S’porean Guy Allegedly Got Scolded By Chinese Tourist For Having Poor Mandarin When Trying To Help

As a child, I grew up learning that should I ever need help, I should always be polite and courteous about it.

“That’s how you get their help, son,” my mum used to preach. “Or else they will just send your bitch ass towards Tuas Link. And trust me…

You don’t want that to happen.”

But that’s exactly what happened

Though not to me…

But this particular Chinese tourist over here.

Having asked a Singaporean for directions, she ended up criticising his command of language when he took a wee bit too long. 

Which was hardly the smartest move to take considering how she got her ass handed to her.

Or to be more specific, she got Tuas Link handed to her.

What happened?

On 12 March 2019, Twitter user Timothy Bon chronicled a rather interesting story on the social platform.

y’all so this china lady at the train station asked me for directions to “海湾舫” & i didn’t know if she meant bayfront, harbourfront or admiralty.
so while trying to clarify it w her, she snapped at me and said “华人不会讲话语，你好意思吗?”

i sent her bitchass towards tuas link

— timothy bon (@Timothy_Bon) March 12, 2019

In his tweet, Timothy spoke of how a China lady had approached him at the train station, requesting for directions to “海湾舫” (which translates to Bayfront in English – bet you didn’t know as well, eh?).

Timothy, however, wasn’t sure whether it was Bayfront, as it could mean Harbourfront or Admiralty as well. Confused, he tried to clarify the matter with her, which evidently touched a nerve.

Trouble Brews

“华人不会讲话语，你好意思吗?” she asked. In England terms, the sentence rough translates to: “Chinese but don’t know how to speak Mandarin, aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”

Well, this evidently touched another nerve, though this time it’s that of Timothy’s. Infuriated that his help was met with such needless criticism, he chose to do what anyone else (save for my friend Davis Sim, who possesses the patience of a God) would’ve probably done:

Send her “bitchass towards Tuas Link.”

For those failing to understand just how savage Timothy was, here’s a literal depiction:

Bayfront’s pretty darn far from Tuas Link. Like really far.

And it’s rather 鸟不生蛋 (birds don’t lay eggs, i.e. ulu).

Virality

Suffice it to say; Timothy’s tweet soon went viral, garnering 4,443 retweets and 3,518 likes in the process.

It has to be noted that the user went on to post updates on his status as well. In the brief tag lines below the original post, Timothy explained why he undertook such an unconventional gesture and spoke about his less than perfect Chinese.

In the last point, he also mentions how he has dyslexia, which is a common learning disorder that makes the learning of languages tough.

Netizens supported his gesture

While Tuas Link might seem a tad bit too harsh for someone who was intending to go to Bayfront, Twitter users seemed to have no problem with Timothy’s ‘misdirected’ directions.

Though to be fair, I don’t really have a problem with it either. 

I should confess, however, that I thought exactly the same as this guy:

*Awkward laughter*

And so… what’s the moral here?

Well, if you ever find yourself asking for help, you might want to avoid coming across as overly-critical or even ungrateful. For you never know;

You might just find yourself all the way at Tuas Link when your original destination was Pasir Ris.