SINGAPORE: A Singaporean recently shared on social media that she now wishes she had put more effort into learning Chinese when she was younger because of how vital it actually is in the workforce.
In a post on r/askSingapore, a Reddit forum, she explained that while growing up, she didn’t view her lack of Chinese proficiency as a significant issue.
“I skipped Chinese classes and in uni, Chinese lessons were non-existent and I thought it was totally unnecessary already. Everyone in uni also spoke English anyway,” she wrote.
However, everything changed when she entered the workforce. In most of the companies she worked for, at least half or more of her colleagues used Mandarin as their primary language of communication.
“It would sometimes be a challenge building rapport with colleagues as a result,” she said. “I can only understand like 60-70% of whatever they’re saying. It also limited my lunch cliques available since it’d be horrid to follow a clique which spoke mainly Chinese.”
When she was also dragged along to Taiwan, things became pretty awkward for her as the locals spoke to her in Mandarin, assuming that she understood and spoke the language. “I had to reply in English,” she said.
Moreover, she thought it was common for younger people to struggle with Chinese, but she soon realized that many of her peers spoke it fluently. She noticed that even in casual social channels like HeyKaki, Singaporean kids seemed to chat easily in fluent Chinese.
She then asked others in the community, “Any rare Chinese people here who can’t speak Chinese and do you face struggles in life?”
“You just have to put in some effort to learn and speak it with your colleagues.”
In the comments section, many Singaporean Redditors admitted that they, too, struggled with understanding and speaking the language. They pointed out that this wasn’t a rare situation; in fact, those who aren’t proficient in the language make up the majority.
One Redditor shared, “My Chinese is average and I wouldn’t say I am bad or very good at it. But I realized Chinese is indeed super important.
Many MNCs are from China and there are also many Chinese or Chinese Malaysians working in Singapore and conversations are held in Chinese most of the time. Truly regret for not learning Chinese properly.”
Another commented, “I’ve experienced something similar in a workplace. It made my work life very challenging. As it wasn’t just the language issue, there also seemed to be cultural differences. I did feel like an outsider for a while.”
Meanwhile, other Redditors encouraged her to start learning Chinese.
One Redditor said, “My Chinese improved tremendously at the workplace. You just have to put in some effort to learn and speak it with your colleagues.”
Another expressed, “I’ve been there. My first job, my senior colleague commented that my Mandarin really sucked. From then on, I put in a lot of effort to brush up. First, by speaking Mandarin as much as I can. It’s easier to learn via conversation than reading.
Whenever you’re trying to mentally translate words from English to Mandarin, search for google translate on the spot, and commit to memory. Keep doing this and your Mandarin should improve.”
Read related: SG worker says his “Chinese colleagues” alienate him by only speaking in Mandarin
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