When people speak of the Singaporean culture, they are referring to certain traits and behaviours of Singaporeans that are not easily found in other countries, such as multi-racialism. Conflicts often happen when different types of cultures come together, and there was this incident that happened a couple of months back in the supermarket near my house.
I was queuing up for a cashier who was a Malay lady. Right in front of me stood a Chinese man with his basket of groceries which included a few pork products. When it was the Chinese man’s turn for payment, the cashier looked into the basket and passed him a plastic bag, expecting him to pack those pork-products into the plastic bag himself. The man looked reluctant to do so, but packed them into the bags anyway. The cashier gave the man his change in a hurry, resulting in the coins falling to the ground, which he felt the cashier was mad and angry at him for causing her to handle pork products. He cursed and swore at her as he walked out of the supermarket. The cashier remained quiet throughout the ordeal.
As a Singaporean living in this multi-racial society, I feel that both parties were at fault. It was inconsiderate of the man to buy pork-products and queue for the Malay cashier, when there were so many other cashiers to choose from. If he chose to queue for a Malay cashier, he should not feel unwilling to pack those products himself as he should understand and respect other races’ culture and religion. As for the cashier, she should have been more polite by requesting him to pack those pork-products himself. She should be mindful in the way she handed the change to the customer since she works in the service industry where courtesy is of utmost important.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Business Correspondence Critique
The letter goes....
28 January 2009
WANG XIUJUN
BLK *** #**-***
…………….. (Address)
Dear Policyholder
Notice Of Payment Due
Thank you for insuring with Income.
We would like to inform you that the following payment is due:
Reference Description Due Date Amount ($)
XXX Living Refund 09/02/2009 1 YR YYY
Total Payable YYY
For policies that are paid on monthly mode, this notice includes previous (if any), current and next months’ premiums.
To ensure continuity of your policy coverage, kindly make the premium payment within the grace period of thirty days from the due date.
All payments received after 25 JAN 2009 are not reflected here. If you have already made the payment, we thank you for your prompt response and ask that you please ignore this notice.
Your payment reference number is ZZZ. Please quote this reference when making payment via Internet banking, phone banking, ATM or AXS to ensure that your records are updated promptly.
Cheque payments should be made in favour of ‘NTUC Income’ together with the payment slip below. Alternatively, you can also pay your premium by NETS or cash at any of our servicing branches.
At any time, you may access our Policy Online Enquiry (POLE) at www.income.com.sg to check your policy details and premium payments.
In the meantime, if you have any queries, please feel free to contact our Customer Service Officers at 6788 1122 or email us at csquery@income.com.sg. We will be most happy to assist you.
Yours Sincerely
Linda Quek
Manager
Finance
My Post:
A well-written letter should adopt the 7Cs in writing, and of course to be relevant to the subject of the letter. Moreover, it should also be in the correct format with appropriate headings.
The attached letter was well-written as the tone used is appropriate and it is both clear and concise since it uses the fewest number of words to convey all the information to the reader. Moreover, the format used is correct with the salutation and a positive closing line.
However, there are some points for improvement. In the recipient’s name at the start of the letter, there was no courtesy title such as “Miss Wang Xiujun”. Even though the company may not have a record of the correct courtesy title, the writer should choose the most neutral title like “Ms” for ladies and “Mr” for men.
Furthermore, the writer used “you” and “your” too frequently in the body of the letter. It makes the reader feel that it is like a command or an order to pay the bill, especially when the sentence is started with words like “to ensure” and “for”.
Letter writing is of high importance for effective communication in the workplace. Thus, mastering the basic skills for writing letters is a must-learn for everyone.
28 January 2009
WANG XIUJUN
BLK *** #**-***
…………….. (Address)
Dear Policyholder
Notice Of Payment Due
Thank you for insuring with Income.
We would like to inform you that the following payment is due:
Reference Description Due Date Amount ($)
XXX Living Refund 09/02/2009 1 YR YYY
Total Payable YYY
For policies that are paid on monthly mode, this notice includes previous (if any), current and next months’ premiums.
To ensure continuity of your policy coverage, kindly make the premium payment within the grace period of thirty days from the due date.
All payments received after 25 JAN 2009 are not reflected here. If you have already made the payment, we thank you for your prompt response and ask that you please ignore this notice.
Your payment reference number is ZZZ. Please quote this reference when making payment via Internet banking, phone banking, ATM or AXS to ensure that your records are updated promptly.
Cheque payments should be made in favour of ‘NTUC Income’ together with the payment slip below. Alternatively, you can also pay your premium by NETS or cash at any of our servicing branches.
At any time, you may access our Policy Online Enquiry (POLE) at www.income.com.sg to check your policy details and premium payments.
In the meantime, if you have any queries, please feel free to contact our Customer Service Officers at 6788 1122 or email us at csquery@income.com.sg. We will be most happy to assist you.
Yours Sincerely
Linda Quek
Manager
Finance
My Post:
A well-written letter should adopt the 7Cs in writing, and of course to be relevant to the subject of the letter. Moreover, it should also be in the correct format with appropriate headings.
The attached letter was well-written as the tone used is appropriate and it is both clear and concise since it uses the fewest number of words to convey all the information to the reader. Moreover, the format used is correct with the salutation and a positive closing line.
However, there are some points for improvement. In the recipient’s name at the start of the letter, there was no courtesy title such as “Miss Wang Xiujun”. Even though the company may not have a record of the correct courtesy title, the writer should choose the most neutral title like “Ms” for ladies and “Mr” for men.
Furthermore, the writer used “you” and “your” too frequently in the body of the letter. It makes the reader feel that it is like a command or an order to pay the bill, especially when the sentence is started with words like “to ensure” and “for”.
Letter writing is of high importance for effective communication in the workplace. Thus, mastering the basic skills for writing letters is a must-learn for everyone.
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