A woman shopping at NTUC FairPrice expressed frustration about a Chinese employee’s inability to speak English and confronted management about their negligence to assess basic language requirements in their hiring process.

A 9-minute long TikTok posted by the woman, @Amy_tashiana, (which has since been moved to her YouTube page instead) shows her intense interaction with an NTUC employee, who was unable to converse in English with her while she was trying to purchase fresh fish.

In the video, the customer can be seen tirelessly complaining to Fairprice’s management about the staff’s lack of English knowledge.

https://youtu.be/8CEeQsWNA7M

Amy visited the FairPrice outlet at City Square Mall on Tuesday, 21st March to get some fresh seafood where she encountered a Chinese employee who was unable to comprehend what she was saying. The employee, who according to Amy was a Chinese national, only spoke in Mandarin and could not understand anything in English.

Amy explained to The Independent Singapore that personally, she “spoke very little mandarin” and added that there was no way the staff cutting the fish could effectively respond to her as she could only speak Mandarin.

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Amy had instructed the employee to descale and clean the fish, and also remove the fins. However, due to the language barrier, she received the fish in a condition which was not what she had asked for.

Amy later went on to complain to a FairPrice team leader about the matter, who defended the employee saying that she has trouble communicating, to which Amy replied that she is unable to communicate at all, therefore not making her a right fit to work there.

“There’s a lady over there, she said that she is a Chinese national and she cannot commute (sic) in English, she said she don’t speak English at all so how we, customer and member of NTUC have such people to deal with?” Amy questioned. 

Amy pointed out that there was also another customer from Myanmar who faced the same issue as her and did not want the employee to cut his fish due to the service he had just witnessed.

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After this discussion, Amy and the team leader went back to the employee at the fish section and with the assistance of the team leader, explained how she wanted the fish to be cut but was still unhappy with the final product as the staff had entirely cut off the tail of the fish, instead of just a fraction of it, which is what she wanted and deemed to be usual practice.

“She should know how to clean the fish lah, the tail also must cut like pedicure. Tail also don’t know how to cut then what is she doing there?” voiced out Amy.

“You want to employ me or not? I can cut the fish better than her. Put me there the same salary, take her out, I can cut the fish like a flower,” she added.

“She cutting fish but she don’t know how to cut fish,” she said in the video. “How long she working there already? Few months and she don’t know how to cut fish?” she questioned angrily.

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“With all prices increased everywhere and got such service, especially in NTUC so I had decided to publish the video,” shared Amy with The Independent Singapore.

In her TikTok, Amy says “Pritam Singh you are absolutely right, they need to go and learn English before they come and work here.”

Workers’ Party chief and Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh expressed in Parliament recently on 27 March that he would advocate for an English test when an individual is applying for citizenship or permanent residency in Singapore.

The Independent Singapore has reached out to FairPrice for comment but is yet to receive a response.

S’poreans support Pritam Singh’s call for English test in SG citizenship, PR applications; they also say Josephine Teo lives in an ivory tower