I recently visited a local bank near my home to get some banking services done.
Upon entering the bank, I was surprised to find that the employees were all not locals, as they were not comfortable speaking to me in English and when they spoke in Mandarin, they had a certain slang that did not sound local at all.
They switched to speaking Mandarin with me after a few sentences in English
After a few lines of speaking to me and knowing that I am Chinese, they switched to speaking Mandarin to me.
I mean it does not matter whoever the bank hires but I thought to myself that shouldn’t a local bank have more local staff around?
I wondered why the bank would hire foreign employees who were unfamiliar or not as good with the English language when our business language here is English.
I tried to test them and continued speaking to them in English.
I could tell that they understood me but had difficulties in forming a reply back to me and hence I gave up speaking to them in English as it was like a chicken and a duck communicating.
When I replied them in Mandarin finally, you could see a sense of relief on their faces
As soon as I spoke to them in Mandarin, there was a look of relief on their faces and the whole process became much smoother.
I found that the employees were much more helpful when I spoke to them in Mandarin. They understood my questions and provided me with clear answers.
I was also pleased to find that they were very friendly and helpful. They made sure to explain everything to me in a way that I could understand.
In the end because we conversed in Mandarin, the process took about 15 minutes and I could not help but wonder if I were to continue speaking in English to them, how long would the whole process take.