I wonder how they will ever get a job. Apparently 97% of them do, eventually, with unemployment at only 3% among Singapore Citizens, but I really wonder who is hiring these people, and what kind of jobs they are getting. Or maybe I have been mostly speaking with the 3%.

It’s quite amazing that most candidates manage to shoot themselves in the foot before they have even arrived at the job interview. Here are 4 very effective strategies to make sure you’re not going to get hired.

1st Strategy: Mass apply for jobs randomly

A friend of mine needed to hire someone to do data analysis. Spreadsheets, SPSS, statistical stuff. He advertised the opening on job sites, literally got hundreds of applications, and only one person had the required experience. One of the resumes was from a cook!

Another friend of mine received a resume that looked like a good match for the job she was hiring for, but when she called the person to set up an interview, the candidate knew nothing about the company. I don’t think my friend even took the trouble to schedule the interview.

2nd Strategy: Don’t show up for the interview

You might think that no-shows for job interviews are rare occurrences. In fact, they are pretty common in Singapore! If you have any appointment (let alone a job interview) and can’t make it, I expect you to call me to apologize, notify me and pick a new date. If an applicant doesn’t do this for the job interview, I fear for how they will treat my customers.

Listen, if you don’t want the job, that’s fine with me, but then don’t waste my time (and your own) pretending to be applying for it.

3rd Strategy: Be late, and don’t call

If there is one occasion to be on time for, it’s for a job interview. Be early, so that you can spend some time finding the exact location, if you haven’t been to the office before. Don’t walk in more than 5 minutes before the appointed time. Just figure out where exactly to go, and if you’re early, go for a walk or a coffee, and be on time.

And if you are still late, despite your best precautions, call! Have the interviewer’s number in your phone before setting off.

If I, as a potential employer, have to call you after 20 minutes to see where you are, you are already miles behind. In fact, I can’t imagine an employer hiring someone after this happens, even if the candidate holds a Ph. D. But correct me if you have ever hired someone, or been hired, after being significantly late without any notification.

4th Strategy: Be utterly unprepared.

Many applicants go to an interview, knowing little to nothing about the company they’re applying for. As an employer, at the very least, I would expect an applicant to know the information that is available about the company and the position. And if I ask to prepare something or bring certain documents, it’s a let down if you don’t bring them.

I would be impressed with a candidate who has done some digging and e.g. spoken to current or previous employees. A friend of mine does that. If she searches for a job, she goes to very few interviews, but spends days preparing them. Speaking to friends or friends of friends who know the company, visiting outlets, impersonating a customer and speaking to the company’s customers. She aces most of her interviews, and then can choose between multiple offers. So if you want to avoid getting hired, hers is not a strategy to follow.

Not as important as it's made out to be

So… what does this have to do with language learning?

You might think I’m just ranting. What does all of this have to do with the general theme of this blog?

I recently posted about how to get certificates to prove your Mandarin or Korean proficiency. While having the actual certificate may help in some ways, paper is grossly overvalued by job seekers.

If you apply for the right job and just show up, prepared and on time, you’re already miles ahead of the pack.

Have you been hiring or looking for a job recently? Let me know whether you share my observations!

What is TOPIK exactly?

TOPIK’s full name is hangugeo neungnyeok siheom (“Korean Language Proficiency Test”) and is administered by the Korean Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation. You can take the test in Singapore.

No matter what your level is, you will take the same test, and depending on your score, you will achieve a grade of 1-6, where 6 is the highest.

Why get TOPIK certified?

You can take the TOPIK test for 2 reasons: (1) to give yourself a goal for improving your Korean or (2) for University admission and get residence in Korea.

Korea’s immigration is based on a point system. A higher TOPIK score means better chances to secure a long term visa for living and working in Korea.

People sometimes ask me whether schools provide certificates after attending a course. Many schools do, but the truth is that only the TOPIK certificate (and to lesser extent KLPT) is recognised internationally.

How to sign up?

In Singapore, TOPIK examinations are organised by the Singapore Korean International School (SGKIS). The next test date is April 15, 2012. There will be another test in October. Test fee is S$ 80.00.

If you want to join the April 15 test, you need to register before February 10. You can refer to this web page from SGKIS for registration details.

Many language schools can also do the registration on your behalf.

Need preparation?

The best path to certification is to first take a general Korean course, and when you have progressed enough, sign up for the TOPIK exam.

In the months ahead of your exam, you can take a TOPIK preparation course at one of the following schools:

- Daehan Korean at Kembangan
- Shine Language School at Parkway Parade
- ASE Singapore at Novena.

Check out this previous post if you’re interested to set up a language exchange yourself.

If you’re learning Mandarin, the Certification to go for is the HSK test. It’s tricky to find up-to-date information on where and how to take the HSK test in Singapore. Here are the relevant facts.

What is the HSK exam exactly?

HSK stands for Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (“Chinese Proficiency Test”) and is administered by Hanban, an agency of the China’s Ministry of Education.

You can take the test in Singapore. The test sheets are sent back to China for grading.

When you pass, you will receive an HSK certificate with a level of 1 (lowest) to 6 (highest). To reach level 6, you need to know 5000 character combinations.

Why get HSK certified?

You can take the HSK test for 2 reasons: (1) to give yourself a goal for improving your Chinese or (2) for University admission and jobs in China.

Most Universities and employers will ask for HSK 6, so it only makes sense to sit for HSK for this reason if your Chinese is already very good.

People sometimes ask me whether schools provide certificates after attending a course. Many schools do, but the truth is that only the HSK certificate is recognised internationally.

How to sign up?

In Singapore, HSK examinations are organised by Crestar / KLC. The examination dates this year are: March 18, April 14, July 22, August 9, October 21 and December 2.

You need to sign up at least 1.5 month before the test. Here is the HSK enrollment form. Right-click + save to download. Many language schools can also do the registration on your behalf.

Need preparation?

The best path to certification is to first take a general Chinese course (if you’re a complete beginner), and when you have progressed enough, sign up for the HSK exam.

In the months ahead of your exam, you can get prepared with an HSK preparation course:

- Crestar itself a Pre-HSK workshop at its centres in Serangoon, Jurong East and Yio Chu Kang
- Han Hai Language studio offers customised individual HSK preparation at a location of your choice
- Spring College International has HSK preparation courses at three different levels in Bishan and Jurong East.

So you can say I have gone through the language learning process a good number of times. Not that I always went ‘all the way’, but I do know what it takes to learn a new language now!

How long does it take to get fluent in a language?

Here is the short answer: as a ballpark number, you can achieve 80% fluency in a matter of months if you dedicate yourself to it full-time (a few hours every day). If you only have a few hours every week, it will take you 1-2 years to hit the 80% mark.

Ok, that answer’s maybe a bit too short. It depends on a number of things, such as what languages you already speak and the way you learn.

Do you want to speed up your language learning? Sign up for the yago newsletter and I’ll send you more detail! (Don’t worry, you can unsubscribe any moment)

When a school certifies its students, there is a conflict of interest. It would look good on the school if many students score well in the examination. So the school would look better if it would make its ‘testing standards’ more lax. Besides, there are so many language schools in the world – how would any one certificate be able to get recognized by employers and universities.

So that’s why there are independent language tests, such as KLPT (Korean), JLPT (Japanese) IELTS / TOEFL (English), HSK / BCT (Mandarin), DELF/DALF (French), DELE (Spanish). These tests are recognized worldwide and translate readily into a the CEFR, meaning that the person you submit the certificate to can assess what you can and cannot do in the language.

So just like when you learn to drive, use your language school for instruction (like your driving instructor), and book a spot for recognized international certification (“practical driving examiner”) when you have reached a significant level and would like a certificate to prove it.

Many language schools can help you book your examination, and some even offer courses that prepares you for the type of questions asked. It’s good to make use of those if you can. But don’t rely on a school-issued certificate to open doors for you!

Some schools feel like a family, with most of their staff members working for the school over many years and close connections between the students and school staff. Other, mostly larger schools, have a different feel based on the student crowd they attract. What age are the students, and what are they there for? Are they learning for fun or is there a direct need for them to get fluent in the language?

These ‘unseen parts’ of the school are very important when choosing your language school. But how can you find out? If you have a friend taking a course at a school, you can ask your friend what it’s like. But that isn’t always the case, and in any case, it’s just one person’s point of view.

This is why we are gathering as many course reviews on yago.sg as possible. One review can only tell so much, but if you find review after review saying that the staff of a certain school are really caring, chances are that you will experience the same when you join the school.

So before you join a language course, check out what other people have to say about the course you are planning to join. Here are some of our most reviewed language schools.

Have you attended language lessons yourself? Help us make Yago a better resource by adding your review. If you do so before 9 September 2011, you will also enter our draw and stand to win an iPad 2!

For a step-by-step guide on adding the review, check out this page!

You may have done some research and have found out that the Swiss speak several languages, depending on where you go, but that their German is very different from the German language spoken in Germany. That is entirely correct. German is my third language and I feel quite at ease in Germany, but if the Swiss are talking among themselves, I have no clue. The sounds and tones even sound much like my native Dutch, but there isn’t a thing I can distinguish.

But the Swiss do not speak Swiss German in school, in the office or in any other formal situation. In such situations, German-speaking Swiss would speak standard German with a trademark Swiss accent. Swiss German is not a written language. In fact, I once heard that when Swiss kids first go to primary school, they learn their first foreign language at very young age, which is Standard German.

Swiss German is just like Singlish. It’s highly treasured among German-speaking Swiss and the language of choice at home and with close friends. As a foreigner, trying to speak Swiss German is like navigating a minefield, you don’t want to come across as if you’re making fun of your host, or worse, your boss.

Learning Swiss German (or Singlish, for that matter) in class is thus not advisable, and it’s probably for that reason that you’re not going to be able to find a class in Swiss German in Singapore, or elsewhere. But if you are in Switzerland long enough, and understand Standard German, you’ll definitely pick up an understanding of it and may even get comfortable enough to dare speaking a few phrases.

Want to learn standard German? Check out soon starting German classes on our main website!

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque or "Blue mosque" in Istanbul, Turkey

One of the fun thing of being on a holiday is that you can talk openly with your friends / family even in public places, because others wouldn’t understand you. But that is often a false sense of security. Far more often than you would think, some bystander will be following your every word. Here’s some situations:

Turkey

On a school trip to Turkey in my secondary school time, some of my classmates were walking behind a Turkish soldier in Istanbul. They were jokingly saying things like “do you dare to kick him?” “I’ll give you 10 guilders if you kick him”. The soldier turned around: he was a dual Dutch-Turkish citizen normally living in the Netherlands, and was serving his National Service as a requirement to keep his Turkish passport. Fortunately, he had a sense of humor similar to that of my classmates.

Finland

A Dutch friend of mine spent a semester on exchange in Helsinki, Finland. One day, sitting in the train in a spot where two rows of seats face each other, he was joined by two Belgian girls on the opposite site. They were feeling very free and commenting in Flemish on how good-looking Finnish men are etc. Dutch and Flemish are no more different than, say American and British English. Upon leaving the train, my friend couldn’t resist pulling off his mask, saying in Dutch “Nice to have met you, almost-fellow-country-citizens” to great embarrassment of the girls

Singapore

I’m often in a receiving position of this in Singapore, as I don’t quite look like a person who would understand Mandarin. But compared to Europeans, it seems Singaporeans are quite well behaved. I haven’t ever caught a bad word. Wouldn’t know whether I would take off my cover if it happened.

The one situation I can remember is when I was flying off from Changi Airport and wanted to buy some last minute gifts. One of the aunties behind the counter told her colleague as I opened up my wallet: “他住在新加坡。我看到他的UOB card” (“He lives in Singapore. I see his UOB card”, UOB being a local bank). I really wished I had a witty reply ready, but I wasn’t that fast on my feet when it happened.

Do you recognise this?

If you speak English only, you may never have felt comfortable using your mother tongue as a secret language. If you speak Mandarin, you should not, ever, feel comfortable again either. And as you see, even if you speak a rather small language as Dutch, there is no way to be sure that you’re safe.

My guess is that we’re being overheard far more often than we think. Can you remember you overheard tourists who thought they were safe? Did you reveal you understood them?

Yago is not a language school. We are a website about language schools. What we aim to do is two-fold:

1) Make it easier for students to find a language course at a school that fits them

2) Help language schools find suitable and motivated students

It is with (2) that we earn our revenue. Language schools advertise in different ways, including on Google, by giving out flyers, by buying billboard space and in newspapers such as the Straits Times. And now they can also list their courses with us.

We have made a website that we believe is helpful to students. We don’t flood it with advertisements, and we collect reviews for courses, so that you really know what kind of course you are signing yourself up to.

So how do we get paid? Language schools can list a limited number of courses with us, and receive a limited number of enquiries, for free. If they receive more enquiries, they can choose to pay for a monthly subscription, or pay a commission for every student who signs up through.

In the education world, it’s common practice to pay commissions to education agents when they bring students. We don’t really believe in the traditional way agents work, because they may make choices on the student’s behalf, based on which school pays most commission.

We openly display schools’ names and courses on our site. You as a student can make your own choice and then contact the school directly.

It won’t cost you anything extra to contact a school through Yago as compared to contacting the school directly. The only difference is that if you contact the school through the “enquire now” buttons on Yago, we will get credit for referring you to the school.

At this moment we are looking for a charity in the education / language / culture sphere to sponsor with 10% of our revenues. Let us know if you have any suggestions!