Speaking English - Building highways in place of barriers

Living in Singapore as a member of a minority ethnic group, there are some things you kind of get used to. Not necessarily embrace, but tolerate with practised nonchalance, lest you get too caught up in negation.

One of the things you get used to is people speaking in Chinese. Not just to each other when it doesn't concern you. But also during business meetings, office discussions, 3 way shop talks, gossip and lunch prattle.

Sometimes it irks me. Sometimes I enjoy the anonymity. But most times, especially now I don't even notice anymore.

But today something happened that brought this to the forefront. I was in a car with my boss and his wife, Katherine, going to a corporate photoshoot. Now both my boss and his wife are typical Chinese business people, who are more comfortable in Chinese than English. In fact, Katherine mostly conducts her business dealings in Hokkien (sitting behind her has improved my knowledge of Hokkien by leaps and bounds.)

But, the whole journey there and back, not one word of Chinese passed between them. They spoke in English, haltingly sometimes, but you could feel the effort they were making. Even when they were discussing private matters, like the renovation of their new home, they spoke English, so that I won't feel left out.

And that's how you spot people of genuine quality. People who will put aside their own comfort zone and try to make someone else feel comfortable, even if it's by the simple act of speaking a common language.

I couldn't let such kindness go unacknowledged, so at the prompting of my manager, Joyce. I sent them an email thank you.

Hi,

I just wanted to tell you both that I was very touched by the way you both made an effort to speak English in the car on the way to and back from Dean's Studio just now.

I know that you both are more comfortable in Chinese, so the effort and consideration you expressed by that act means alot to me. Especially when you continued to converse in English even when talking about private matters - that really shows your heart and the lengths you went to make sure I didn't feel weird or left out.

I have been with 01 Computer for 15 months now, and none of my other Chinese colleagues have ever made the effort to conduct themselves in that way, even while socialising or talking over lunch.

You are both genuinely nice people and I hope your example will spur our people on to be as considerate with their non-Chinese colleagues as you are.

Thank you for your warmth.

And this was his reply:-

Which ever country I went to, I will normally share the good things about Singaporean and I do not like to use the word like “Singapore Chinese or Singapore Indian”. We should all work as a team to build the reputation for the country that is why we are different from other country. Well, we should not speak our own language also especially with you around as you might not feel good. Since we can speak English, why not share our joy & experience with you? The only thing is we do not speak fluent English but we can always learn from people like you. Glad to have with us as a family for the past 15 months and let’s work together to build 01 at a different level against our next nearest competitor. Thank you for your contributions for the past 15 months.

By the way, thanks for your below wonderful message and I have the confident that many of our colleagues will do the same eventually. Cheers……

Now, if only 10 more people thought like that, we could change the whole cultural paradigm of this nation and indeed be Uniquely Singapore.