Chinese (and other) pilots unable to speak English pose danger for air travel (CNN)

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
news
JohnT writes:

But you haven't been further than La Défense in the past 2 years except
in
Flight Simulator.

I haven't been to Mount Everest, but I know it's a tough mountain to
climb.
That's one of the consequences of education.


You may (or may not) have received a wonderful education but you have never
said anything during a NG discussion which leads me to think that you have
actually learned anything about anything.
--


JohnT

Mxsmanic wrote:
El Maximo writes:


How about those 1040 instructions printed in Spanish, or did you forget to
file (again)?


The United States is also only a small fraction of the world, and it has an
obsession with political correctness and a substantial minority of Spanish
speakers that most nations do not share.

The odd thing is that most people in the U.S. who can speak only Spanish are
illiterate in both English _and_ Spanish.

Do you have a source that you can cite for this, or did you just make it up?

On Jun 29, 5:07 pm, (Paul Tomblin) wrote:
In a previous article, C J Campbell said:

What is interesting is that in Mexico and parts of South America, the
controllers speak Spanish with local (or domestic) flights, and
english with international flights.
They do at the major airports. Get off the beaten track and you might
find a controller that does not speak English. Also, there is no
guarantee that the local commandant will speak English when you land at
some of the smaller airports. Fortunately, he usually has a jeep and
can take you to somebody who does speak English.

At gunpoint, possibly.

--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
If you had the chance of making the amount of pain your lusers had to suffer
dependent on the number of windows on their screens, you would seize the
opportunity, wouldn't you? -- Abigail

I was gonna say "For a fee..." but it amounts to the same thing I
guess.

Jay B

In a previous article, Mxsmanic said:
Chinese is a special case because the spoken versions of Chinese are mutually
incomprehensible; they are completely different. At the same time, the
written versions are generally coherent. So one Chinese person may have no
idea what another Chinese person is saying, but he will immediately understand
if they communicate in writing on a piece of paper.

Actually, it's not a special case, and it's not soley because they use a
symbolic written language. I have a Lebanese friend who can read Arabic
newspapers from around the Arab world, but he says he can understand
spoken Arabic from Syrians and Iraqis, but not from Egyptians or anybody
further away because the pronunciation drift around the Med.

--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
"Mission Control clears SMS-1 to Canaveral via thrust vectors, Up, Hold
Earth, right turns, expect further clearance in ten days."
http://www.avweb.com/news/usedacft/181561-1.html

"NotABushSupporter" wrote in message
. ..
Robert M. Gary wrote:

Actually in my travels around the world on business I've never found a
country where I couldn't find an English speaker. All you need to do
is find someone under the age of 15. I would guess that 75% of the
world's population under the age of 15 speaks some English (especially
in Asia ,South America, and Europe).

In parts of the US, you wouldn't be able to find 75 percent of the
population under 15 speaking English. If you believe that 75 percent of
the world's population under 15 speak English, you haven't traveled
enough.

While our definitions of "English" mat vary, otherwise your statement is
hogwash. Even here in Central Texas, with more than our share of
"illegals", and a 25% Hispanic population, there are very few illegals under
15. In Laredo, with a 97% Hispanic population, kids are "workably"
bilingual, and in San Antonio, 60% Hispanic, the choice of language varies
with the location and nature of the conversation. One of the great cultural
crises of the moment involves complaints by older Mexican Americans that too
few of their kids/grandkids speak Spanish (or speak it well). The same kids
I hear almost daily conversing in "Spanglish" are usually quite able to
speak English (although often one might question their literacy levels.

Perhaps they simply don't want to speak English to/with you......

About the only non-English speakers I encounter are very elderly or recently
arrived illegals, many of whom cling to the "No spik Ingles" defense long
after being able to understand the language (or the marketplace versions,
"Spanglish" and "Post Hole Spanish").

TMO

On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:39:21 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:

According to the news segment on CNN, the new test is verbal.

Most tests are, unless they are intended for folks who can't read.
(Putting round pegs into round holes would be non-verbal. Checking off
"round hole" to the question "which hole does this peg go into?" is
verbal.)

But perhaps you meant "oral"?

Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942
forthcoming from HarperCollins www.flyingtigersbook.com

Unknown voice from another plane (in a beautiful British accent): "Because
you lost the bloody war."


My son-in-law (who is English) tells this story:

A German in an AWACS over Afghanistan picks up a call from a boat in
the Bay of Bengal: "I'm sinking! I'm sinking!"

To which the controller replied in an interested voice: "And vat are
you sinking about?"


Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942
forthcoming from HarperCollins www.flyingtigersbook.com

On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:18:54 -0000, "Robert M. Gary"
wrote:

Actually in my travels around the world on business I've never found a
country where I couldn't find an English speaker. All you need to do
is find someone under the age of 15. I would guess that 75% of the
world's population under the age of 15 speaks some English (especially
in Asia ,South America, and Europe).

When I walked down the street in Kunming, I was of course the object
of great curiosity. These little round dolls on recess would crowd up
against the wrought-iron fence and shout at me: "Hello Hello Hello!"

I would turn to them and reply: "Hello."

Whereupon they almost fainted away. My God, it worked! I spoke English
to the big-nose and he spoke English right back!

I reckon they were eight years old. All girls. (Maybe they teach
Spanish to the boys?)

Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942
forthcoming from HarperCollins www.flyingtigersbook.com

On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 11:13:48 -0500, "TMOliver"
wrote:

Perhaps they simply don't want to speak English to/with you......

There's a lot of that going on. I was stationed in France when I was
in the army, and it was my impression that most Parisians preferred to
oblige the foreigner to speak French even if they were fluent in it.

In Saigon some years ago I fell into conversation with Andre Le Bon, a
one-legged war correspondent. (He left the other leg at Dienbienphu.)
We had these excruciating (for me and I suspect for him) talks about
military strategy on the part of the French and on the part of the
Americans. If I couldn't think of the French phrase, I'd said it in
English: "Regimental Combat Team" and Andre would supply "Groupe
Mobile" and we would rattle on till the next crisis. Clearly his
English was far better than my French, but we never spoke English.

After I graduated from college, I chased a girl to Montreal and hung
around there for a week. If I asked a question in French, the other
person invariably answered in English. But some years later I went
back and I found the situation had reversed: if I asked a question in
English, the other person invariably answered in French. (I.e.,
Montrealers had become Parisians.)



Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942
forthcoming from HarperCollins www.flyingtigersbook.com

On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 09:16:23 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:

Chinese is a special case because the spoken versions of Chinese are mutually
incomprehensible; they are completely different. At the same time, the
written versions are generally coherent.

My daughter took Chinese at university. She knew she was in trouble
when she looked at the lad beside her and saw that he was taking notes
in ideograms.

Though he had a huge advantage, in that he knew both the tones and the
ideograms, he was from San Francisco and therefore had learned
Cantonese, not the Mandarin taught at university.

Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942
forthcoming from HarperCollins www.flyingtigersbook.com