Last night, I was chatting with Japanese Steph on MSM. Actually she did message me earlier but I was trying to concentrate on Phylogenetic Tree Building so i gave her very short "Ho-hum" replies which i think pissed her off. So a few hours later and feeling guilty, I decided to message her and ask what's up? (She messaged me about having a bloody eye).
So there I was asking her how her eye was and her reply was for me to go check out her blog. No offence steph, but isn't that a very roundabout way of having a conversation? It reminds me of when I was in primary school trying to do my homework. I'd ask my mum how to spell a certain word and she'd say to me "Go check a dictionary". Of course she was trying to encourage me to get the answers myself but that's beyond the point. Now we communicate via SMS while in the same house and I feel wierd whenever we have a conversation lasting beyond "Have you had dinner?" My dad never really spoke much to me when I was a kid and nothing much has changed...
My point is, if we don't make it a practice of having long meaningful conversations, be prepared to accept very short answers but by all means, answer a direct question. It's like some of the clients i get at the clinic. For instance:
Me: Hello. Has your pet been here before?
Client: (Passes me the dog's medical records)
Me: I'm afraid these records are not issued from our clinic. Has your dog been to this clinic?
Client: Check the records. (Points to the medical records)
Me: I'm afraid these records do not tell me if the dog has been here.
Client: It's all in there.
Me: Ok. I'll take it that this is a new patient. Can you fill out this form? (Pass form to client)
Client: I donno anything about the dog. i just bought it.
Me: Do you know the breed?
Client: Cocker retriever or poodle. I donno lah. (Dog is a Minature Schnauzer)
Me: Ok, how about filling this part of the form then? (Owner's Personal Particulars)
Client: I donno anything about the dog. Check the records. (Points to medical records).
Me: ...... *Stunned silence*
Sometimes I really wonder. Are Singaporeans just plain stupid or really ignorant.
While we are on the topic, here's another observation i had working at the clinic.
We had just closed the clinic for lunch. I switched off the lights and flipped the "CLOSED" sign at the door. We then left the clinic by the back door. As we were passing the clinic, a woman stopped at the front door. She studied the "CLOSED" sign for about 10 seconds and what she did next nearly made me trip over my own feet in shock. SHE TRIED PUSHING THE DOOR OPEN!!! I was thinking to myself, "What part of CLOSED did she not understand?" She was not the only one. More often than I'd like, some clients would turn up at our front door after we closed the clinic. The "CLOSED" sign would be displayed and the lights would be turned off while we did the closing transactions at the reception. They would firstly look at the lack of lights in the clinic is shock, then give a surprised look at the closed sign. Then, most of them (99%) would knock at the glass door and ask:
Client: Are you closed?
Me: ... *stunned silence*
As the Mini Corn once said, it doesn't matter how big a [CLOSED] sign we put up. People will look at it and then proceed to ask us mind numbing, soul draining question, "Are you closed?"
It's funny how my topic suddenly diverted from what I started talking about... Anyway, that's enough rambling for now. Have to get back to studying. I'll post more stuff about the stupid clients i've encountered at the clinic. It's strangely therapeutic. Heh heh heh.
So there I was asking her how her eye was and her reply was for me to go check out her blog. No offence steph, but isn't that a very roundabout way of having a conversation? It reminds me of when I was in primary school trying to do my homework. I'd ask my mum how to spell a certain word and she'd say to me "Go check a dictionary". Of course she was trying to encourage me to get the answers myself but that's beyond the point. Now we communicate via SMS while in the same house and I feel wierd whenever we have a conversation lasting beyond "Have you had dinner?" My dad never really spoke much to me when I was a kid and nothing much has changed...
My point is, if we don't make it a practice of having long meaningful conversations, be prepared to accept very short answers but by all means, answer a direct question. It's like some of the clients i get at the clinic. For instance:
Me: Hello. Has your pet been here before?
Client: (Passes me the dog's medical records)
Me: I'm afraid these records are not issued from our clinic. Has your dog been to this clinic?
Client: Check the records. (Points to the medical records)
Me: I'm afraid these records do not tell me if the dog has been here.
Client: It's all in there.
Me: Ok. I'll take it that this is a new patient. Can you fill out this form? (Pass form to client)
Client: I donno anything about the dog. i just bought it.
Me: Do you know the breed?
Client: Cocker retriever or poodle. I donno lah. (Dog is a Minature Schnauzer)
Me: Ok, how about filling this part of the form then? (Owner's Personal Particulars)
Client: I donno anything about the dog. Check the records. (Points to medical records).
Me: ...... *Stunned silence*
Sometimes I really wonder. Are Singaporeans just plain stupid or really ignorant.
While we are on the topic, here's another observation i had working at the clinic.
We had just closed the clinic for lunch. I switched off the lights and flipped the "CLOSED" sign at the door. We then left the clinic by the back door. As we were passing the clinic, a woman stopped at the front door. She studied the "CLOSED" sign for about 10 seconds and what she did next nearly made me trip over my own feet in shock. SHE TRIED PUSHING THE DOOR OPEN!!! I was thinking to myself, "What part of CLOSED did she not understand?" She was not the only one. More often than I'd like, some clients would turn up at our front door after we closed the clinic. The "CLOSED" sign would be displayed and the lights would be turned off while we did the closing transactions at the reception. They would firstly look at the lack of lights in the clinic is shock, then give a surprised look at the closed sign. Then, most of them (99%) would knock at the glass door and ask:
Client: Are you closed?
Me: ... *stunned silence*
As the Mini Corn once said, it doesn't matter how big a [CLOSED] sign we put up. People will look at it and then proceed to ask us mind numbing, soul draining question, "Are you closed?"
It's funny how my topic suddenly diverted from what I started talking about... Anyway, that's enough rambling for now. Have to get back to studying. I'll post more stuff about the stupid clients i've encountered at the clinic. It's strangely therapeutic. Heh heh heh.
1 comment:
Well I apologise for giving you such an indirect answer. I thot the pictures and the descriptions on the progress of 'my eye' in my blog would be obvious and could be time saving for you since you hardly have time to answer to my hellos on msn. But I was wrong. I'll endeavour to give you more direct and succinct replies since you do rarely ever make the first move to ask about me.
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