Lost in Translation

I was at Toys R Us the other day and wanted to buy an Elmo soft toy for my daughter. I approached this young chap for help. He was Mainland Chinese.
It's OK if he didn't know Elmo but he didn't understand what a soft toy was. Frustrated, I walked all the way to the counter to get assistance from a local staff.
How many of you have had similar experiences? Being a customer these days can be a harrowing experience because many PRC (and other foreign) service staff, who are employed in droves, do not know basic English.

Please don't get me started on the "effectively bilingual" nonsense. Since when is the national language of Singapore Mandarin? Lee Kuan Yew by his own admission said his insistence on bilingualism is wrong.

Further, the People's Action Party has prided itself for building a multi-racial society. It's one of the "core values". Therefore, there should be a unifying language for the service industry... English.

So I read to my chagrin in State Media yesterday that employers aren't sending their foreign workers for the Service Literacy Test. (SLT)
It's unthinkable that a developed country like Singapore doesn't have compulsory language tests for overseas hires.

Top immigration destinations like US, UK, Canada and Australia require foreigners to undergo some form of English literacy test. Hong Kong also adopts a point based test system for immigration.
Yet the Singapore government continues its arbitrary ways of assessing foreign residents.

A couple of reasons cited for lack of participation in the SLT.
1) Too costly to train for test
2) Too stressful for workers

Let's examine these reasons.
A worker who passes the test is eligible for a $100 reduction in foreign worker levy.
However, it costs each employer between $250-1000 per head for the preparation classes.
And the courses are not subsidised by the government.

Separately, the government has set aside $10 million of public money for programmes to integrate foreigners into our society. Curiously, I always thought the onus is on new immigrants to integrate with the locals.
You don't see the Australian government shelling out taxpayers' money to organise a Burmese water festival. If the Burmese want to celebrate their festival, they are free to do so on their own accord.
Still I'm not sure how splashing water on each other is the best use of a precious resource, considering we are already turning to recycled water for our daily needs.

Isn't the money better used to ensure quality service standards and raise the level of customer service in this country? Make English training courses mandatory and subsidise them.

Nevertheless, it's truly uniquely Singapore that the PAP takes in unskilled workers en masse only to train them on home soil. Shouldn't things be done in a more logical manner where workers are screened before they are given visas or even step onto our shores?

Granted, we are not asking for scholars to take up service jobs but there must be a minimum proficiency in basic English to communicate with our Malay, Indian and Eurasian brethren and our older generation who studied Malay as second language.
My Dad is one of them and he has so much difficulty interacting with PRC service staff in our food courts and restaurants.

Too stressful? Surely every kind of test brings some level of stress. Nonetheless, there have been reports that the SLT is "easy to pass". So it's probably just an excuse.
The reason why PRC workers aren't keen on learning English is because they just don't want to (and not compelled to) and expect Singaporeans to speak their language instead.

And by the way, this goes for Filipinos too. It's a misconception that every Filipino can speak English well. Many families live in poverty and can't afford to send their children to middle school.
And Malaysians too.

The SLT should be mandatory for workers of all countries where English is not the native language.
As I'm not bilingually blessed, eating can be pretty stressful when the PRC staff doesn't understand when I don't want bean sprouts and spring onions in my noodles!