I'm not arguing with the safety issue, I'm just surprised that you're encountering this for the first time.
US domestic flights should include, at minimum, announcements in Spanish. That this isn't a practice says something profound about the cultural arrogance of English speakers in the US.
I've lived in Mexico, Brazil, China and a couple of countries in Europe. English speakers have no monopoly on linguistic arrogance. If you're in a country where you don't speak the language, and especially a county try like Brazil where there are so few English speakers, you're going to have to suck it up and make a special effort to understand what's going on.
It's a good reminder of what it's like to be a non-English speaker in the US.
Originally Posted by
gcashin
For the same reason that flights between the two largest Mandarin speaking markets (Beijing and Shanghai) also include announcements in English: these routes include a reasonable number of foreign travelers, and if someone doesn't speak the local language (Portuguese, or Mandarin, as examples), the language that has the highest probability of being understood would be English.
In general, any international airline offers announcements in:
- Language of origin
- Language of destination (if different)
- English
For U.S. domestic flights, all 3 of these just happen to be the same.
Is this not a safety concern if a reasonable portion of your passengers aren't able to understand onboard announcements?