Originally Posted by kathnunley

I've wondered about this for years, but a flight I had on Monday really made it a glaring issue.

If the pre-departure safety briefing is so important that it is required on each flight, why not use a native English speaking FA to give it? On Monday's flight from MHT - ATL, there were 3 excellent flight attendants - super job. However, the FA who gave the briefing had a VERY heavy dialect and struggled with most of the phonics to the point that they were not understandable. It was painful to hear him struggle with it and while most of us here have it memorized, for someone who doesn't travel much it really would have been impossible to understand the vast majority of what he said.

Just seems kind of odd, when the other 2 FA on board might have had an easier time with it. For passenger safety, I might suggest a minimum requirement of phonemic clarity for the person who gives the safety briefing.