This could be a good topic: How important do you feel it is for Flight Attendants to be bilingual? What percentage of a crew should be bilingual for each flight?
I know flight attendants are there for safety and comfort of passengers and crew, and their work is People. Being able to talk with them is certainly critical. But I thought it'd be good to ask how much so?
To help people answer, how about
1=not at all
2=some
3=middlin'
4=quite a bit
5=totally
(1) How important is it that Flight Attendants be bilingual? 1-5?
(2) How many Flight Attendants on each flight should be bilingual?
- for domestic 1-5?
- for international 1-5?
(3) Are you a crewmember or passenger?
It will be interesting to see what we feel.
Thanks
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RE: Important To Be A Bilingual Flight Attendant?
| Quoting Av8rix (Thread starter): bilingual |
As an interpretation from your A.net-profile, I assume you mean "English" and "Spanish" (aka. Castellano) by "bilingual" ?!
As Spanish is becoming a more and more important language in the U.S., it would be a useful aspect to have at least one F/A present who can communicate in Spanish.
For the Rest of the World:
AFAIK, all F/A's are supposed (or "required" ?!) to be able to communicate in English (in addition to their local language).
IIRC, F/A's on LX are required to be tri-lingual, being fluent in German, French and English.
Furthermore, it makes sense that F/A's on international routes are able to communicate in the language spoken at the destination of the flight. This should be at least one (1) of the F/A's.
But from own experience in Europe, that is hardly the case, which makes life a bit difficult for older folks who do not speak English onboard of non-home carriers.
-HT
Carpe diem ! Life is too short to waste your time ! Keep in mind, that today is the first day of the rest of your life !
RE: Important To Be A Bilingual Flight Attendant?
I think it is very important. I lived in Spain for a couple of years and consequently I learned Castellano (Spanish) and on all the flihgts that I have taken to go back to Spain and visit (AA, DL, CO) I have had to translate for the passengers onboard that are from Spain but do not speak English.
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- Viscount724
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RE: Important To Be A Bilingual Flight Attendant?
Excerpt from AC requirements for flight attendants from their website:
Completely fluent in at least two languages: English and French or English or French and one of the following languages: Japanese, Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, Italian, German, Hindi, Punjabi, Portuguese, Hebrew and Arabic
Completely fluent in at least two languages: English and French or English or French and one of the following languages: Japanese, Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, Italian, German, Hindi, Punjabi, Portuguese, Hebrew and Arabic
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- EWRCabincrew
- Posts: 4323
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RE: Important To Be A Bilingual Flight Attendant?
With CO, English is the only language that is required. However, it is a huge advantage to know another language. With that advantage, we do staff some of our international destinations with crew who speak that langauge. We have speakers of German, French, Spanish, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese,
To answer your questions:
1. 2
2. - domestic 0 (but I am talking about US domestic)
- international - one for each class of service
This is from a crew members point of view. Passengers would, no doubtedly, want as many speakers of their language as possible.
3. cabin crew here (I speak 4 languages and can get by in 3 others)
Reminds me of an old joke:
What do you call a person who speaks more than two languages? Multilingual.
What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual.
What do you call a person who speaks one language? An American.
To answer your questions:
1. 2
2. - domestic 0 (but I am talking about US domestic)
- international - one for each class of service
This is from a crew members point of view. Passengers would, no doubtedly, want as many speakers of their language as possible.
3. cabin crew here (I speak 4 languages and can get by in 3 others)
Reminds me of an old joke:
What do you call a person who speaks more than two languages? Multilingual.
What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual.
What do you call a person who speaks one language? An American.
You can't cure stupid
RE: Important To Be A Bilingual Flight Attendant?
1. 2
2. For domestic US none. For domestic outside the US at least one should speak the international language of business and aviation, English.
for international travel a minimum of one speaker for the destination language and one for the origination language in each cabin class.
3. both, Private charter FA and a frequent revenue passenger
"Being able to talk with them is certainly critical."
True but you would be surprised at how well you can communicate with non verbal techniques like pointing, body language, drawing etc. This one enterprizing older chinese woman on one of my flights had a sheet of paper where she had some essential phrases handwritten in her language and next to it english. She pointed to her question and I pointed to the answer. It inspired me to do the same.
2. For domestic US none. For domestic outside the US at least one should speak the international language of business and aviation, English.
for international travel a minimum of one speaker for the destination language and one for the origination language in each cabin class.
3. both, Private charter FA and a frequent revenue passenger
"Being able to talk with them is certainly critical."
True but you would be surprised at how well you can communicate with non verbal techniques like pointing, body language, drawing etc. This one enterprizing older chinese woman on one of my flights had a sheet of paper where she had some essential phrases handwritten in her language and next to it english. She pointed to her question and I pointed to the answer. It inspired me to do the same.
Enough about flying lets talk about me!
RE: Important To Be A Bilingual Flight Attendant?
Well....When i was on Qantas between SYD and HKG, I was soo suprised that there were no chinese cabin crews and Austalians/causasians dont speak cantonese/manadrain. During the announcement a cabin crew was spoken in english and then no one translate it. That's really strange...why QF fly to HKG without asian cabin crews.
The Spirit of AustraliAN - Longreach
RE: Important To Be A Bilingual Flight Attendant?
| Quoting FlyboyOz (Reply 6): |
reminds me of my experience two weeks ago.
Austria-based carrier Niki (HG), flying from Portugal to Spain (LIS to PMI):
Recorded Safety Announcement (spoken by founder Niki Lauda himself) was in German language only, no English subtitles. At the end of the recording, there was a phrase in English like "For your security please have a look into the Safety Card".
No announcement in Portuguese (origin of the flight) or Castellano ("Spanish" across the pond; destination of the flight).
Crew of 4 had problems to communicate with Portuguese passengers.
I wonder in which way such an experience has an impact on pax when it comes to selecting such a carrier again ... ?!
-HT
Carpe diem ! Life is too short to waste your time ! Keep in mind, that today is the first day of the rest of your life !
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- fantasticflyer
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RE: Important To Be A Bilingual Flight Attendant?
If your a domestic flight attendant I dont think its that important...however if your onboard a flight thats going to Venezuela....DR.. PR..etc.. then yeah !
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- Emirates029
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RE: Important To Be A Bilingual Flight Attendant?
Fairly important if you want to work for Emirates
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