Originally Posted by
llary
I think it is just an automatic response to a caucasian face, whether they speak Chinese or not.
My whole family speaks Mandarin and Taiwanese so it is more natural for me to speak Chinese with a Chinese speaking stranger. However 4 out of 5 FAs will respond in English, in which case I just go along with that.
I actually tend to believe it was the FA that was uncomfortable with speaking Mandarin. A friend of mine who was also a CX FA told me a few years back that he hated flying the PEK/PVG/TPE routes because he had to speak Mandarin, and he was very bad at it. Of course, one FA's comment does not represent everyone, but that led me to what I think.
Originally Posted by
llary
there is a stigma in Taiwan that lack of English ability = lack of general intelligence.
This is somewhat true in Hong Kong, too...