I am a newcomer to FT, as you are, but I feel I must step where angels might fear to tread.

I think I do see the racist implications but they are perhaps not what you see.

I have been on, I think, two flights inside Canada that had announcements in another language in addition to French and English. In both cases there was a larger group of travellers form another country, in one case it was a group of seniors, in the other school children, who were on the flight.

I thought the opportunity to have the flight announcements made in their language was appropriate and somehow Canadian. There are not many other countries where this would happen and I am proud to live in a country that shows tolerance and multiculturalism in many ways, some small, others bigger.

I am a frequent traveller on the BC Ferry system and it is very normal to have the sailing announcements made in another language. My reaction is the same, I see it as a small symbol of welcome and tolerance.