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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ceasy
I have no issue whatsoever with Spanish-only on a domestic South American flight. Frankly, it makes sense - Ecuador is surrounded completely by Spanish speaking countries, and Spanish is the second or third most spoken language in the world. . . .
Americans can be egregiously insensitive to foreign language issues - something that happens frequently on domestic flights. Can't tell you how many times I've had to translate flight announcements for a neighbor on a domestic flight to Miami (which often have a large minority of monolingual Spanish speakers).
So, you don't mind Spanish-only on a domestic flight in a Spanish-language country, but you do mind English-only on a domestic flight in the U.S.?
I really have no problem with a domestic flight making announcements in the national language only. I have never had that experience, unfortunately, but would rather enjoy it. That said, there is nothing arrogant or jingoistic about thinking that making the announcements in English is not a bad idea. Aren't the placards on almost all aircraft in English? There are foreigners from the Western world (where, like it or not, English is generally either the first or second language nowadays) on almost every flight in the world.
Even the recent ill-fated Yemenia flight from one hell-hole to another (Sanaa to Moroni) had a Canadian passenger on board.
I have often wondered, is air traffic control at commercial airports always in English? I could imagine that in anything bigger than a very small airport that is even close to an international border, the controllers must speak English. Perhaps a flight between two cities in the interior of Russia, China, or Brazil is guided by ATC in the local language, but in case of an errant craft that needs to make an emergency landing, it might be advisable for the controllers to speak the international language of aviation.
By the same token, does one need to speak English to fly the major aircraft of today (i.e., Boeing, Airbus, Embraer, Canadair)? I suppose that documentation and training courses can be translated into major languages, but I'll bet that it's not economical for more than a few languages.
Of course the flight crew is likely to be more worldly than the cabin crew, so even the former probably speaks English, it doesn't mean that cabin announcements will be.
A cool experience that I had recently is flying with HA within Hawaii or US mainland-Hawaii. Their flight announcements are not in pidgin English, but English with a Hawaiian "local" accent. Very subtle, but noticeable.
For HA, it depends on the flight. For the video that's displayed on the B763 flights, yeah there's a bit of pidgin coming in there from the female FA. But on the interisland flights, I've never heard an accent on the recorded voice.
Slippahs, good to hear from you. I did notice that on the interisland HA 717 flights that the automatic voice announcements have a standard english but at the same time, "sing-songy" intonation that at least for me infers a local accent.
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Slight OT: I was on CI a while back and people would assume that the first language they would be speaking for announcements would be Mandarin. Wrong. They do announcements in English, Mandarin and Taiwanese (dialect). I found that interesting.
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Aren't the placards on almost all aircraft in English?
Seems like signs and the safety cards would be in whatever language the airline wants them to be in. In many cases, the signs and safety cards have more languages than they make announcements in.
Americans can be egregiously insensitive to foreign language issues - something that happens frequently on domestic flights. Can't tell you how many times I've had to translate flight announcements for a neighbor on a domestic flight to Miami (which often have a large minority of monolingual Spanish speakers).
People in bi-modal language regions such as Miami can be incredibly insensitive as well. Out here we translate and publish our government documents in seventeen different languages. Besides spanish speakers there are large populations of Vietnamese, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Arabs, Indians, English speakers, and other minorities.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mecabq
I have often wondered, is air traffic control at commercial airports always in English? I could imagine that in anything bigger than a very small airport that is even close to an international border, the controllers must speak English. Perhaps a flight between two cities in the interior of Russia, China, or Brazil is guided by ATC in the local language, but in case of an errant craft that needs to make an emergency landing, it might be advisable for the controllers to speak the international language of aviation.
I believe that ICAO requires transmissions to be in one of its official languages which IIRC are-
English
Spanish
French
Arabic
Russian
Mandarin
But I believe that ATC and pilots; especially international pilots are expected to have some command of English. When I was in EZE a few years back listening to CH9 on UA ATC was chatting with Aeromexico in Spanish and English with UA, LH and BA etc. I have also read that El Al requires their crews to always use English with ATC even in Israel or if they speak another ICAO language in that country such as French at CDG.
A few years back; I think it was when that Gol 737 hit the Embraer over the Amazon; there were a number of stories about how ATC in South America often has poor English skills. As I write this I seem to remember an article in the WSJ about the same problem at EZE.
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... but some here on Ftalk do have strange desires/hang-ups what eaxactly is the big deal with English announcements that has the OP is so obviously bent out of shape that he thought a thread here was necessary?
or is there some motive which I missed completely.
I think that's a little harsh. I read the OP's post as just a harmless bit of take-it-or-leave-it fun. I certainly didn't interpret as meaning that the OP was "bent out of shape" or had "strange desires" or "hang-ups".
... and frankly the English announcements were barely in understandable English.
I've experienced this on a number of occasions, including on airlines such as BA and AA, where the native language is (one assumes) English. The flight crew are usually comprehensible, but sometimes the cabin crew make themselves unintelligible by speaking far too quickly and dropping their voices at the important parts of the message (e.g. what's the point of telling everyone the time on arrival if you drop you voice when you give the actual information — "Welcome London Heathrow, where the local time is [mumble mumble]: we know we're at London Heathrow, but we might not know the time there).
Now if native speakers of English can't understand the announcements, people for whom it is a second language must have even more difficulty, I imagine.
Sometimes even when they speak English, it's almost not like English.. This is a clip from my flight from KUL to NRT on JAL. First 7 seconds was like what?? what? I had to get some people to translate for me. Try and listen to the first 7 seconds and make sense of it before reading the comments below..
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I have to agree with the posters that do not have an issue with domestic flights being in the language of the country they originate and terminate in. So I should not have to hear Spanich from Orlando to Houston... MIA to IAH, maybe a different story, but that is for another thread....
International flights from US should have English and the primary language of the country of destination.
I am a little peeved that I cannot go to my local Lowes or Wal-Mart without being bombarded with Spanish.. I often have to verify that I am still in the US as it often feels like I have left the country and I have only driven three miles....
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pinniped
I know I've seen subtitled safety videos on domestic flights somewhere... (Yes, I realize not all aircraft have safety videos.)
In any case, both the official domestic language and the ICAO language are English, so I wouldn't expect Spanish on a domestic U.S. flight.
That said, in the interest of safety, it would not bother me in the slightest if Spanish announcements were done as well. Or even French, since it has a long history in international trade, travel, and diplomacy. If an airline thinks it might have a sizable audience in a given language, it should try to do something to deliver safety messages in that language if possible - even if the law doesn't require it.
The catch is that ICAO requirements are for flight crews to be proficient in English only (in addition to their airline's official language). I'm guessing that FAA requirements for U.S. domestic-only crews also only require English. So getting Spanish/French/other languages on domestic flights would end up being limited to the video-enabled types.
As for other languages on domestic US flights... I travel on AS a bit, and it seems on flights to the LA area, and that may continue onto Mexico, they have a button for a prerecorded message in Spanish after the English demo... (May have even heard it on SEA-MIA, LAX-DCA but not certain...)
For HA, it depends on the flight. For the video that's displayed on the B763 flights, yeah there's a bit of pidgin coming in there from the female FA. But on the interisland flights, I've never heard an accent on the recorded voice.
You two need to fly what's left of Air Mike (Continental Micronesia) for full time island accents. Oy! Evangelista! Bring da mo' coffee!
Try and listen to the first 7 seconds and make sense of it before reading the comments below..
