s0ssos

When someone commented that people were confused and if she could speak in Spanish the gate agent responded that she didn't speak Spanish. The flight is Delta from JFK to Bogota, Colombia, where I understand they speak Spanish.

Is there no effort to speak the language of the country you are flying to? Is this only an American airlines issue?

Yoshi212

Here in America we only speak American
At the gate for lesser frequent destinations the gate agents will not always speak the native tongue of the destination. A destination like Paris or Tokyo would probably be more likely to have multilingual staff over Bogota. It is an area US airlines definitely do not focus on enough in my own opinion.
On the planes the staff does generally speak the native tongue of the destination country.

Tchiowa

I see people trying to "speak the language" thinking it makes for a better trip. If you actually do speak the language, it works. If you bought a "Speak Klingon in 30 minutes" CD you're just making a fool of yourself. People in tourist areas expect to deal with language issues.

I live about half the time in Thailand and it's hilarious listening to some people who bought the book and listened to the tape.

exilencfc

In my experience (and I haven't been to Thailand, or anywhere else in the Far East for that matter) making an effort with the language gets you brownie points with the locals. It doesn't matter if you're rubbish, it's still viewed more favourably than not trying at all.

In terms of airline employees, ideally you would deploy people according to their language skills but that isn't always practical. Even if you have people who can speak a particular language you can't roster them continually on the same jobs. It is noticeable on BA flights that you get native speakers of European languages on flights to other places - last night I was on a flight from Munich to London with a Spanish FA (she wasn't entirely wasted, she was giving Spanish tuition to a colleague whilst they were taking a break).

That said, I would assume that Delta's workforce at JFK would contain a reasonable proportion of Spanish speakers.

powerlifter

Here in America we only speak American.
This is what really makes me mad about business men who work globally.
If you want to speak to me speak English.

I believe the children in school from kindergarten to 12th grade should be thought English, French, and Spanish. If you know these three languages you can go anywhere, and get by. We are in a global economy. I speak English, Spanish and Russian. I travel to the Soviet block countries so I needed to speak Russian. I was lucky as I had a neighbor who was from Bulgaria to speak to so I could practice. When her parents came to see the new grand baby they did not speak English so I went and started to talk to them in Russian, and they were quite shocked that an American could speak Russian. It was nice that I could make a positive experience for her family. ^

Palal

Mandarin, English and Spanish, Arabic, Benghali, Hindi, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, German in that order. French is nowhere near the top. It was 100 years ago, but no more :P .

Box5

Good employees are hard to find. When you add second language requirements, it's nearly impossible.

English, French and Spanish are not necessarily the best choices. It just depends where you are. Examples....

San Francisco: English, Cantonese, Spanish. Maybe Mandarin Chinese.
Los Angeles: English, Spanish, either Mandarin, Russian, Farsi, or Korean.
Vancouver: English, Mandarin, Punjabi. Certainly not Spanish.
Miami: Spanish, English, either Portuguese, Russian, French.
Berlin: German, English, Turkish. Not Spanish.
Tokyo: Japanese, English, Mandarin.
Warsaw: Polish, German, Russian.
Dubai: Arabic, English, either Russian or French.
Africa in general: English, French, Arabic. Maybe Portuguese.

It is good that the English were conquerors. That spread English around the world. It's up to the U.S. to be an economic leader so that English continues to be used. How would you like it if the world's defacto language was Romanian? You'd be lost. It would be hard to export things.

You want to go where?

Good list, but I would put English ahead of Mandarin, not just because of the number of people who speak it as a first language, but because of those who speak it as a second. Mandarin is still limited in its distribution despite the numbers who speak it in China. Likewise, I would put French in the list because it is more widely spoken as a second language than some of those you have listed, and again the distribution aspect. There are a lot more Francophone countries than there are Japanese speaking countries, even if the total number of speakers is fewer. Russian is on the decline. Many of the countries where Russian would be learned as a second language have switched to English, e.g. eastern Europe.

KoKoBuddy

Meh.

Pretty much everyone under 50 everywhere in the world speaks at least some English these days. At least everyone under 50 who is well off enough to fly internationally.

Within a generation this "problem" will more or less take care of itself.

Nothing wrong with learning languages. But realistically speaking, if you speak English, it's all you need for business. It's the international business language. When a German and an Italian transact business, they do in English.

I remember when I was in high school in the 80s and there was a panic about Japan taking over. Seemed like overnight there was a mad rush to learn Japanese. My high school offered it an elective my senior year. Now it's same OMG OMG OMG we all have to learn Chinese. And wasn't the USSR supposed to dominate the world too at some point and knowing Russian would be important? Yeah I seem to recall that argument made as well.
How'd all that work out?

lloydah

It was noticeable in Helsinki that visiting a department store all the staff wore a badge of the flag of the country they spoke the language of. The shelf stackers had the Finnish flag and the Union Jack. Everyone else wore at least 3 or 4. It's true that many people speak some English but it's not necessarily going to help you if you don't make at least some effort. ( Been to Paris lately? Anything that widens your knowledge of the world must be good for something, surely?

t325

Delta couldn't find someone in NY who spoke Spanish?

exilencfc

I think that if you are a native English speaker it is hard to decide what foreign language would be most useful to learn and there is a lack of incentive to learn anyway. We are definitely spoilt! That said I do find German useful within Europe, I have read basic Dutch, Swedish and Danish which are all similar to German in written form, and have talked in German in Hungary and Slovakia. But if I really want to speak German I go to Austria, they are far less keen than the Germans on practising their English!

ksandness

I've been traveling back and forth to Japan for 35 years, and even on my first trip there, to spend time doing research at a Japanese university, I had a decent command of the language, having taken intensive courses in the States.

I find that speaking the language enriches my experience immensely, because I can literally talk to anyone, including people who are too young, too old, or too whatever to speak English. I can watch TV and listen to the radio, as well as reading magazines and books. I can tag along on guided tours that are given in Japanese.

To a lesser extent, I had that experience in China, even though my Chinese is not even close to my Japanese. But in a country where a significant percentage of the population hasn't had enough schooling to learn English, second-year university-level Chinese saved the day a few times.

Last summer, I experienced for the first time visiting a country where 1) The general level of English ability is low, especially if one is a budget traveler, and 2) I knew only a few words of the language and the alphabet. That is, I went to South Korea. It was challenging, to say the least, much harder to cope with than visiting China or Taiwan, where I can at least function on a tourist level.

Cuba was another place with a low level of English proficiency, and my dim memories of high school Spanish plus a dictionary came in very handy.

Even in Norway, where the general level of English is very high, I found people who were much more comfortable with my pidgin Norwegian than with English.

I agree, though, that badly pronounced language is likely to either amuse or baffle native speakers. I have encountered Japanese people whose English is so badly pronounced that I'd much rather speak Japanese with them.

So if you can actually communicate to the extent of meeting your tourist needs in the local language, by all means try it. If the local person speaks English well, he or she will switch. However, if all you can say is "hello" and "thank you," you may be better off sticking to English.

Even so, I suggest learning how to say "Do you speak English?" in the local language rather than just walking up to people and asking them questions. Even though I'm very comfortable in Japanese, I still have to take a moment to "change channels" when someone addresses me all of a sudden.

When I first went to Japan, there were relatively few foreigners, even long-time expats, who spoke the language, and store clerks and train station attendants used to try to look busy when they saw me approach. I found that saying, Sumimasén ga... ("Excuse me, but...")and pausing for a beat gave them time to make the mental adjustment to address a person with a Western face in Japanese.

CPRich

Good luck working with China in the near future. They are already starting to insist in contracts written in Madarin. With their growth in the global economy, their tolerance for "I'll speak your language to make it easier for you" is dwindling.

Tchiowa

3 things:

1) If you take the number of people who speak English as a first or second language or live in a country where English is one of the languages used in government, over half the planet falls under English. No other language is even close.

2) If you consider business and tourism as opposed to just population, then again English is not just number 1 but so overwhelmingly number 1 that no other language counts.

3) French is not anywhere near the top of languages.

If you live in the Americas: 1) English, 2) Spanish, 3) Portuguese. That gets you everywhere.

Europe: 1) English, 2) German, 3) Spanish. Again, that will cover 90% of you actual needs.

Asia: 1) English, 2) Mandarin.