Language Barriers

Having spent four years in sometimes-sunny Southampton, I've had numerous conversations on the geographic location, demography, & linguistic make-up of Singapore. Conversations that generally included responses from me such as:

• "No, Singapore is not part of China."

• "Yes, English is my first language."

• "No, Singaporean does not equate to being Chinese."

• "Yes, they have Indians in Singapore."

• "Erm....no, my driving licence is in English & not in Chinese."

• "No, being Singaporean by nationality & Indian by race doesn't mean I'm an Indian citizen."

& my all time favourite,

• "Yes, I can speak English at all. How else do you think I've been reading Law in England for three years now?"

So after having quite fastidiously defended Singapore's multi-cultural & multi-lingual positions (& her geographic location), to come back and find myself surrounded by a growing number of service-sector employees who can't speak English is really quite a culture shock. More so considering that this is my country & I figured I was rather used to the culture here.

A number of restaurants (yesterday's included!), fashion apparel stores & sundry stores I've been to recently employ staff who can only speak Mandarin. Save for the sole English line that sounds along the lines of "No spik Engrish!". Oddly enough I haven't encountered service staff who can only speak either Malay or Tamil in multi-lingual Singapore.

This evening's encounter has taken the piece of cake.
I was at Delifrance at Lot 1 Shopping Centre, asking if they had pastry & coffee menus rather than a dinner menu.
The response I received from the waiter was "Wo pu chi tau (Mandarin for "I don't understand"). You spik Chinese?" accompanied by a look of shock that a Singaporean couldn't speak Mandarin.
I asked for a member of the service staff who could speak English.

English is our one of our four official languages & our language of business & commerce.
What with Singapore trying to promote herself so heavily as a tourism hub, a global city & a must-see-Asian-attraction-for-the-Western-world, the service industry playing so vital a role in our economy & all that sort of jazz, perhaps it's really time we ensure that our people, particularly service sector persons, are able to speak English.

As far as my Mandarin skills go, wo pu chi tau Mandarin.