Univesal Studios should employ people who speak English

[mules]

Chuckled to myself when seeing this thread. We had the same experience at Universal, likely the same girl.

We have lived here on and off since 1996, so I would like to think I can understand most people....but this girl was close to impossible to understand. Apart from the word shrek which is relatively unique, I couldn't understand much else. She also had the mic in her mouth swallowing her words. And if that wasn't grating enough, it seemed to go on for 15 mins, at which point people were just yelling "open the doors!!!

Also, after hearing the rides have "technical difficulties" about 20 times during the day, would it hurt to let your staff actually provide more information. It's damn hot walking around there, and I was ready to begin banging heads when the staff kept repeating technical difficulties when rides were shut - does that mean it will be open again today, should we come back, or just go home.

[aster]

Still waiting for Battlestar Galactice to re-open.

As for the theme park itself, almost everything there seems small and short, as if it was a demo version of the real thing available somewhere else.

I mean the Jurrasic Park ride is a joke, I wouldn't wait 15 minutes to do it again. The only real thing I liked there were the Waterworld and Monsters Rock shows. And the NY/dock area looks pretty good. For rides only the Mummy one inside the Pyramid is worth your time.

[geerang]

I just returned from my first visit to universal studio, while I appreciate we are in Singapore but the girl at the Shrek show who was giving history of the story, had a really grating and difficult to understand accent, and I have lived here for 5 years. The tinny sounding PA system didn't help.

The Jurassic park voice, admittedly a recording, was clear with a hint of a local twang which is fine we are in Singapore.

With all the piss take regarding the local English I would have thought being able to speak clearly would be one of the most important criteria for employing the acting staff at the frontline.

I found that the place was not that suitable for young children.

Maybe your English is not good enough to understand them. I just went to Sentosa a few months ago and everyone spoke English. But there was literally no Singaporean on that Island except some of the staff, everyone there looks to be a tourist or foreigner.

[missis]

QRM's English is perfect as demonstrated in their post. And your claim that everyone there looked like a tourist or foreigner surely hammers home the point that English should be spoken by the staff?

[sundaymorningstaple]

[valleyman]

I did my first visit to Universal this weekend. I have been here for half a decade now and I pride myself for being able to understand Singlish to a great extent. However the accents of couple of girls in the park made me think.. maybe I should go for refresher courses in Singlish again

I couldn't understand for the life of me what the girl at the ticket counter was telling us... apparently she was trying to communicate that the 10% DBS discount has been discontinued...I didn’t get a word of what the girl doing the introductions at the Steven Spielberg stage was saying either… Thank god for the subsequent video introduction by Spielberg …

[BigSis]

We went to Universal today and it was great - no problems understanding anyone and we went on pretty much every ride that was open (still no Battlestar sadly).

Perhaps they have addressed the issue of people having heavy accents as everyone who did a voiceover or an introduction seemed fine to me today and the Shrek 4D thingie had TVs with subtitles of what the woman was saying (but only in English). I'm not sure if they're new or have always been there, but she was speaking a load of waffle anyway - we just wanted to get into the show LOL

It's a good day out - pricey but worth it for a special day (it was a birthday treat for one of our children).

I wish they had a few more rides though, but they've got a new Madagascar one opening soon and they reckon the Battlestar will be back up at the end of the year (but they didn't say what was wrong with it).

[inselaffen]

it doesnt surprise me. My wife applied for a job at MBS in reservations.
She has experience in reservations in one of the top luxury hotel chains in the Middle East, is a fluent English speaker and a native Russian speaker. They didnt even call her for interview.

doesnt matter as she got a far better job anyway