Originally Posted by
brunos
I fully agree with you except that your post should state " but 100% of AF crew speak some English". The requirement for hiring is not fluency. And a third language is also valued.
On flight to China, there is always a mandarin-speaking staff. The issue is a bit more complicated for Hong Kong as there are both cantonese and mandarin speaking pax.
I'll stick to my formulation. I didn't say 'all crew speak English fluently' because I think it would be an overstatement, but I wouldn't say 'all crew speak some English' either because imho that would be an understatement. I know many people who speak 'some English', more than enough to get by in the uk or the us but would not be hired at AF, AZ, IB or the likes on those grounds.
Basically, my partner doesn't speak any French and whilst we have had reason to complain that speaking French, I sometimes (by no means always) get a more personalised and spontaneous/comfortable service than she does, she's never once had a problem being understood or understanding an AF crew member in hundreds of flights.