|
hidamali
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: hidamali
Country: Singapore
Metro: Singapore
Gender: Female
Interests: reading, writing, partying, church, drama, volunteering...
Expertise: falling in love with the wrong people
Industry: media
Message: message me
Member Since:
6/5/2004
|
|
|
They are irate customers and they have found a way to air their grievances - on Facebook.
Some 2,000 people have joined a group called 'I am Singaporean and tired of service staff who can only speak Mandarin' on the popular social networking site.
At least 20 establishments - from big-name supermarkets and foodcourts to retail shops - have been singled out by members who have come forward to share frustrating experiences at these outlets.
<strong>Started in August by undergraduate Kavita Devi Thamilselvam, 22, the group has drawn many non-Chinese as well as Chinese who are not fluent in Mandarin.</strong>
'It's as though non-Mandarin speaking customers are not valued. It makes us feel like foreigners in our own country,' Ms Kavita told The Sunday Times.
Another member of the group, Ms Nor Hafiza, 28, said she once had to approach four different sales assistants at a supermarket before a Singaporean employee was able to answer her queries.
The early childhood educator was surprised one of them even asked if she could speak Mandarin.
'When you are serving a multiracial community, it's important to have employees who can speak English,' she said.
Most members in the group said they are not against hiring foreigners, but are frustrated at the lack of English training given to them.
**
The statement in bold seems to be somewhat an assumption- surely not all the Chinese group members are not fluent in Mandarin.
I'll join this group in a heartbeat, even though my accent is often mistaken for that of a Chinese national, cos I'm sick and tired of translating for the bf in a supposedly English-speaking country.
| | |
| 
via casual poet I know, as Ms X the super-journo*, I can ill afford sentimentality. but this...is kind of sweet. also, if dinner and dancing and eternity is asking too much, can i at least have dinner and dancing for eternity? *what Barney calls me since he refuses to call me "her ROAR-yal cuteness" | | |
| after a long first day back at work, i'm off today to take my driving theory test. however, i'm feeling completely sentimental and unfocussed. maybe it's meeting Barney after a fortnight, and having him leave on a jet plane again... | | |
| didnt go back to tokyo for halloween after all, but had a quiet night in the outskirts of kobe, catching up with my old uni housemate hayato. | | |
|
