Service Staff Who Can Only Speak Chinese
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Originally posted by mistyblue:
Sometimes the PRC chinese has a different name for the same thing. So even if we speak local Chinese to these Ah Tiong. its not good enough. Its not the Chinese the Ah Tiong understand.
Yes! Some can even correct your "Mandarin".
It is not enought that we already made an effort to speak Chinese so that they could understand, it must be "perfect" Mandarin as well.
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Originally posted by rainee:
Yes! Some can even correct your "Mandarin".
It is not enought that we already made an effort to speak Chinese so that they could understand, it must be "perfect" Mandarin as well.
You better check which province they come from before you speak your mandarin to them.
Big difference whether they are from guangzhou, hubei or fujian.
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Originally posted by mistyblue:
Sometimes the PRC chinese has a different name for the same thing. So even if we speak local Chinese to these Ah Tiong. its not good enough. Its not the Chinese the Ah Tiong understand.
Win liao loh..I think next time if I ever have the sway luck to tio another Tiong to serve me ah..I'll just ask her directly : "Auntie, what do u understand ah?" *pouts* -
Originally posted by rainee:
Yes! Some can even correct your "Mandarin".
It is not enought that we already made an effort to speak Chinese so that they could understand, it must be "perfect" Mandarin as well.
next time you tell them "ä½ çŸ¥é�“什么是入乡éš�ä¿—å�—?" -
Originally posted by av98m:
oh yah , my bad.
my hanyu pinyin sucks
LOL..is my colleague who told me the translation.. -
whats 入乡�俗 ?? ru dunno what ..
my chi sucks to the core !
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Originally posted by 93'guy:
whats 入乡�俗 ?? ru dunno what ..
my chi sucks to the core !
in rome do what the romans do.
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Originally posted by dragg:
next time you tell them "ä½ çŸ¥é�“什么是入乡éš�ä¿—å�—?"Then they tell you that Singapore is part of China.
How?
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Originally posted by 93'guy:
whats 入乡�俗 ?? ru dunno what ..
my chi sucks to the core !
And I assume your melayu is non-existent. -
Next time, the tourism board will have a "Speak Mandarin Campaign" during the Great Singapore Sale.
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Originally posted by rainee:
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?
ya, i agree that is unfair to them..... but wat to do, singapore wont wanna work in fnb....cos everyone wants to be a professional.....then where do we find ppl to work in fnb? but i think is sad that a chinese dun know how to speak mandarin..... i wont mind if the ts is a not chinese
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Originally posted by charlize:
Then they tell you that Singapore is part of China.
How?
last time (about 8-to-10 years ago), when i playing those yahoo games and they ask ASL
i say 36/f/singapore, they will ask is singapore is part of china
i say no..
but i think now, i can proudly say........... yes....... soon........ -
Originally posted by FireIce:
cartel at PS is mostly chinese staff
they have no idea wat club sandwich, steak medium and spider are
even say the lumbers in chinese to the staff taking our order oso can hear wrong and send wrong order and missed one order and made us wait so long
and yes, they are not having my business anymore
and old lady taking a bus wanted to ask if the bus goes to this certain place
she is those old ang moh pai lady tt speaks english only, and probably malay
the bus captain look at her, frown and say 我�知�
the old lady, still tapped her card and sat down anywayI've stopped eating at Cartel PS for that reason AND that my friend got a bad case of the runs after eating there with me.
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Originally posted by FireIce:
last time (about 8-to-10 years ago), when i playing those yahoo games and they ask ASL
i say 36/f/singapore, they will ask is singapore is part of china
i say no..
but i think now, i can proudly say........... yes....... soon........
Really?! -
You never see SAF's new recruitment video meh? Look more like People's Liberation Army recruitment video... all the Chinese Ancient costumes...
http://www.mindef.gov.sg/arc/
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Originally posted by Mymoja:
ya, i agree that is unfair to them..... but wat to do, singapore wont wanna work in fnb....cos everyone wants to be a professional.....then where do we find ppl to work in fnb? but i think is sad that a chinese dun know how to speak mandarin..... i wont mind if the ts is a not chinese
I am Chinese.
I can speak Mandarin, but I am still learning how to read and write Mandarin characters. But doesn't mean I do not know Chinese because I am fluent in Hokkien. Chinese language is not limited to just Mandarin.
Employers should send their employees for English courses or spend some time to teach them how to handle English-speaking customers and not just let them answer "No speak" or "No understand" the moment they are spoken to in English. That shows ignorance and not a very good customer service.
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cartel at east coast road still not too bad
the last time i went (earlier this year), i still got served by singaporean servers -
if restoran send the staff for english lessons means have to spend $$$
the point about hiring these "imported" is to save $$$, rite?
we diners oso save $$$
by not patronising them anymore
and spam all the local forums tt they have such lousy service, spread the word, put on blogs with 20k hits a day
but somehow whenever i walk past, i still see tt place full house........ -
Originally posted by FireIce:
cartel at east coast road still not too bad
the last time i went (earlier this year), i still got served by singaporean serversI jumped ship to Hog's Breath... food and service is so much better there.
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Originally posted by Mymoja:
ya, i agree that is unfair to them..... but wat to do, singapore wont wanna work in fnb....cos everyone wants to be a professional.....then where do we find ppl to work in fnb? but i think is sad that a chinese dun know how to speak mandarin..... i wont mind if the ts is a not chinese
first define chinese.
second please elaborate reason for sadness in not knowing to speak mandarin. If you're talking about origins of ancestors, then please feel sad about most people not being able to speak african.
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Originally posted by dragg:
generally, isnt it a shame that a chinese cant speak chinese or arent interested in conversing in chinese? the same goes for a malay or indian who cant speak their own language (never met one until today. but plenty in the case of chinese)
i know a lot of people defended this situation by saying all singaporeans study and speak english because of survival.
but the unfortunate thing is a lot of local chinese arent interested in learning chinese or are not interested in conversing in chinese.
why? because the english language is more 'high class'? i cant help but believe that many chinese actually think or feel that way.
its the fault of our educational system that local chinese can hardly speak the chinese language and dialects.
i think it is only 'normal' for a mainland chinese to want to converse in chinese with a fellow chinese, regardless of nationality.
To me, it's not so much whether the chinese singaporean can speak mandarin or not. It's these chinese nationals who refuse to converse in English and deprive our non chinese ethnic citizens of good service.
I recall seeing this in ST forum last year whereby a non chinese (probably a Indian or Eurasian) walking into a shop to buy a pair of sports shoes. A chinese staff attended to her and spoke in mandarin even though the customer was clearly a non chinese (by skin colour I think). So the customer asked the service staff in very broken mandarin whether the latter could speak English. The service staff replied "Bu ke yi". The customer had no choice but to give up buying the pair of shoes.
See? This is the issue. Not so much whether we worship ang mo language or not. I was educated in chinese schools and took CL1 which is now known as Higher Chinese. I respect Chinese language and culture. But in this thread, the issue is about chinese nationals working in Singapore, refusing to take up our commercial language and yet still insists on working in the service industry. Their language inability is compromising our service standard.
I sympathise with them having to leave their home and family to earn a living in a foreign place. I have no problem with prc having a decent job here. But if the chinese person is not able to converse in a commercial language or in more than 1 language (we are a multi racial country), then the person should just take up a job as a factory operator job, toilet cleaner, construction worker or any job that does not require them to speak with customer.
They want to make our money. We give them jobs here. They should know how to be fair to us and our fellow non chinese citizens.
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Seriously, we should take some cues from Australia and demand a minimum standard of English for any of the PRCs who wanna come here to work or study.
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Originally posted by honeymouse:
Over here in Australia, when you go to some Chinese restaurants, if you can't read Chinese, you might miss out on nice food. The menu in Chinese posted on the wall is usually different from the menu in English.
Yeah we went to this Chinese restaurant in Melbourne and the menu wrote nothing about the herbal mutton pot but it was on the wall! Heng we know chinese haha.
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Originally posted by FireIce:
if restoran send the staff for english lessons means have to spend $$$
the point about hiring these "imported" is to save $$$, rite?
we diners oso save $$$
by not patronising them anymore
and spam all the local forums tt they have such lousy service, spread the word, put on blogs with 20k hits a day
but somehow whenever i walk past, i still see tt place full house........Sigh I used to love Cafe Cartel..but only been to the one in Marina Square...
That one still not so bad...I dun think got any bad experience with them yet...
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Originally posted by rainee:
I am Chinese.
I can speak Mandarin, but I am still learning how to read and write Mandarin characters. But doesn't mean I do not know Chinese because I am fluent in Hokkien. Chinese language is not limited to just Mandarin.
Employers should send their employees for English courses or spend some time to teach them how to handle English-speaking customers and not just let them answer "No speak" or "No understand" the moment they are spoken to in English. That shows ignorance and not a very good customer service.
then who is going to pay for the expenses? for the training? increase food pricing?