This evening I went to buy petrol at at ESSO. The pump attendant was a young man, a bit dark and has some moustache.
Thinking he was a Malay I said 'Lima Puloh ... Hijau' and pointed at the green pump.
In case you don't know Malay, lima puloh means fifty. Hijau is green.
He said 'Ni hao'.
Oh, not Malay, Chinese.
Then I talked to him. He was from Shandong.
Later in the office I asked the cashier how much a petrol attendant normally earns.
About $750, he said.
So far I have encountered foreigners in jobs like cashiers and helpers in supermarkets and foodcourts. But first time I saw a Chinese-national pump-attendant.
So hard to find locals to do the jobs?
One way is to increase the pay. But even with increase, I think only older workers will consider doing these jobs. And they might not stay long. Not easy to solve, right?
A few weeks ago at an opera show I was talking to woman over 50 years old. She occasionally does part-time jobs. She said she won't do a job if is too strenuous, too far away or if the pay is less than $___. I can't remember the amount. So she said she is usually out of job. I suppose it is ok for her as she doesn't look like the very poor type.
3 comments:
Yes, they are everywhere, even at petrol stations.
The other day, I had a similar experience. I had just filled petrol and remained in the car to reply an urgent sms. The pump attendant waved me to drive off because there was another vehicle waiting to move into the bay.
I looked around and saw so many other empty bays so I told the attendant, "Please ask him to use the other pumps." He didn't understand me and explained in a foreign Mandarin accent that the only diesel pump the station had was in my bay and the vehicle needed to fill up with diesel.
Mystery finally solved, I drove off promptly. Now you could just imagine what would happen if I didn't understand Mandarin. I can sympathise with customers who don't understand or speak a word of Mandarin.
I think there is a real need for foreign workers to learn some basic English if they want to work here, especially if they are in the service line.
Hope they are attending some elementary conversational english lessons
Nowadays when I go to factories to conduct trg, majority of trainees are foreigners. Even for the relatively clean industries. I wonder where all the Sporeans gone to. I did a few classes for a shipyard. Sporeans were the minority and they were quite old. The workers come from all over, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Philippines, India and of course China.
They cannot communicate with each other! Maybe that's why they have so many accidents.
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