I refer to last Sunday's article, 'Service grouses spill to Facebook'. I wholeheartedly agree that all frontline service staff working in Singapore must speak and understand basic English.

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I completely agree. We are a multiracial society. Immigrants must realise that the language of business is English, NOT Chinese, and our national language is Malay. Immigrants should understand and know this and use every opportunity to learn English.
It is especially rude when the immigrant seems not to care and does not try to learn and communicate in English. It flies in the face of our the national pledge to be a united people, regardless of language or religion.

Some of these foreign talents, i have experienced, are actually quite diligent and polite-they appear to understand the predicament that they are in. Let's cut them some slack for now.

But if you're paying the 10% service charge, ah..then that shld be a different story altogther.

To think that Singaporeans are actually losing jobs to these so call "Foreign Talents", my goodness !!! Is our Work Permit so CHEAP !?!?!

well... I have recently realise that maybe even Bus Drivers are China National.. I was boarding a bus near Holland Village, and a tourist who speak English was trying very hard to ask the Driver if that was the bus he can take to East Coast park... The driver was so so lost!! I have to step in and tell him to get another bus. I am not against employing them, but at least speaks some English... We have malay & indian citizens.. and some of them are old folks if you look lost to them, they are even more lost!
Any Employer who like to employ them, please provide them English Classes. At this Econmy state, we don't want to lose any tourism business. Please be careful of whom you employed. The lauguage is important for communication.

dun know why the fuss..about service staff must speak English. If consumers are not happy that the service staff cannot speak English, just dun patronise the store again. Then why are they employ...i suspect for every complan King n Queen out there, there are equally 9 other more gracious citizen who dun mind. This is all about market forces. 1 to 2 generation ago, a lot of stores' owner cannot speak English. Most of them speak a mixture of dialects, Chinese, Malay and Tamil....They speak anything, except English...if u are narrow minded in thinking, then we should all speak Malay. Malay is actually Singapore's national language, but i guess most people cannot speak. Why English was used instead then. That was because it was the language for commerce. A international language. Not because we are multi-racial. Please dun mix them together. With the current financial crisis originated from the west, we might see a shift in the language of use in commerce if the west cannot reclaim their leadership in commerce after this whole thing is settle. As a small country with international exposure, dun be surprise if u have to make Hindi, Arabic or Chinese as the language for multi-racial communication if the world suddenly turn upside down in our life time.

The most important thing about service staff is that they are friendly, helpful and can "communicate" ...insincere communication does not require English. However if they cannot speak English and are not service oriented, then is a different story. But if they can speak English but they look like i owe them money, i would rather dun want them.

Good Luck and stop complaining

dun know why the fuss..about service staff must speak English. If consumers are not happy that the service staff cannot speak English, just dun patronise the store again. Then why are they employ...i suspect for every complan King n Queen out there, there are equally 9 other more gracious citizen who dun mind. This is all about market forces. 1 to 2 generation ago, a lot of stores' owner cannot speak English. Most of them speak a mixture of dialects, Chinese, Malay and Tamil....They speak anything, except English...if u are narrow minded in thinking, then we should all speak Malay. Malay is actually Singapore's national language, but i guess most people cannot speak. Why English was used instead then. That was because it was the language for commerce. A international language. Not because we are multi-racial. Please dun mix them together. With the current financial crisis originated from the west, we might see a shift in the language of use in commerce if the west cannot reclaim their leadership in commerce after this whole thing is settle. As a small country with international exposure, dun be surprise if u have to make Hindi, Arabic or Chinese as the language for multi-racial communication if the world suddenly turn upside down in our life time.

The most important thing about service staff is that they are friendly, helpful and can "communicate" ...sincere (correction for the previous posting_ communication does not require English. However if they cannot speak English and are not service oriented, then it is a different story. But if they can speak English but they look like i owe them money, i would rather dun want them.

Good Luck and stop complaining

There are some older Singaporean service staff who do not speak English completely or do not speak English well. These are not migrants but citizens born here and their language skill was the result of lack of opportunities in life.

I never have an issue whether a service staff can speak English in Singapore, as long as they can communicate in 1 of the 4 official languages. Though I don't speak all 4 languages myself, the only important thing is the willingness to be of service.

It seems that the main hue and cry is when these non-English speaking service staff are foreigners.

The only issue I have is not service staff not able to speak English, but why foreigners who do not speak English are permitted to work in the service sector.

The 2,000 odd people on Facebook should get more support if old people like me know how to navigate the web to find out about them and how to get information. I am one of those who grow-up when 2nd language was not a compulsory subject. Putting this aside, the term “mother’s tongue’ is a subjective especially for Chinese people, what does the dictionary define it as?



Is Mandarin the mother’s tongue of all Chinese, especially Singaporean Chinese, or is it the National or official Language of China? In Singapore there are more than 5 Chinese dialects while there are more than 50 dialects in China, so is Mandarin our mother’s tongue? What happen to those children who are of mix parentage, can we assumed that just because they look Chinese and surname that their mother’s tongue is Mandarin while they are brought-up in English or other language or by grandma in dialects?



The indirect insistences of our Chinese service staff to speak Mandarin with little or no knowledge English or any of our Chinese dialects or knowledge of our National Language irritates even our local Chinese people. What about others in our multi-racial society? Do we need to take up physical actions like banging the table which are wrong, to make the point across?



Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has insisted that Maids must know English for their own safety and others’ interests, but not foreign drivers employed to drive Lorries and heavy trucks. Are they not in the service trade? Traffic Police clarify that they have passed the required tests which I wonder how when they could hardly speak English or any of our official Languages when the rules and regulations are in English. I challenged them to my simple tests to see that they are not a danger to others’ roads users. How many accidents have you seen with foreign drivers without them calling for help to address the issue?



On the Mandarin language issue, The Ministry of Education (MOE) insisted to me that it is their official term of mother’s tongue of the Chinese. I wonder who give them the rights to dictate what our mother’s tongue should be. It is the same arrogance earlier when they insisted that all Chinese surnames should be Hanyu Pinyin written and pronounced during my argument between 1982 and 1988 when the issue was reverted to dialects names. Tamil are the people of Tamil Nadiu, is there such as a language as Tamil just like Singapore’s mother’s tongue? What happen to our basic rights?



MOM has passed their responsibility of languages to that of employers’ duty to ensure that their customers are served. With the shortage of people like the Maids, insistent of language become a hindrance to employments’ agencies and for employers to get the required people, what are we supposed to do? For the interest of all why are MOM not taking action instead of avoiding respomsibility?



In the Maids issue we get so-call better quality people with the extra cost, but with other service staff we are paying indirectly at our cost and inconveniences. Facebook should get together to have a petition to employers and MOM on the current problems before the Chinese service staffs upset us further. Who has the authority to help us? This is one of the biggest failures of our governments’ feedbacks system. We are passed to one another with no solution with avoidance or evade the issue.

The 2,000 odd people on Facebook should get more support if old people like me know how to navigate the web to find out about them and how to get information. I am one of those who grow-up when 2nd language was not a compulsory subject. Putting this aside, the term “mother’s tongue’ is a subjective especially for Chinese people, what does the dictionary define it as?



Is Mandarin the mother’s tongue of all Chinese, especially Singaporean Chinese, or is it the National or official Language of China? In Singapore there are more than 5 Chinese dialects while there are more than 50 dialects in China, so is Mandarin our mother’s tongue? What happen to those children who are of mix parentage, can we assumed that just because they look Chinese and surname that their mother’s tongue is Mandarin while they are brought-up in English or other language or by grandma in dialects?



The indirect insistences of our Chinese service staff to speak Mandarin with little or no knowledge English or any of our Chinese dialects or knowledge of our National Language irritates even our local Chinese people. What about others in our multi-racial society? Do we need to take up physical actions like banging the table which are wrong, to make the point across?



Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has insisted that Maids must know English for their own safety and others’ interests, but not foreign drivers employed to drive Lorries and heavy trucks. Are they not in the service trade? Traffic Police clarify that they have passed the required tests which I wonder how when they could hardly speak English or any of our official Languages when the rules and regulations are in English. I challenged them to my simple tests to see that they are not a danger to others’ roads users. How many accidents have you seen with foreign drivers without them calling for help to address the issue?



On the Mandarin language issue, The Ministry of Education (MOE) insisted to me that it is their official term of mother’s tongue of the Chinese. I wonder who give them the rights to dictate what our mother’s tongue should be. It is the same arrogance earlier when they insisted that all Chinese surnames should be Hanyu Pinyin written and pronounced during my argument between 1982 and 1988 when the issue was reverted to dialects names. Tamil are the people of Tamil Nadiu, is there such as a language as Tamil just like Singapore’s mother’s tongue? What happen to our basic rights?



MOM has passed their responsibility of languages to that of employers’ duty to ensure that their customers are served. With the shortage of people like the Maids, insistent of language become a hindrance to employments’ agencies and for employers to get the required people, what are we supposed to do? For the interest of all why are MOM not taking action instead of avoiding respomsibility?



In the Maids issue we get so-call better quality people with the extra cost, but with other service staff we are paying indirectly at our cost and inconveniences. Facebook should get together to have a petition to employers and MOM on the current problems before the Chinese service staffs upset us further. Who has the authority to help us? This is one of the biggest failures of our governments’ feedbacks system. We are passed to one another with no solution with avoidance or evade the issue.