christep

Let's be honest, a canto-speaking, HK passport carrying gweilo is a bit of a freaky occurrence - there can't be more than 50 or so of you in total. So I can see that you'd get the celebrity treatment. (The majority of canto-speaking gweilos are, I guess, religious freaks to whom the crew would prefer just to give service by the book (and some 60+ ex-coppers).)

kaka

do the yea luns get hksar passport? Id expect hksar passport gweilos to be the latter, which may take the FA to a dark corner.

christep

In general no - the only requirement to be a civil servant of any type is to be a Permanent Resident (except for high government positions which require a HK SAR passport, only).

I know a couple of gwailo ex-police who have naturalised, but most don't as far as I know.

I also know a couple of other gwailos who naturalised and don't speak any significant amount of Canto.

kaka

I agree. But I'd be more surprised the religious freaks get a local passport

Cathay Dragon 666

I don't want to start another thread on this so I'll just post it here. In the past it is kind of annoying to hear 3 languages going to mainland routes: English, Cantonese, and Mandarin. Lately I have noticed it's down to just two languages: English and Mandarin. Cantonese is dropped.

bart simpson

I know this is always the case for KA, but even for CX now?!

1010101

Thank god! On some days it seems half the flight is taken up with announcements so glad to hear they've dropped one, whatever it is.

Alawyer

Maybe the Cantonese-speakers do not need to be reminded to remain seated with their seat-belts fastened when the sign is still up?

Too much travel

Ha! I've noticed on certain occasions on landing approach that one of the senior cabin crew makes a terse firm "sit down now" type announcement... only in Mandarin. Is that being racist, or just being practical?

kaka

racist? They didnt use english either?

kaka

now this is racist

HarbourGent

Those are not necessarily alternatives.

kaka

Just being factual 99% of time.
bad.

Nicc HK

I think passenger quality has dropped. As posters have stated earlier with more people flying, wanting more for less, and whose manners deteriorate while their sense of entitlement expands once they get near an airport let alone the plane. And I have sadly seen poor behaviour from all nationalities, and mainland Chinese are not the worst I have seen.

Sheer volume and attitudes have changed dramatically over the last 20/30 years and flying is not as fun as it once was. It is unsurprising if crews react to poor treatment even if that reaction is not intentional but the result of passenger rudeness. Just look at the way people ignore the "please turn off your mobile" order, it is symptomatic of entitlement culture. (Here I am highlighting the deliberate avoidance of compliance rather than the merits of whether mobiles should be on or off).

Regarding speaking Cantonese I find the CX crews will engage in Cantonese if I speak in Cantonese, and generally see no difference as to when I talk in English. Bizarrely, once a non-Cantonese speaking US-Chinese gentleman attempted to tell me I was wrong to talk Cantonese to the crew! Also HK/Chinese crew on JAL and AA can't seem to come to terms with a Cantonese speaking Gweilo.

In normal every day life in HK though reception to speaking Cantonese can vary. My HKID and Drivers Licence have my Chinese name on it, so comes up first. Its fun going to a government department, have my name called out in Chinese to see the surprise when up trundles a gweilo to the counter.

kaka

Had anyone been screamed at using china-language without respect of what language you seem to speak?

my last minute CX254 ticket landed me on 72D (gf took another aisle seat towards the front).

First encounter of crew A she just talked to me in china-language (sth that needed no response). Later i requested a pillow in English, and then later, a GnT - I fell asleep without drinking... and skipped dinner (thank god she didnt wake me for dinner - i wonder how that happened).
Woke up mid-flight, pressed the ball button to get the GnT taken away since i clearly needn't it. Crew B (dont rmb who she was) came and took it away and I dozed off. prob a few mins later i was waken to thirst. pressed button again... and a crew who i think is crew B came screaming at the top of her voice (saying in china-language: I already just attended you). Since I have decided to ignore all china-language speaking, i just calmly requested some water. She took the order and mysteriously another crew (I dont know if it was crew A or another crew) gave me a bottle of water.

Breakfast time, Crew A were to serve my aisle but most of her attitude was really like... talking to the cart at the top of her voice. And the moment I changed from skipping breakfast to asking for one, she just gave me this blank/black face as we call in HK.
Seriously, i dont get their attitude issues.

OTOH, gf also had sth else to complain about said crew A. a letter on cx.com is prob due very soon