Originally Posted by
alanh
There are a couple things going on. Peoples' understanding of spoken English is notoriously poor. To get the message across in a high noise, high distraction environment like a jet, the spiels are longer and redundant so that you'll at least get part of it. Prefatory remarks like "At this time," are to get your attention so you're listening when they get to what they actually want. It's better than "Hey! Listen up!"
The other thing is that flat declaratives of what they want sounds rude: "Sit down. Put on your seat belt. Put your tray away. Sit up straight," makes them sound like your parents.
what annoys me though is that these people wont break from this trained speak, and some of them take it home with them! AND what they are sating usually means something else entirely but it's been beautified for some outward appearance sorta thing they and their company are trying to acheive, I think.
I mean, take calling up any customer service department these days... based on what you're saying--which is probably just as correct as what I am saying here--when they say, "we are working to serve you better, sir" I guess what they are really saying is,
"look man, F you. I hate this $10/hr phone job (or FA job) and you and everyone likes you suck! We are NOT going to waive the fee, and you are NOT going to get miles with that purchase and you HAVE to wait on hold while I file my nails laughing at you because I can just hit DELETE and totally mess up your entire account for a couple weeks and there's NOTHING you can do about it!"
it's like that fun thing you can do in your car when you pass by someone on the street you don't like or you wanna mess with... Everyone turns to waive and smile at the person as you drive on by but as they grin, they say under their breath something like,
"F**K you--you d*ckhead!!!" and the pedestrian has NO freakin idea!
I often think THAT is what the 'pretty speak' said in places like airlines and CS departments really is all about!
