cOcKtail niTe...

Have you ever been to a bar and ordered a Baileys on the rocks only to be served Baccardi on the rocks? I have. And given my attitude, bad or otherwise, I refused to drink any of it. I headed out of the bar into their neighbouring rival. It is almost akin to finding a pretty, slim and delicious one nite stand only to get a big TRAnnieS surprise. Correction, surprise is too mild a word. Shock sounds better.

I don't blame the bar maid. First, she is in a foreign land trying to make a living. Second, she can only understand scraps of what the customer says. Poor girl. And she looks pleasing to the eyes...but that's not my point.

Point is, I offered to write down my orders for her so she can hand it to the bartender who presumably reads English. Hmm....for that matter, I can write it in Chinese too...and maybe after another eight weeks, in Japanese. I think, the problem is communication.

There is no point if all of us are bilingual or trilingual when the general population struggles with language. Monolingual people are not disadvantaged, but they need to pick up the new language if they wanted a smoother transition in a new land. Okay...everyone can pinpoint where the problem lies...

So here is my two cents worth of solutions. Make me the Minister of Education and I promise, everyone coming into our island country will be subjected to a crash course in Singlish, the various dialects and great sex. Haha...I hope I will never rise to such an appointment. But seriously, I believe the problem of language has to be readdressed. It is not just our local population which requires education in conversational English and Chinese/Mother tongue, immigrations should be granted equal attention.

I know this sounds far fetched...but think for a second, what if this was some important business deal at a MNC? Things may go haywire. I know too, that they would probably get a translator. But hey, wouldn't it be more efficient and effective and cost saving and blah blah blah if everyone just spoke a common language?

I'm not saying it has to be English. It is merely a language of Eurocentric supremacy. It just happened to be English. Next time I back to that pub (and that is still pretty doubtful) I hope I can just tell the waitress: '我要一杯百立， 在石头上面。’ Talk about miscommunication and miseducation.