 2008
The Sunday Times
Why front-line staff need to have knowledge of English
I refer to the article, 'English test for foreign front-line staff? Bosses say 'no'' (The Sunday Times, May 25), on the need to impose some kind of English test for service staff. I believe it is necessary.
The authorities should consider having a regulation to ensure that foreign front-line staff in Singapore have a basic command of English.
This is more than just a business issue, and far from a minor one. Singapore is a multiracial country and our official working language has always been English. So why is this policy not being practised in the service industry?
Employers who hire workers who cannot speak basic English are indirectly discriminating against the non-Chinese minority here.
One can recall the countless times when Chinese Singaporeans have to act as translators for their non-Chinese friends at foodcourts when dealing with foreign service staff.
It is unacceptable that my fellow Singaporeans should be made to feel like tourists in their own country, just because some foreign service staff member cannot speak or understand basic English.
We cannot give the impression that since Singapore has a Chinese majority and many here speak Mandarin, that it is therefore all right for foreigners coming to work in the service sector here to take the easy way out by not bothering to attain a certain level of proficiency in English.
Singapore has come a long way in embracing diversity and promoting racial harmony. The Government has implemented several policies aimed at integrating the population, one of which is the bilingual policy in our education system.
If our young are subject to such a policy - where learning English is compulsory - why should foreign workers, especially in the service line, be treated differently?
This issue is not about being xenophobic or narrow-minded - we are not saying 'no' to foreign workers. Rather, we are saying English is the official working language in Singapore and this must apply to the service line.
Even from a business point of view, having an employee who cannot communicate effectively with customers would create unhappiness and eventually drive people away.
I believe the cost of hiring English-speaking staff would be lower than the cost of losing one's customers.
We took pains to establish English as a universal working language in our country and to help integrate the different races. Let's not undo this now.
hmmmm ... Pirapong ......
I guess not ....
ooooook.
Communication is the key to every successful business transaction. If there isn't an effective communication, how do the service personnels understands the needs of the customer?
I must agree that not all working places requires English as a medium for communications. Let's say in a coffeeshop, would you say ,"May I have a coffee without milk, please? Thank you." or, "Auntie har, Kopi-O cyi buei"? If you said the former, I seriously doubt that the coffeeshop attendent will understand. However, she will understand wat u want if u use the latter.
So, the bosses said "no". Say, I wanted to buy a loaf of bread but the service personnel gave me a bag of flour, and demanded that I pay for it. Would you patronize that particular shop again? Well, let's see who suffers when the service personnel can't communicates with the customer.
On a side note, good luck to Singapore in trying to create a better retail environment. Ganbatte ne
Originally posted by Hogzilla:ooooook.
Communication is the key to every successful business transaction. If there isn't an effective communication, how do the service personnels understands the needs of the customer?
I must agree that not all working places requires English as a medium for communications. Let's say in a coffeeshop, would you say ,"May I have a coffee without milk, please? Thank you." or, "Auntie har, Kopi-O cyi buei"? If you said the former, I seriously doubt that the coffeeshop attendent will understand. However, she will understand wat u want if u use the latter.
So, the bosses said "no". Say, I wanted to buy a loaf of bread but the service personnel gave me a bag of flour, and demanded that I pay for it. Would you patronize that particular shop again? Well, let's see who suffers when the service personnel can't communicates with the customer.
On a side note, good luck to Singapore in trying to create a better retail environment. Ganbatte ne
oh ? ... kopitian doesn't require english ? ...
what happens when a malay or indian compatriot comes along to the local S11 and tries to order a drink ? ....
or are you gonna say, nehmind, since they are in the minority, they'll pick up what "pak kiu ping" is, what " tio herr ping" is ? ... are we to become a mandarin speaking satellite off shoot of China ? ...
neways I have yet to encounter a local kopitiam aunty or uncle that doesn't understand English ...
looking at the kind of recent arguments that get thrown up in support of service staff that doesn't speak English ... I seriously think we are moving backwards as a nation ....
what little national cohesion and identity we have carefully built up are being eroded rapidly in the name of immigration economics ... let them come in, by all means, but where is the bar ? ... what's the entry standard ? ... it seems to me we are really importing more peasants to add to the ranks of our heartlanders ....
Originally posted by Fatum: oh ? ... kopitian doesn't require english ? ...what happens when a malay or indian compatriot comes along to the local S11 and tries to order a drink ? ....
or are you gonna say, nehmind, since they are in the minority, they'll pick up what "pak kiu ping" is, what " tio herr ping" is ? ... are we to become a mandarin speaking satellite off shoot of China ? ...
neways I have yet to encounter a local kopitiam aunty or uncle that doesn't understand English ...
looking at the kind of recent arguments that get thrown up in support of service staff that doesn't speak English ... I seriously think we are moving backwards as a nation ....
what little national cohesion and identity we have carefully built up are being eroded rapidly in the name of immigration economics ... let them come in, by all means, but where is the bar ? ... what's the entry standard ? ... it seems to me we are really importing more peasants to add to the ranks of our heartlanders ....
That's y I said, communication is the key. It doesn't really matters wat language is used.
As long as the service personnels can understand what the customer wants and delivers their needs to the customers, it doesn't matter that they need to understand a certain language. I think we can do a small test to see whether the aunties in Kopi-tiam can understand English.
One suay kia will be the jia kan dang (can only speak English and nothing else) and go to a coffeeshop, make orders in Queen's English, that means without using Kopi-O, Teh-Si, these local phrases. Let's see does the auntie gets the order correct.
last christmas I was at a large boutique in orchard looking for an x'mas gift for someone .....
I was served by this young chap ... who, surprisingly, for a boutique frequented by tourists in the orchard tourist belt ... speaks not a SINGLE word of english .... he actually asked me, if I could speak in mandarin to him ...
eventually one of his colleagues, a local malay boy, got me what I wanted ......
and that's what happening now ... people are not pissed because some kopitiam in geylang is hiring beer maids and kopi aunties who can't speak english .... people are pissed because people at the front line of the tourism and hospitality industry in Singapore are being replaced by non-english speakers ....
Originally posted by Fatum:
last christmas I was at a large boutique in orchard looking for an x'mas gift for someone .....
I was served by this young chap ... who, surprisingly, for a boutique frequented by tourists in the orchard tourist belt ... speaks not a SINGLE word of english .... he actually asked me, if I could speak in mandarin to him ...
eventually one of his colleagues, a local malay boy, got me what I wanted ......
and that's what happening now ... people are not pissed because some kopitiam in geylang is hiring beer maids and kopi aunties who can't speak english .... people are pissed because people at the front line of the tourism and hospitality industry in Singapore are being replaced by non-english speakers ....
Yes!!
Thanks for emphazing my point of communication is the key to every successful business transactions.
I must say again that there isn't a need for a bar, set by the government, to set the standard of these immigrant workers; It's the employers who should do that, with considerations to their business and how the people that they employed will affect it. If the employers ignore the basic component of their business, the customers, they will be at the losing end as their customers will opt to go to places where their needs will be understood by service personnels.
I think....
It is not realistic to expect immigrants working in informal sectors to speak English....
My feeling tells me it cannot be that way.....
Simple, just think and imagine.....
If they can speak English fluently, will they be working as service personnels? Even highly educated university graduates from China do not speak fluent English.
This is reality.
If they can, maybe they dont aim to come to Singapore, instead they go aim for America or Australia.
Even the students from China coming to Singapore universities, alot of them have to spend 1 semester learning English, and after that their English is still rusty and need to improve.
So I dont see how semi-formal or informal jobs can afford to have a 'training'.
How is it possible to expect them to have good English, I just dont see it.
There is a group of immigrants with good English, the Filipinos.
Maybe this is related with history.
Actually their presence is already felt, especially in hospitals, and IT sectors. Alot of nurses are Filipinos.
But Chinese immigrants wont have good English, in semi-formal jobs or formal jobs.
But I think they are learning, on the job, even those waiters/ or shop assistants, after afew years they will improve their English.
So this is reality. I suppose this is just the way it works.
Meat Pao.