Wednesday, 2 April 2008
>> fancy trying to act high class and cheat my money
it doesnt feel nice when u are not treated fairly.especially when u are in a tourist area and as a local u are not even respected. wats more infuriating was the attitude given.
was at chinatown today with A to do some stuff on our projects. after doing most of our interviews with tourists, we decided to sit down to have a drink in the coffee shop opposite the chinatown heritage centre, the one that has the best feng shui that one...
ah t.i.o.n.g woman: (in english)
"wat drinks?"
zee: (in mandarin since it should be more confortable for her)
"你有 lemon and kalamansi 罐的吗？"
ah t.i.o.n.g woman: (*says NOTHING but points to the picture pasted on the tables)
"Here, got the drinks."
zee: (*looks at the picture, seems like dun have my lemon and kalamansi, was loitering my finger ard minute-maid limeade, but decided to have barley in the end)
zee: "给我 barley 一罐."
ah t.i.o.n.g woman: (still insisted on speaking english to the SINGAPOREAN me even though her ang mo wasnt good, and despite the fact that i have been talking to her in mandarin right from the start)...
" you want ice?"
zee: (*looks at her with 100% puzzlement over the fact she refuses to answer in mandarin, obviously tryin to act high-class, answers in english finally),
"yah."
while me and A were waiting for our drinks, we couldnt understand why she just insisted on speaking english to me when she knows im obviously not a tourist already and i look like a chinese head to toe. i wont blame her if her english is very fluent, but the fact is that i can tell her english is just so-so, she understands my question yet chooses on acting like she cant speak mandarin.
watever.5 min later...........ah t.i.o.n.g woman comes back in 1 can of barley and 1 CAN OF LIMEADE, neither of us ordered.zee: "我们没有 order Limeade"
ah t.i.o.n.g woman, (finally in mandarin OMG!):
"你只是要一罐啊?"
zee: ....................... (i didnt mention a single word about ordering the limeade in the 1st place).den i deliver a $2 note to her, thinking she will get me change.2 min later...................ah t.i.o.n.g woman sits dow, shakes legs, starting to look around for new customers.
i thought she just went back to get me change cos the can of barley couldnt have cost me $2. Ms A said just now when she bought her coke it was just $1.50. inorder to make sure im not maligning her of tryin to cheat us, i stood up to turn around and asked how much was the barley.
and the woman said its $2.since she told me personally its $2, i took it as it was. but Ms A insisted that it shouldnt have been so ex and thus the righteous girl decided to stand up for me and went into the coffeeshop to ask the real boss how much was a can of drinks.
she even told me, " i tell u im going to make a big hoo-haa out of it if she overcharge us."so after asking the boss, he said it cost $1.50 a can! Ms A told her about the overcharging and he asked who we bought the drinks from. the boss returned us 50 Cents after that. judging from the boss's expression, it looked like it was within his expectation. so i suppose the ah t.i.o.n.g woman does this all the time to tourists?
but too bad she met us.PURE BREED SINGAPOREANS that wouldnt fall into her trap easily.
my righteous Ms A didnt create a big hoo-haa eventually, but she got me back my 50 cents which almost went to the ah t.i.o.n.g woman's pocket.
its not like i really care about THAT 50 cents honestly, i dun mind the can drink being $2 as long as it applies to everyone.
i dun even mind if the drink was $1.50 but i gave the woman $2, if i had gotten better service.
its just struck me that why the ah t.i.o.n.g woman just insisted in speaking to us in english, when she could have used mandarin to converse? even as a singaporean, i dun find anything wrong with speaking mandarin, so why should u force yourself to use english?
as for the can of barley, wat i couldnt accept was that when i asked her personally, she still insisted it was $2 a can. if she had just pretended that she forgot to give me change and return me the 50 cents, i might not have been this angry.this can of barley just happen to prove wat one of our interviewee said, "
the shops will jack up the price very high cos they know we are tourists". im not even a tourist and yet im being cheated.
just imagine how many innocent tourists have fell into her can drink trap.
asshole woman.
so the next time u happen to be drinking or eating in that coffee shop, ask the real owner to confirm the prices.
i will stock up barley at home tmr and drink for all the fucking hell i want.
11:17:00 pm;
