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✍️ OPINION: Service Staff Should Know Basic English, But Customers Shouldn’t Disrespect Those Who Don’t
"We can't possibly know what's hindering someone from speaking English fluently. They may be facing personal hardships or simply find learning challenging."
After the recent FairPrice English-speaking incident, our writer opines that communication is key in the service industry, but so is respect.
👉
https://tsl.to/basicenglish
@mustsharenews
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As 40% of our population are not Singaporeans, or to put it in another way, 4 out of 10 peepur you see are not Singaporeans, we can sexpect to hear all kinds of languages being spoken.
Personal sexperience: I have heard yup! Tagalog being spoken at workplaces, Burmese, Hindi, Vietnamese, and yup! various Chinese dialects from various regions of China. Even those from Malaysia, they are speaking Cantonese, a lot of it which our zoomers can't even understand.
Of course, there are also Japanese, Italian, German, Korean, French, Thai.
Not all foreigners come from English-speaking countries right.
This is why we chose English as our putonghua.
Pritam Singh wants all new citizens to be able to speak English. If you cannot speak it or at least speak a few basic words, or even understand it, it is best that you work at the back end where colleagues can speak your language, say Mandarin.
In a FMCG environment where you are facing customers all the time, customers who may be Burmese, Pinoys, Indians, Malays, Eurasians, French, Japanese, etc who do not speak Mandarin, it is not advisable to put a non-English speaking staff in the front line.
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Don entertain unreasonable customers. want this that. scaling can diy.
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(29-03-2023, 07:48 PM)Bigiron Wrote: ✍️ OPINION: Service Staff Should Know Basic English, But Customers Shouldn’t Disrespect Those Who Don’t
"We can't possibly know what's hindering someone from speaking English fluently. They may be facing personal hardships or simply find learning challenging."
Just look at the posts written by the likes of sentinel, lvlrsSTI, CHAOS, Gemstar.
Good English? My foot!
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(29-03-2023, 08:10 PM)Blin Wrote: Don entertain unreasonable customers. want this that. scaling can diy.
Scaling is a service which is provided by FP. It is not unreasonable to ask for it t be done.
Obviously, you had never bought any fresh supplies from supermarkets. Been eating your mommy's cooking all your life? Never had to go to the market right?
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Aiya, 这些殖人二毛学会几句羊话羊文就沾沾自喜,自以为很了不起
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(29-03-2023, 08:34 PM)WhatDoYouThink! Wrote: Aiya, 这些殖人二毛学会几句羊话羊文就沾沾自喜,自以为很了不起
Ya lor!
It is time they brush up their Mandarin skill to survive better in the new world!
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(29-03-2023, 08:40 PM)cityhantam Wrote: Ya lor!
It is time they brush up their Mandarin skill to survive better in the new world! 
If the customer is Eurasian or Indian, who to communicate in Mandarin........................?
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(29-03-2023, 09:04 PM)debono Wrote: If the customer is Eurasian or Indian, who to communicate in Mandarin........................? 
If the customer is from Russia, can you speak Russian to him or her?
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Knn her engrish bery dat goot meh...
Gib her few tight slaps to beter wake her up
There is no right or wrong decisions.
One only has to bear the consequences that one makes
(This post was last modified: 29-03-2023, 09:15 PM by
Galilo_l.)
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(29-03-2023, 09:04 PM)debono Wrote: If the customer is Eurasian or Indian, who to communicate in Mandarin........................? 
如果客户是欧亚人或印度人,谁用普通话交流......................................?
Yr smart phone can translate and it's free
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Actually fp can have a bit of a tech upgrade here. Let customers click a few buttons to indicate what service they want. Cut, scale etc. Then the order gets thru and the service crew can just go according to the customer keyed in request.
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(29-03-2023, 09:24 PM)Sticw Wrote: Actually fp can have a bit of a tech upgrade here. Let customers click a few buttons to indicate what service they want. Cut, scale etc. Then the order gets thru and the service crew can just go according to the customer keyed in request.
Like customer call service 1. for english 2. for mandarin 3. for ahn.
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(29-03-2023, 09:14 PM)WhatDoYouThink! Wrote: 如果客户是欧亚人或印度人,谁用普通话交流......................................?
Yr smart phone can translate and it's free
That is one possible solution.........................
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(29-03-2023, 09:38 PM)debono Wrote: That is one possible solution......................... 
Or ask someone for help. It's not a language but attitude problem
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Can request staff to know some English but
cannot banned them from using other three languages
because it is protected by our constitution.
Unless the customer declare he or she does not know
the language.
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think they also must learn Tamil or Hindu in order to serve our beloved ceca.
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(29-03-2023, 09:44 PM)K88 shu shu Wrote: think they also must learn Tamil or Hindu in order to serve our beloved ceca.
This is not going to work, cos there are so many workers here from India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Vietnam that will need to be communicated with, so how to cater for this group of people.......................?
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(29-03-2023, 09:31 PM)Rubitin Wrote: Like customer call service 1. for english 2. for mandarin 3. for ahn. 
Option 1 de-scale, Option 2 cut into pieces, Option 3 de-bone, Option 4 cook for me. Option 4 additional value service menu. Option 4A - Hong Kong steam, 4B - Mala style, 4C - Curry etc.