Originally Posted by Landing Gear

When Swissair was flying, on Trans-Atlantic you would get English, German and French, but oddly, no Italian that I recall.

On ZRH-GVA, they would do German and French or English or both depending on what the FAs believed the passengers spoke. (Sometimes they would ask you on boarding.)

This reminds me. A few years ago I was standing in a gate area in ZRH drinking a coffee and talking on my cell to my girlfriend while waiting for AF to GVA. I was speaking French since she is French.

After the call ended, a rather sketchy looking guy approached me and asked in some indescribable accent, "You speak Congo?" "What?" I replied.

"You speak Congo," he declared. "I heard you speak Congo."

At this point I am hoping they did a good job at the security screening because this guy is making me nervous.

So I just looked back at him and replied in English, "That was French. I was speaking French," as I walked away. Fortunately he was not on my flight.

I still don't know what that was about.