Singapore Expats

Are people afraid to say they "don't know" something?

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Brah
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Post by Brah » Fri, 25 Jan 2013 7:29 pm

So ankle (interesting choice of handle) - you have an interesting linguistic style - where are you from?

I believe the language x9200 is referring to is English, supposedly the standard here, though it presents itself in varying degrees of competency.

Will have to disagree about shop staff not knowing the products, they're supposed to. If they don't know, they're supposed to find out, and not make up random answers. Which happens quite often. And they generally get caught doing it so it's not the best of all possible approaches.

Good to hear you had a positive Harvey Normad experience. My Harvey Norman experience unfortunately was not so good, all I was buying was an iron and they couldn't explain the differences between models very well.

And yes, I can BS with the best of them. By virtue of your questioning that you may not have fully caught the cultural reference or idiom. It's probably an American thing.
ankle wrote:@x9200
It depends whether the person you asking could speak your language well. Not sure whether you're aware of this. One common traits of Singaporean are the "simply Bo chap" (sbc). A typical sbc would choose not to get involved in anything and everything if it is too troublesome. Trying to understand your qns and trying to answer them in a unfamiliar language would be too troublesome.

@qrm
The job scopes and requirement of the cashiers does not include knowing the products. Next time, ask the promoter or sales assistant around the area where you pickup the product.

@brah,
So you're a BSer? I was actually quite impress with the Harvey normad sales person when I was accompanying my friend to shop for a new washing machine. He was able to explained the pros and cons of all the brands that are on displayed.

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JR8
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Post by JR8 » Fri, 25 Jan 2013 7:43 pm

Brah wrote:So ankle (interesting choice of handle) - you have an interesting linguistic style - where are you from?

Ankle Wat.



p.s. Sorry, I'm getting my coat now!

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Brah
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Post by Brah » Fri, 25 Jan 2013 8:03 pm

Nice one! The wife asked what I was laughing at from outside my room.
JR8 wrote:
Brah wrote:So ankle (interesting choice of handle) - you have an interesting linguistic style - where are you from?

Ankle Wat.


p.s. Sorry, I'm getting my coat now!

movingtospore
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Post by movingtospore » Fri, 25 Jan 2013 9:10 pm

ankle wrote:@x9200
It depends whether the person you asking could speak your language well. Not sure whether you're aware of this. One common traits of Singaporean are the "simply Bo chap" (sbc). A typical sbc would choose not to get involved in anything and everything if it is too troublesome. Trying to understand your qns and trying to answer them in a unfamiliar language would be too troublesome.

So they're lazy???


@qrm
The job scopes and requirement of the cashiers does not include knowing the products. Next time, ask the promoter or sales assistant around the area where you pickup the product.

And therein lies the problem in the little red dot. Lack of competition leads to idiotic training practices and lack of expectations of employees. If they don't know their products they should be fired.

@brah,
So you're a BSer? I was actually quite impress with the Harvey normad sales person when I was accompanying my friend to shop for a new washing machine. He was able to explained the pros and cons of all the brands that are on displayed.

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JR8
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Post by JR8 » Fri, 25 Jan 2013 10:19 pm

Hmmm

This Edit/Delete mpde, and yet there is no apparent way to Delete...


Why is that?
Last edited by JR8 on Sat, 26 Jan 2013 11:06 am, edited 2 times in total.

x9200
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Post by x9200 » Sat, 26 Jan 2013 8:48 am

ankle wrote:@x9200
It depends whether the person you asking could speak your language well. Not sure whether you're aware of this. One common traits of Singaporean are the "simply Bo chap" (sbc). A typical sbc would choose not to get involved in anything and everything if it is too troublesome. Trying to understand your qns and trying to answer them in a unfamiliar language would be too troublesome.
You have made a load of incorrect assumption. I bet nobody here was talking about going to a wet marked and asking questions to an uncle. This is all about the places where people seem to be able to communicate in English (one of the official languages of Singapore, not sure whether you're aware of this). Besides, as I already mentioned, it's not a conscious response so there is no place for "choose".

iamsen
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Post by iamsen » Sun, 03 Feb 2013 11:27 am

movingtospore wrote:And therein lies the problem in the little red dot. Lack of competition leads to idiotic training practices and lack of expectations of employees. If they don't know their products they should be fired.
A cousin of mine is awaiting his NS enlistment, I think it's a month from now or something. We were browsing Funan together and met a couple of his schoolmates, also barely a month away from NS, and they just got hired as sales reps for the anchor store in the building.

I don't know who their HR people are but, this is just throwing away good money.

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