My point is when is enough, enough? There are so many other 'native Taiwan' languages, why not add them in? Anyway, not mean to drag this into this kind of debate, was just noting CX seems to dropped Mandarin.

Cathay Boy's point is well taken on the Taipei metro system. In many cases, the announcements for the next station begin the moment the doors shut at a departing station. The never-ending announcements, however, provide good practice on how to ignore it all, which kind of defeats the purpose of all the messages in the first place.

Back to CX, flights from Taiwan to Japan can get really over the top with all the announcements -- of course, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, and English, and then sometimes an over-zealous crew member will pipe in with Taiwanese. It sometimes makes watching a 2-hour movie on a 3.5-hour flight an exercise in futility.

Since everyone has personal screens now, why can't some tone be issued over the PA system directing people to note the message on their AV system? Just like I don't get why they continue to waste resources in printing and handing out menus. Simply put the menu on the AV system.

There, I've saved CX a million bucks a year. How 'bout rewarding me with an Op-Up? Actually, I've already had quite a few, and Cathay Boy's been pining for one for a long time. Give it to him as an Xmas present.

This is nothing new. Of the ton of transpacific sectors I have done with CX over the years (YYZ/YVR/SFO/LAX), the bulk majority of them do not have Mandarin announcements. Ground staff at YYZ, YVR and SFO also use Cantonese during pre-boarding/boarding. But the LAX ground crews seldom use them based on my experiences departing from there.

I have never flown the JFK flights before so I can't comment there.

On the SYD route, they use (if I recall correctly) Eng-->Canto-->Mand. Must be because a lot of people connect on KA to Mainland destinations.

Hmm, that would be great (I've suggested this before to CX), but there are always people that don't know how to use StudioCX.

You don't see CA giving out Cantonese announcements for flights to HKG and HK is a part of the PRC. Nor do FAs speak Cantonese (IME).

It is probably YMMV. On CX873 - SFO-HKG two weeks ago, they made the announcements in English-Cantonese-Mandarin. On CX872 - HKG-SFO yesterday, no Mandarin was used. I prefer without Mandarin - the long announcements in various languages just disrupted too much of my movie.

On a side note, when an American next to me asked the FA some questions in Mandarin, the FA actually replied in English...

I think it is just an automatic response to a caucasian face, whether they speak Chinese or not.

My whole family speaks Mandarin and Taiwanese so it is more natural for me to speak Chinese with a Chinese speaking stranger. However 4 out of 5 FAs will respond in English, in which case I just go along with that.

It's not very nice for my wife when we are travelling together and the FAs assume that both of us speak English. My wife then gets very uncomfortable because there is a stigma in Taiwan that lack of English ability = lack of general intelligence.

I actually tend to believe it was the FA that was uncomfortable with speaking Mandarin. A friend of mine who was also a CX FA told me a few years back that he hated flying the PEK/PVG/TPE routes because he had to speak Mandarin, and he was very bad at it. Of course, one FA's comment does not represent everyone, but that led me to what I think.

This is somewhat true in Hong Kong, too...

My wife was in a rush two years ago to catch her flight in HKG. She asked the lady that is managing the lines if she can go in front, in Cantonese, and the lady told her she only speaks English, which to my wife is very strange: you work in HKG, managing the line, and you only speak English? Of course my wife being an American train doctorate replied right back in English and the lady let her move up front.

Looks like CX is being true to their corporate culture: English first.

Agreed - it's all about catering to passenger needs. I used to live/work in Hsinchu and the percentage of Hakka speakers there is probably considerably higher than 15%.

Hong Kong, being a former colony, grapples with the mix of language and class identities. When I lived there, and checked in for a C/J class flight at the airport, the counter staff would speak to me in English. When I flex economy class, the staff would see my face (I am a Chinese American) and more often than not, address me in Cantonese. Socio-economic class distinctions at work here.

Unfortunately, in HK, there is a perception that if you speak Cantonese (and/or Mandarin) in a service situation as the customer/client, sometimes you will not get as good service or be taken seriously if you speak English. My wife (a native Cantonese speaker) will use English if she feels it will get her better service when dealing with the airlines, and not just with CX.

That could probably be the case, though you would think that CX, of all HK companies, would probably have a higher percentage of staff who are fluent in Mandarin and have a necessity to use it regularly than the general HK population.

My wife is native Hong Kong person and she agrees with your assessment. But being a rebel she will still only use Cantonese because she can't stand with the bad English being replied back to her...

I'm an ABC that self-taught Mandarin and Cantonese (but my wife claims my Cantonese sucks, although people understood me just fine when I used it), but I have learned a long time ago that if you want good service you need to stick with English, I really hope someday that changes.

I'm almost in the same boat - I'm self-taught in Cantonese, fluent in Mandarin. The wife also claims my Cantonese sucks but I can make myself understood. I don't have too many problems with service when I use my Cantonese, particularly if it is in the restaurant and retail area. For airlines I tend to use English, though with Chinese and Taiwanese airlines I tend to speak Mandarin with the staff.