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No, that was a question!

by qwertz, February 12, 2010

Messages: 52

Language: English

qwertz (User's profile) February 12, 2010, 9:26:01 AM

Hi,

I found this video at youtube which matters a strong misunderstanding between a english-native airport tower and a asian pilot. I did a advanced Google search at the aviation-safety.net domain to find out what the current scale for that issue is. I don't wanna blame somebody. I just asked myself if esperanto due to it's "one letter, one sound" philosophy" (and specially for the case above the "ĉu" marker) and clear pronouncation could avoid such life danger situations. What do you think?

qwertz (User's profile) February 12, 2010, 9:41:16 AM

Does somebody here works at these airport field and could give some information if there excists areas where they don't use english as communication language between the tower and the pilot? That's seems to be current situation at small airports, isn't it? So, could be a popular esperanto varbado let that come-in procedure get be filmed and link them later to miscommunication airplane videos at youtube. But with Esperanto as the command language. Should that be possible by law?

Rogir (User's profile) February 12, 2010, 11:01:37 AM

I believe that English is the official language of aviation, but if both pilot and control tower speak the same language, they can use that too, as will probably happen a lot in local flights.

jan aleksan (User's profile) February 12, 2010, 11:06:34 AM

I don't understand, neither the texts, nor the prononciation.

andogigi (User's profile) February 12, 2010, 1:14:15 PM

I once read that, during the Soviet era, it was official government policy in the USSR and Eastern Europe to use Russian for aviation communications. Does anyone know if that has changed? Am I mistaken?

andogigi (User's profile) February 12, 2010, 1:30:39 PM

I've noticed, in the video, that the guy in the tower has a very strong American accent and is not slowing down much for a foreign speaker. This is a common mistake people make who are not bilingual. I'm not faulting the guy in the tower since I was just as guilty as he was before I became bilingual.

Ask yourself this... If you had been the fellow in the tower, wouldn't you have slowed down and enunciated your words more clearly before showing your frustration over an open mike? If you answered yes, I submit that it is because you are probably bilingual and can empathize with the Chinese pilot.

We need more bilingual education in our schools and this is a prime example for the reasons why.

qwertz (User's profile) February 12, 2010, 1:32:22 PM

andogigi: Ask yourself this... If you had been the fellow in the tower, wouldn't you have slowed down and enunciated your words more clearly before showing your frustration over an open mike? If you answered yes, I submit that it is because you are probably bilingual and can empathize with the Chinese pilot.
Jes, I agree. If somebodies doesn't have the experience what efforts it takes to learn a foreign language s/he will have less motivation to slow down or try to speak more clearly. Furthermore if you have never been in a situation where to speak cleary and have some patience you can not train that. But I also can understand the person from the tower. He still went down to "Yes/No question" level. Even that doesn't work. What the pilot spoke could only understood through the context. Very dangerous situation if you keep in mind what could happen if the pilot crashes the aerofoil during "clearing" into the hangar. (The aerofoil contains the kerosene fuel) Don't let talk about the situation in the air.

ceigered (User's profile) February 12, 2010, 5:38:50 PM

I just asked myself if esperanto due to it's "one letter, one sound" philosophy and clear pronouncation could avoid such life danger situations. What do you think?
Esperanto, in my opinion, would only be as capable as English in avoiding such dangers. But as someone said, bilingualism makes people better at adapting their speech to suit the other person, so Esperanto could be that second language which helps people learn the importance of communicating clearly ridulo.gif

(I must admit I never had much trouble being monolingual when speaking to English-learners, but then again I sucked at English due to mild deafness as a toddle so I probably had to adapt myself to others when speaking. So I guess it depends on background).

Miland (User's profile) February 12, 2010, 5:59:37 PM

qwertz:I found this video..
This sounds dangerous. If English is the international language of aviation, then the training and qualifying test for pilots should cover such situations.

andogigi (User's profile) February 12, 2010, 9:41:36 PM

Miland:This sounds dangerous. If English is the international language of aviation, then the training and qualifying test for pilots should cover such situations.
That is a fair observation. I question, however, whether or not a fluency test is capable of telling whether a non-native speaker is capable of understanding everything that is said at any given moment. To be fair, I'm not sure all native English speakers could be held to that standard.

In this situation, I have the definite feeling that a little more patience from the air-traffic controller might have helped to achieve the desired result.

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