I thought he would talk about the new immigrant-cum-foreign talent/worker issue... Hmmm... Does that mean we have to wait till next year's speech?
Some months ago, I heard on 97.2 this phone-in discussion thingy about the decline in service standards. This man (sounded old) called in and practically ranted about foreigners from a certain country being (practically) single-handedly responsible for today's lousy service standards. It was quite amusing to hear him but of course the issue is not so amusing.
Ok, I will not run away from the issue and I will specifically make some comments about people from the land of my ancestors.
One, I honestly do not understand how one can be employed in the service sector without being able to speak at least some English. I wish this issue had been part of the discourse on racial harmony. I do not like having to speak Mandarin when I should be free to speak English.
Two, I am not comfortable with the idea of giving new citizens time to learn English. I feel they should at least make the effort to learn the language before even applying for citizenship. There are new citizens who do not bother to learn English because they can get on with life without it. And that is quite a scary prospect for Singapore.
After all, knowing the language is just part of the whole story. There was this article around National Day which reported that an appalling number of Singaporeans couldn't recite the pledge. I remember a new citizen was quoted as saying something like the pledge was hard to learn because of its many big words. Well, that is one thing but the pledge is beyond the big words - does he actually understand the spirit of the pledge?
Then there was an article this week about foreign doctors making up for the shortfall of local doctors which reminded me of the good experience I had with one such doctor when my dad was in hospital. She wasn't the best of doctors or whatever but she certainly fulfilled her role as well as any other doctor, keeping me posted regularly, discussing the pertinent issues, giving attentive care (beyond just medical care) to my dad and so on. I want to point out that another doctor - local (and my family has had many very good experiences with local young doctors especially), Malaysian, Indian, Burmese, etc - may/would have done the same thing. My main point is she was able to render this 'good service' partly (largely?) because she could speak English. (Obviously, she wouldn't even be working as a doctor here without being competent in English.)
Do I sound resentful? I don't know...
Maybe I am resentful but I sure do not like how this bodes for the future of my country. And I do not like how this, in its own way, is going to wear out our 'social fabric'. When non-English-educated aunties and uncles need to communicate inter-racially, they can do so in Malay and smatterings of English. In the future, what language are people going to speak?
Some months ago, I heard on 97.2 this phone-in discussion thingy about the decline in service standards. This man (sounded old) called in and practically ranted about foreigners from a certain country being (practically) single-handedly responsible for today's lousy service standards. It was quite amusing to hear him but of course the issue is not so amusing.
Ok, I will not run away from the issue and I will specifically make some comments about people from the land of my ancestors.
One, I honestly do not understand how one can be employed in the service sector without being able to speak at least some English. I wish this issue had been part of the discourse on racial harmony. I do not like having to speak Mandarin when I should be free to speak English.
Two, I am not comfortable with the idea of giving new citizens time to learn English. I feel they should at least make the effort to learn the language before even applying for citizenship. There are new citizens who do not bother to learn English because they can get on with life without it. And that is quite a scary prospect for Singapore.
After all, knowing the language is just part of the whole story. There was this article around National Day which reported that an appalling number of Singaporeans couldn't recite the pledge. I remember a new citizen was quoted as saying something like the pledge was hard to learn because of its many big words. Well, that is one thing but the pledge is beyond the big words - does he actually understand the spirit of the pledge?
Then there was an article this week about foreign doctors making up for the shortfall of local doctors which reminded me of the good experience I had with one such doctor when my dad was in hospital. She wasn't the best of doctors or whatever but she certainly fulfilled her role as well as any other doctor, keeping me posted regularly, discussing the pertinent issues, giving attentive care (beyond just medical care) to my dad and so on. I want to point out that another doctor - local (and my family has had many very good experiences with local young doctors especially), Malaysian, Indian, Burmese, etc - may/would have done the same thing. My main point is she was able to render this 'good service' partly (largely?) because she could speak English. (Obviously, she wouldn't even be working as a doctor here without being competent in English.)
Do I sound resentful? I don't know...
Maybe I am resentful but I sure do not like how this bodes for the future of my country. And I do not like how this, in its own way, is going to wear out our 'social fabric'. When non-English-educated aunties and uncles need to communicate inter-racially, they can do so in Malay and smatterings of English. In the future, what language are people going to speak?
Comments
I was at the Challenger store at Funan Centre the other day. I wanted to clarify about some of my unclaimed loyalty points (itself an irritating topic) but after seeing the poor girl struggle with a few simple English sentences concerning the change and the car park refund, I gave up. I know I won't be able to handle a topic like loyalty points in Mandarin.
However all these are just minor irritations as long as the numbers are small; and it is confined to coffee shops and hawker centree. But when you face such a problem everywhere and in big establishments then it becomes an issue. And we are way past that point.
I think the service providers will soon realise that this is going to hurt their bottomline and do something about it.
Anyway, the other day I had a (nuisance) telemarketing call from a Chinese-speaking person. I insisted on speaking English and so she gave up on me. Not only that - she banged down the phone!!