Monday, July 16, 2007

Singaporean Poor Chinese Standard

I have two marketing staff working for me for more than 3 years. Both staff are non-Singaporean. One of them is from mainland China and the other one came from Malaysia. I recruited them during the time Singapore economy just starting to pick up. Originally I wanted to recruit Singaporean since they are my countryman and should have priority. However, one of the important requirements for this position is to be able to read and write Chinese. Most of the Singaporean applicants told me that they are good at Chinese. To prove that they are what they claimed, I made them write a short autobiography. To my disappointment, none of the Singaporean could write a decent page of autobiography.

Recently, I went into recruitment mode again because the Chinese staff is leaving for his full time MBA. Again, I asked the applicants to write me a short passage about themselves to show me their Chinese capability.

This is one of the many disappointing pieces I have received: (I have removed the name to protect the identity of the applicant.) All the red characters are wrong characters. This has not considered sentence structure and contents yet. See what future do we have, Singaporean?

大家好!我叫XXX。在家里,我排第二。我有一个姐姐和一个妹妹。毕业干南大在二00四年,电子程系。

起初,我想做一名程师。为大众发一系列的产品。但是,当我在国防部做一名程师时,我发现我不喜欢天天关在试室里,一个人做工。反而,我更喜欢和人接。可以说,我是一个非常讥咋的人。就为这样,我便想尝试一下别的工

我能说自己是一个非常有力的人。一个时常喜欢挑战自我的人。对我言,非那件事不能在实我大动脑,不然,我一定我十足的能力它成功。

最后,我想说,无论我是否得到这份工作,我都很高兴有这个机会和您分享我的经。在,我也要说,写这篇文章让我深深僚X了自己华文程度在那。在,谢谢。

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