Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Series Editors’ Preface
- 1Language and Transnational Domestic Workers
- 2The Making of ‘Workers of the World’: Language and the Labor Brokerage State
- 3Assembling the ‘Supermaid’: Language and Communication Skills for ‘Vulnerable Occupations’
- 4Marketing Domestic Workers: Maid Agencies in Singapore
- 5The English-Speaking Other Looks Back
- 6Translating Selves: The Trajectories of Transnational Filipino Domestic Workers
- 7Conclusion
- Appendices
- References
- Index
1 - Language and Transnational Domestic Workers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 October 2026
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Series Editors’ Preface
- 1Language and Transnational Domestic Workers
- 2The Making of ‘Workers of the World’: Language and the Labor Brokerage State
- 3Assembling the ‘Supermaid’: Language and Communication Skills for ‘Vulnerable Occupations’
- 4Marketing Domestic Workers: Maid Agencies in Singapore
- 5The English-Speaking Other Looks Back
- 6Translating Selves: The Trajectories of Transnational Filipino Domestic Workers
- 7Conclusion
- Appendices
- References
- Index
Summary
Myrna, a Filipino domestic worker (FDW), had been working in Singapore for 11 years when I interviewed her. She had left the Philippines in 1993 because she needed a job that could support her three children; her pay as a factory worker at a plastics factory in Manila was not enough and she had separated from her husband who was unemployed and unfaithful. Myrna applied to work in Singapore through an employment agency in Manila whose advertisement for Singapore-bound domestic workers (DWs) she had heard over the radio. When the ‘Singaporean owner’ of the maid agency was in the country for interviews, she went for one:
Myrna: They want to know whether you know English. [BL: How did you know that they want to know whether you know English?] Because their questions are in English! Then they touch your hands, they say it’s so that they know whether you know hard work. Of course, I know hard work, I’m at a factory!
They want to know whether you know English [BL: Pa’no mo alam na gusto nilang malaman kung marunong kang mag-Ingles?] Kasi yung mga tanong nila sa Ingles eh! Tapos hinihipo nila yung kamay mo, para daw malaman nila kung marunong ka sa hard work. Siyempre, marunong ako sa hard work, nasa factory ako eh!
After the interview, Myrna was videotaped so that prospective employers in Singapore who went to the maid agency could see and listen to her. She was supplied with a ‘maid’s uniform’ and was required to put her hair up in a ponytail and wear no make-up or jewelry. She was told to say a few things about herself in English, using a chart that was a guide for her while she spoke:
Myrna: I said my name, my age, what were my jobs, why I want to go to Singapore. It was easy because there was a guide in front of you, there was a chart so all you have to do is fill in the blanks.
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- Scripts of ServitudeLanguage, Labor Migration and Transnational Domestic Work, pp. 1 - 26Publisher: Multilingual MattersFirst published in: 2026
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