Myanmar maids

[nkthen]

Last time I went to Peninsula Plaza and get a Burmese-English dictionary and a English-Burmese dictionary. I got both for less than $10.


I use the English-Burmese dictionary to communicate with her and the maid will use Burmese-English dictionary to tell me what she needs.

[vfong1]

nkthen:

Last time I went to Peninsula Plaza and get a Burmese-English dictionary and a English-Burmese dictionary. I got both for less than $10.


I use the English-Burmese dictionary to communicate with her and the maid will use Burmese-English dictionary to tell me what she needs.

Which bookshop?

[nkthen]

I think many shops there would sell it. For me I got them at level 2, near the escalator.

[Coolkidsrock2]

hquek:

Sending money home is HER perogative, I just help to facilitate the process. If I were to control her monies, I'm sure at the end of her term, she will feel very rich. But it is not my call, so I'm betting this current helper won't have much in her wallet (not with the stuff she buys on her off days).


Of course, the ideal situation will be like my first helper - after the first couple of remittances, she kept the rest of her monies in SG and only transferred to HER bank account when she is about to go on home leave/go home. But then she was single, no kids.

If the helper has got kids at home, i don't think she can wait 2 years to send something back.

On calling home to Myanmar, my helper doesn't have a phone in her home and had to call a neighbour who will shout for her family to run over. it's quite crazy. We found out the hard way that the regular phone cards sold in 7-11 either sucks up money and gives very little airtime, or can't call at all. Strangely, the 'weird' cards sold by those mama shops in Peninsula gives easier access - but yes, there were problems connecting still.

To clarify, it is the maids' choice to send money home only when they go home. But I do remind them constantly of the land and house they are planning to buy or the provision shop they are planning to open.

I always told them that they have a choice of spending their money in Singapore and having to leave their family again or to not spend any money (I provide them with everything) and hopefully not need to leave their family again. There will be trade-offs in their choice and it will be their personal decision.

For the experienced maids, they are only too aware that their money are squandered/gambled away when they send it back.

[hquek]

yah, I also kept painting pictures of the house/land they can buy at end of contract. But quite paiseh after a while becos my current helper will tell me her dad want to buy machinery, or hire labourer (harvest season). Anyway, I will keep my droning to her that I wish for her to return home and never having to venture out of her country for money again. It’s the least I can do lah.


I used to tell horror stories of tales where money was sent back and squandered before the maids returned home, but not sure if these are effective now. Likely what I say will be held in very much lower esteem that those of their friends.

[Coolkidsrock2]

I know a maid who sent her son to a private school in the home country. She is (rightfully) very proud of him. Because of this, she is very focused in doing her job well so that her contract is renewed. She has been in Singapore for at least 6 years - never ask for off-days, no handphone, no Facebook.


It is not that she is a slave. She is paid above market, she is free to go out when she needs to or ask for her off-day (she went for a few then decided she does not want it), everything is provided by the employers, goes for holidays with employer’s family when it is convenient and she is given almost full autonomy to run the household.

So long as they are focused, they will not want to engage in activities which will need them to spend money. Need to keep that dream alive in them so that they can go home with some money. My ex-maids had all gone up with at least SGD5-figures which is sufficient for them to build some form of assets.

Myanmar is experiencing changes at an amazing rate. If they learn English and housekeeping well here, they can have a chance to work in the hotel industry. Their cash should hopefully be sufficient to buy some form of economic assets and hopefully move them up the ladder, even if it is a bit.

[hquek]

That is certainly heartening to hear. I usually only hear about those who cant think and squander their money on phone cards.

[Coolkidsrock2]

I had my share of maids who cannot think but they normally do not stay long with me.


Conceptually, it is the same for everyone. Just got to explain to them that there is an opportunity cost to money and we need to save for the bigger things in life. They may be luckier than us in that they live in the emerging markets and those who are sensible and save their money will have a better chance of improving their life. I too have to make choices and trade-offs.

One of my maids intended to use her savings to buy a branded motor-bike as well as furnish her new house. She already built a house (for her self-stay) after 2 years in the Middle East. Her parents already had a brick house and land + workers. Told her to think carefully because the choice is between a provision shop = no need to work overseas or motor-bike + furnishing new house = another 2 years overseas.

[piyobaby]

POA Teacher:

piyobaby:

[quote=\"yanyan\"]Haiz~~ my maid call home & her mum told her that her hb has a new gf.. Now crying buckets..haiz

To allow calling back home or not to allow oso headache!

Hope she is pacified now.

Sorry, but I don't think that there's such a headache.
It should not be up to us to decide whether to allow them to call home or not.
That's THEIR decision to make.
Whatever cards they use to do so is also actually none of our business, even though many of us would like to help them look for a cheap way to do so.
On the other hand, I also disagree that we should finance their personal expenses eg buy phone cards, provide internet access for them like some of the employers here. They are being kind and generous but others should not feel bad about not doing so.
The FDWs are our employees, not our slaves. Thus we should not try to exert 100% control over their personal matters. Neither should we be liable for their personal expenses.[/quote]For my case, it is up to ME to decide if she will called home or not simply because she is not allowed an hand phone while in my household. Knowing hand phone or no hand phone is going to spark off another debate, I shall not go there. I pay for the calling card for her to call home which personally I feel it's not too much since she abide by my rules that no hand phone allowed. But since it is not agreed how often she should called home if I pay for the card so if she wish to buy her own card and call home during her off day, it's her own problem.

Different employers have different ways of handling their helpers as like different companies have different culture for employees to follow so that there is no right or wrong, simply individual's style of handling them.

[piyobaby]

Coolkidsrock2:

piyobaby:

[quote=\"Coolkidsrock2\"]Western Union may be a safer bet in the sense that the maid just need to produce her passport at her home country to collect the money. Risk of spelling error in the name is low as it is based on passport name.


The risk of her using the name of someone else is spelling error in the name so that she may encounter difficulties in withdrawing her money, though am not sure how stringent the name check is.

My maids are not highly educated and they had no prior experience with the banking system and not sure of the spelling of the name of the recipient.

I supposed it make not much difference as most likely they remit the funds to a next of kin e.g mother in her case so producing passport for withdrawal might be out of the picture?

My maids only send money home just before their return. This is so that they have control of how the money is being used. Otherwise, there will be nothing left by the time they go home.

Am not sure how other maids experience is with calling back to Myanmar. We do not seem to be able to establish contact there. The message is to try again. Agent said it is common but we had been trying for months. Is it true?[/quote]Mine request to send money back every 2mths once her loan is cleared. I leave it to her since it is her money. On my end I'm only trying to offer some help since she is totally clueless on how to go about it. I do not wish for her hard earned money to be cheated away or fly away.

She tried calling back yest and the 1st try was bad due to bad connection but the 2nd try she managed to talk to her mum for a good 5mins or so b4 the line cuts off.