Getting over the Singaporean accent!!!!

this thread got me thinking on a crazy note... maybe someone can try to rap this out someday? lol...

****

yo man, this one dedicate to all the singaporeans out dere
wHAT with the talk 'bout havin' ta change our SINGLISH?
Be proud Leh, not everyone can speak fleunt SINGLISH de hor!

So what if you think i am a cao gin na
Walking down orchard road with my sworn kakis
You ang mohs think you so good
Sorry lah, I dun agree
You think you smart you think you zai
But you sure anot, machiam not real leh
You see here lah, our local guy
Hardy is asian idol leh!

Those of you jiak kentang one
so what if you sound like you ang moh
banana nia, what so good
i proud to be a singaporean!
Speak singlish so what i happy
You try lah, see if you can lah
Speak Singlish so good like i can
Why should i learn and speak like you?

So what if you call me cao ah lian?
and call my frens all cao ah beng
at least we proud of who we are
not like the bananas try to be ang moh
singaporean no good meh?
singlish really no good meh?
then why you want to learn from all
The people from the USA?

Machiam USA so good
machiam they dun speak in slang
Singlish is the same class hor
wad so bad about singlish?

****

*grin*
Born and bred in sg, and proud of it...
 
haha i've got white friends who are totally more singaporean than anyone else i know, it's hilarious and they are awesome. i think y'all just have to stop whining, maybe that's why nobody likes serving you lol.

people ignoring you? get up, walk over and tell them you'd like to order/pay/etc.

salesman takes away your guitar? tell'im you're not done yet and you're thinking of buying it.

be proactive, it wastes less time and if the person is guilty of racial profiling and feels embarassed that you had to go to them for service, all the better.

more productive than whining about it, at any rate.
 
by saying that "i think y'all just have to stop whining, maybe that's why nobody likes serving you lol." does it mean that all salespeople are taught to decide if a person is gonna whine or not before deciding to serve him/her? that is a fallacy. if this is the case, the role of a salesperson is very very easy. just assume that everyone is gonna whine and just stop serving. heck, why dont every shop stop having salespeople around. solves matters doesnt it.

tell me, how do you judge whether a person is gonna whine or not by looking at him/her? i am very curious about this.

when the salesperson took away the guitar, that was exactly what i did. told him that i wanted to purchase the guitar. but the very action of taking away the guitar when the customer is inspecting it is wrong already.
 
widdly

So the right to good service regardless of race, nationality or status is something that I should overlook? The right to speak to a superior because I'm not pleased with the service provided is a right that I should revoke?

And what victim mentality? Re-read what I typed, and tell me again if the situation does not point it being racially motivated. Oh wait, intentional too.

Please tell me how my initial request for a glass of plain water would constitute any fault on my part, and how ignoring my repeated follow-up attempts were uncalled for. Next, please be so nice as to explain why my request to speak to a manager constituted "righteous indignation" .

The only fault that I can think of would be the racial affronters I used prior to leaving the venue.

That too can be debunked. It's easy to take a side on an internet arguement and condemn the other party for something that you feel strongly against. It's another thing to be in that same position, and not be a hypocrite.

You talking about my righteously indignant behavior is no different from the way you voiced your displeasure at my behaviour.
 
optisailor2002

well...Singaporeans in general are a whiney lot, i've never met people who have such a high general standard of living in a well-developed country, and still find stuff to complain about.

here is how it applies to retail. i think sometimes when you folks complain about a store all the time, its staff stop caring about trying to please you because everyone is already complaining about it. what difference does it make to them anymore when their reputation has preceded them?

so yes, in a manner of speaking, the assumption is that there is no need to please you, for a multitude of reasons:
- the store may have a monopoly
- the store may already have a bad reputation
- the store may have its primary business elsewhere. to be honest, i'm not sure how profitable it is selling guitars/music equipment in singapore, but from what little i know, most successful music stores in singapore have their primary business in export, not in the local market.
- the store may have had many bad experiences with students/younger folks damaging equipment. if you have had bad experiences with a store and go into it expecting that they will be obnoxious, it is equally valid for the store to assume that a student walking into it will treat equipment poorly if they have had many experiences with students treating equipment poorly in the past. it is their VALID perogative to make sure you don't damage their equipment and affect its value, however annoying that may be to you.

that said, it's not very polite for someone to grab your guitar away from you when you're inspecting it. i'd be rather offended too. but understand that they're not obligated to be nice to you just because they're in retail. the converse is also true, if you want better service, you're free to go somewhere else. just that they may not have the gear you want. so you just have to suck it up and pick one - gear or service, and if you're lucky you get both.

*shrug* i don't know how to get better service. sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, sometimes it's slow, sometimes i need to find someone and ask for help i think this is all pretty normal in retail no matter where in the world you go.

but at least i don't whine about it on an internet forum.
 
cliffburton said:
I hate ang moh!! always cause trouble..
Click to expand...

Who the F**K do you think you are? You know there are some of us "Ang Mohs" here, so go shove some S**T down your throat. I would happily kick your scrawny A** anyday.

I tell you something. Half of all the "ang moh" tourist and others that come here are nothing like the people I know back when I used to stay in, England, Netherlands, Florida, Cyprus, Belgium and France. I've met more people personally that I can shake a stick at and when I see the most of the ones that come here to Singapore, back in England, they are called "Pikes" or "Chavs". "Pikes" are considered the low class, low income, fake accesories family who are proud (eg Red Necks) "Chavs" are also considered the same but they are have more money but where ever they go on holiday they always complain.

Too all "Ang Moh" and "Caucasians". The reason why "caucasians" would get "better" service, or more "attention", is because the general mindset of the people serving is that they would want to make a better impression on foreigners.

If you were in a resturant, and you asked for some service, but as he saw a foreign family called for service, you noticed he ignored you and went to serve them. Would you blame the fact that that family was there? Or would you blame the server, whom would have most likely been a Singaporean. In a way, you guys are blaming yourselves for your own bad service.
 
serialninja

i agree with what you have said here, cos if i were the boss of a shop i would have such rules as well, thing is sometimes people get too inflexible about rules hence causing their already bad reputation to worsen and stuff. regarding the first 2 points, that shop already has monopoly over certain brands in singapore being sole distributors of certain brands and they do have bad reputation among quite a lot of people. perhaps im just ranting for no reason then.



i brought this up in this thread since it had to do with ang mohs and singaporeans. each time i went to try a guitar i was allowed trying time of only around 5 minutes while an ang moh next to me gets to try as long as he wants. tell me this isn't racial prejudice.
 
BadgerS88 said:
Or would you blame the server, whom would have most likely been a Singaporean. In a way, you guys are blaming yourselves for your own bad service.
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i agree with you, the foreigners should not be blamed but the people who treats someone else better than our "own people" and then go on to rant about how ang mohs get treated better.
 
Thanx for peoples views on my side. Anyways. we cant help it. it happens in many countries. People in England complain about Asians and Indians getting all their jobs. Hehehe. Bulls**t la.
 
optisailor2002


it appears that you seem to run into so-called racism in shops, whenever you try a guitar; and it seems like a near daily occurrence for you. I'm rather intrigued - why is it that you keep trying guitars then? If you're just a casual shopper, content to have your 5 or 10 minutes with a guitar that you fancy with no real intent to buy a guitar - you're precisely the type of people that shop owners wouldn't want in their shops on a crowded day.

It's just business; if i'm a shop owner i'd devote my attention and service to a customer who looks most likely to buy the guitar. If it's a caucasian who's coming over to try a guitar, he might be a tourist, or perhaps, experience has taught him that caucasian tourists (particularly middle-aged ones) are more likely to purchase a guitar after trying a couple, would you blame him for depriving you of your 'fun'?

Let's face it, you've been to the guitar stores in Singapore - usually, you find a bunch of students or teens/young adults in a guitar store, trying out any guitar they can lay their hands on and playing their favourite metal/rock lick; without any intention of buying the guitar at all.

It would make perfect sense for these salespeople to want to pass the item in question to a customer that appears more likely to purchase the item in the first place.

I do not deny there appears to be an element of bias/judgement when it comes to doing business, but hey its all about making money here. Shop owners/shop keepers have a very material goal - that is to make money. If letting you have your day with a guitar (and knowing fully well that you probably will not buy it) represents an opportunity cost in the form of a potential sale lost, i think any sane businessman would choose to serve the customer whom he deems most likely to buy.

Granted, service is an issue - but the bottomline is.... well the bottomline (financial i mean).

And, for experience salespeople, there is a particular modus operandi for the casual, guitar shopper. He walks into a store, eyes shift around... just glancing around to see if anything catches his fancy - 'hey that guitar looks cool. i think i wanna try it'. In the first place, with no intention to buy. If you're going to provide the, 'i might just buy it because i realised how much i like' the said equipment after trying, then let's just get real. Guitars aren't $20 objects, like CDs or books. They cost upwards of a couple hundreds to a couple of thousands; if you're going to buy a music instrument/equipment, you probably already had that in mind in the first place. Just like how i walked into Tom Lee when i was in HK a week ago, and ended up with an amp (even though i hadn't any intention of buying an amp in hk) simply because i was in the market for a sweet little tube amplifier in the first place!

On a side note (even though its the main topic), people speak english to be understood (internationally). Speak Singlish, yeah.. only if i want to buy food at the hawker centre or else, there's really little point in speaking a slang that is ill-understood by everyone else. Singlish - is not a language in the first place; its an amalgamation of dialect and the main spoken languages in Singapore.
 
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whee

first things first: by saying such a thing, you are implying that every singaporean you see at a guitar shop do not have the intention to buy a guitar. let me now tell you my situation. personally if i were one of such "singaporean" who "tries out any guitar i can lay my hands on" i agree, the shopkeeper is not wrong at not wanting people to touch their guitars. however you are assuming that i am one of such people. i do not try any guitar that i can lay my hands on and play my favourite riff. in fact, i hardly visit guitar shops at all unless i need strings or when i am ready to buy a new guitar. so tell me, is it wrong to want to try out any possible choices that i may have before purchasing one so that i can make a wise decision that i know i wont regret? i hate it when people assume that i am one of the typical passerby who want to try guitar just for kicks and am upset when the guitar is taken away after 5-10 mins. when i have no money i will not bother trying out guitars cos they will just induce GAS that will make me feel crappy anyways. so stop assuming that i am the typical singaporean who likes to grab any guitar and try.

i repeat: i try only try out guitars that i have an intention of buying, and do not try them out just "for fun".

besides, i believe im not the only guitarist who goes back to the shop over and over again just to try out the guitars to make a decision, which i eventually do. your argument is like saying that we should purchase every single guitar that we try out at guitar shops isnt it.

if you're going to buy a music instrument/equipment, you probably already had that in mind in the first place.
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precisely. i have an idea of what i want in mind, im just keeping my options open. i tried a few guitars in said shop, and i ended up buying one of their guitars. so am i still wrong to try out the different guitars in the shop? i am not a pro musician. i need to play the different guitars to see if i like the feel/tone/whatever of the guitar. is there anything wrong with that?
 
lets just end this ok...

hahahaha! this is such an interesting topic. i actually spent almost half an hour reading all the replies from the 14 pages and i cant believe this topic started in 2004!!! isnt it high time you guys start a new thread coz the topic started out as Getting Over The Singaporean Accent and it seems that it is going to end as LET'S GET OVER RASCISM ALREADY AND I DEMAND GOOD SERVICE!!!

so after reading all that... i came to a conclusion that SERIALNINJA and WHEE is right and OPTISAILOR2002 is just downright whiny...

Lets talk about MUSIC already!!!
 
i think it is every paying customer's right to demand for good service.

problem is people dont bother trying to understand the situation before coming to a conclusion. they just generalise and say "hey this guy has gotta be like the others cos others are like that too!"

zany_ama: nice conclusion, coming from someone who hasnt contributed to the thread. besides, as the thread states this has nothing much to do with music, if you want to talk about music perhaps look into the other threads or create a thread on your own.
 
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elektrig said:
hey, chill out k....we locals must be UNITED against foreigners. right? :)
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you, sir, are confused.

foreign or domestic, we should all be united because we all want the same things in life - we all want at least the basic necessities to survive: food, shelter, clothing, and a means to support ourselves and our loved ones, and we want the basic respect that human beings deserve.

nationality is, in fact, irrelevant.
 
oh my....looking back at my post again, it does look like ive not exercised sensitivity with my words. i think i must have been drunk when i posted that. i'm terribly sorry for that's not what i really mean so don't get me wrong! =/

hmm....i think "against foreigners" is an incorrect phrasing cos (after reading my post again) it sounds as though im trying to spark off some anti feelings here. but what i mean here is that, with regard to foreign influences, we shouldn't feel any inferiority in any way (e.g. singlish, etc). we should feel proud, united and invulnerable/resistant against "post-colonialism" sentiments (quoted from earlier posts) or any external cultural "threats" ....

hey i hope ive explained myself better now...heh
 
here we go again...

optisailor2002 said:
i think it is every paying customer's right to demand for good service.
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hmmm... "Music Kopi-tiam About the scene and music in general"... i wonder if we should or should not be talking about music in the first place... hmmmmm.....

so as u were saying optisailor.. u think.. and im going to assume that you strongly believe that it is every PAYING customer's right to demand good service.. so im going to assume yet again that if you are NOT a PAYING customer.. u dun really haf to expect any good service from those pple rite? there you go... u haf just answered ur own question... the reason why they provided u with shitty service and snatched that precious guitar away from you is because you are just there to try out the guitars until one fine day u decided to buy it. so you are NOT a PAYING customer YET. so i believe that the salesmans there made their own assumptions like maybe... "aiyah.. its this boy again. he's just going to try out our guitars and not going to buy them.." which is why i totally agree with wat WHEE has mentioned earlier on to you... its just business. and you have to accept the fact that its a cruel world out there and im going to assume yet again that u have not been thru NS and that u r only in your teens... maybe 17 or 18 years old..

heres an advice.. GROW UP dude!

oh and for your info my dear optisailor... this is like my second account.. i've been a member here since 2004 and i've posted waaaay more than you have and i have definitely contributed to this particular thread using my first account just so you know..

im not going to waste my time replying to this thread anymore so good luck in growing up optisailor!

see ya guys in the other threads!!
 
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