SINGAPORE – From July, domestic helpers here will get to improve their communication skills at Hokkien and Cantonese classes organised by the NTUC’s Centre for Domestic Employees (CDE) and two institutions.

The courses will have 200 slots for domestic helpers to pick up Hokkien at classes run by the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan Cultural Academy and Cantonese at classes by The Salvation Army.

On June 22, the CDE signed a memorandum of understanding with each of the institutions, aiming to collaborate on strengthening the language and communication skills of domestic helpers.

The signing took place at the NTUC and CDE’s annual May Day domestic workers’ celebration, where Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Manpower and Finance Shawn Huang was the guest of honour.

In a speech at NTUC Centre, Mr Huang said the dialect classes will complement the CDE’s eldercare courses by enabling workers to better understand and respond to their elderly care recipients’ needs.

The formal introduction of the courses follows earlier pilot runs of classes conducted by the CDE, where 25 participants took part over two runs of Cantonese classes and another 11 attended one Hokkien class.

The CDE said the feedback received from the classes was encouraging, with domestic helpers feeling more confident and connected when caring for elderly employers.

Ms Enik Suparmi, who attended a pilot Cantonese class, is in her 40s and has worked in Singapore for more than 20 years.

She said the class helped to reinforce a basic understanding of Cantonese she had learnt from being a caregiver to an elderly woman who mainly spoke the dialect and Mandarin.

Ms Enik, who hails from Indonesia, said she is now more confident with basic Cantonese words such as those that describe “sleeping” and “eat porridge” and can better respond to requests made to her in the dialect.

Speaking to about 1,200 attendees, including domestic helpers, employers and union leaders, at the May Day celebration, Mr Huang thanked employers who have been supportive of their helpers receiving training.

“Skills such as caregiving benefit not just households but society at large,” he said. “In particular, improving workers’ language skills is crucial to building better communications, understanding and empathy between migrant domestic workers and household members.”

Ms Enik said having supportive employers allowed her to complete a nursing diploma in 2024.

“They tell me that I don’t always need to work so hard and always support my learning and development,” she said.

Both dialect classes will run for about a year, with 120 slots in the Cantonese class and 80 slots for the Hokkien class on offer during that period.

The Cantonese classes, each of which comprises two 90-minute sessions, will run from July 6 and will cost $10 for CDE volunteers and $20 for others.

The Hokkien classes, each of which lasts for two hours, will be held from July 13 at the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations in Toa Payoh. Further details are being worked out.

Mr Michael Lim, director of NTUC’s Migrant Workers Segment, said the programme’s effectiveness and demand will be evaluated before a decision is made on whether it will continue.

The CDE is also exploring offering Teochew classes to domestic helpers.

Other efforts by the CDE to improve domestic helpers’ caregiving skills include the Caregivers’ First Response Course by NTUC LearningHub, which covers skills such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, choking response and fall prevention.

The CDE is looking at organising more runs of the course after 165 domestic helpers completed it during a pilot from December 2024 to May.

Details on how to register for the Hokkien and Cantonese classes will be posted on the CDE’s Facebook page.

Source :  https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/hokkien-and-cantonese-classes-for-domestic-helpers-to-be-held-from-july

22 June 2025