Man makes a scene at Daiso after staff speaks to him in Mandarin

With four official languages in Singapore, it's inevitable that some things can get lost in translation. One man, though, has got Singaporeans all riled up after he was caught berating a Daiso employee for speaking to him in Mandarin.

The run-in took place at the Japanese chain store's outlet at City Square Mall, according to a Facebook post on July 12 by a man who said he witnessed the incident.

It had all started when the employee, who was verifying that each customer had logged their entry to the store via SafeEntry, asked the man for his NRIC number in Mandarin, the eyewitness said.

This upset the man, prompting him to ask to speak to the manager.

A video of the incident showed the unhappy customer, accompanied by a woman and a child, raising his voice at two employees.

"I'm Chinese. But what is mean [sic] 'ni de hao' (your number)? You understand?"

"Speak English, okay?" he continued, gesturing at the employee who stood off to the side as another employee apologised to him.

The man also claimed that the employee in question had an "attitude problem".

According to the eyewitness, the man also shouted at him after noticing that he was recording the confrontation and asked him to "mind [his] own business".

As the video made its rounds on the internet, amassing over 3,000 shares in less than a day, netizens flocked to criticise the man's treatment of the employee.

On the flip side, some also came to his defence and pointed out that it was not unreasonable to expect frontline service staff to speak English since not all locals speak Mandarin.

kimberlylim@asiaone.com