Service Staff Who Can Only Speak Chinese
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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
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Must be Ah tiongs
Even people in malaysia will speak english when they first serve
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i was just explaining to my friend the other day...every turn you make in a supermarket you realised that you're no longer looking at a Singaporean but a foreigner...just like Oz
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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 anyway -
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 anywaySwensons as well.
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You want to shop or dine in Singapore, you better learn how to speak mandarin, otherwise you will not be served properly.
Apparently this is the message we are getting.
Haiz.
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western food restoran menu will print chinese soon..
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Mcdonalds also... I asked for mayonnaise she gave me butter... My friend asked for curry she gave him tomato sauce...
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Originally posted by FireIce:
western food restoran menu will print chinese soon..
Next time better still, the mandarin speaking staff will chastise you for ordering your food in English.
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Originally posted by charlize:
You want to shop or dine in Singapore, you better learn how to speak mandarin, otherwise you will not be served properly.
Apparently this is the message we are getting.
Haiz.
Should rename this place to China No. 2
And isn't the national language here, English?
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Originally posted by ~N3RD~:
Mcdonalds also... I asked for mayonnaise she gave me butter... My friend asked for curry she gave him tomato sauce...
I wonder if there were any complains about them. -
Originally posted by rainee:
Should rename this place to China No. 2
And isn't the national language here, English?
I think we just have to live with it. -
Originally posted by charlize:
Next time better still, the mandarin speaking staff will chastise you for ordering your food in English.
If you read the Facebook link I posted above, it has already happened.
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Originally posted by rainee:
Should rename this place to China No. 2
And isn't the national language here, English?
English is the working language in Singapore.
However, with what is happening right now, soon Mandarin will be the working language.
English will subconsciously be demoted to second language status.
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Originally posted by charlize:
English is the working language in Singapore.
However, with what is happening right now, soon Mandarin will be the working language.
English will subconsciously be demoted to second language status.
Time to brush up our Mandarin then
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Originally posted by cherrycola:
I think we just have to live with it.It is getting ridiculous. It is just unfair to expect everyone to speak Mandarin, especially those from other races.
Maybe those who are Indian should just answer back in Tamil and see what's the reaction of the staff.
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i only know
they like to charged more
leh
happened once or twice in cafe cartel
at cityhall one
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Originally posted by rainee:
It is getting ridiculous. It is just unfair to expect everyone to speak Mandarin, especially those from other races.
Maybe those who are Indian should just answer back in Tamil and see what's the reaction of the staff.
I remembered once when I was in cartel or swensons, I placed my order in English. The waitress gave me a blank look and I thought for a moment if I said anything wrong. It took me a while to realise that she actually could not understand English.
And then when I wanted to ask for an extra set of cutlery, it took me a while to get the words "dao" & "cha" out from my memory. lol
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Originally posted by noahnoah:
i only know
they like to charged more
leh
happened once or twice in cafe cartel
at cityhall one
Really?Cos I don't check the receipts one.
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Originally posted by cherrycola:
Really?Cos I don't check the receipts one.
o yes u better check properly -
Originally posted by cherrycola:
Time to brush up our Mandarin then
It is because most people think the problem can be solved just by learning Mandarin that this situation actually got..worse.
The workers from China do not see the need to really learn how to converse in English because they expect everyone to be able to speak that language. They are not making effort to learn English because they know we can accept them being able to only speak Chinese and let them get away with it.
If we are opening up more and more places to foreigners and promoting this place as a tourism area, then there needs to be some effort put in to ensure that all the service staff can at least understand and converse in basic English.
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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.
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cafe cartel at tm also tio... Ask for any recommendation, the waitress told me bread and butter for the day??? loss of words... bread and butter not set meal leh...
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Originally posted by rainee:
It is getting ridiculous. It is just unfair to expect everyone to speak Mandarin, especially those from other races.
Maybe those who are Indian should just answer back in Tamil and see what's the reaction of the staff.
I really feel for those non Mandarin speaking Singaporeans.
Where once everybody got by speaking a mixture of English, Singlish, Hokkien, Malay to each other, the message got across and everybody was happy.
Last time, who working in the kpitiams didn't understand mee pok tah, prata kosong, teh tarik, kopi siu dai, mee siam mai hiam (not hum
) ?These days, you order in malay or hokkien or English, you get a blank stare and a blur look.
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Originally posted by rainee:
It is because most people think the problem can be solved just by learning Mandarin that this situation actually got..worse.
The workers from China do not see the need to really learn how to converse in English because they expect everyone to be able to speak that language. They are not making effort to learn English because they know we can accept them being able to only speak Chinese and let them get away with it.
If we are opening up more and more places to foreigners and promoting this place as a tourism area, then there needs to be some effort put in to ensure that all the service staff can at least understand and converse in basic English.
If I am not wrong, many of them come to Singapore to study English. So the part about them not being able to understand the language puzzles me.