On Mon, 2 Jan 2006 07:09:11 -0600, "Jim Macklin"
wrote:

There have been a number of incidents and a few accidents
that were caused by or in which language was a factor. The
747s that collided on the runway at Tenerife was one of
those accidents. NASA safety reports cite many language
problems http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/

Just before Xmas I flew with an instructor, from Tenerife North (Los
Rodeos), and he said the other factor was one transmission stamping on
the another:-(

When I flew I did most of the radio calls with ground, tower, approach
including La Gomera. There were no problems and their English was
pretty good (100% better than my Spanish!).

I have flown either solo or with an instructor in a number of coutries
with no problems (Finland, Spain, Portugal, Canada, USA, New Zealand,
Bahamas, St. Lucia). Any problems have been due to local procedures or
names. e.g. the Hawaiian language has very few letters and
pronunciation of place names is interesting.

To be honest I've found some of the UK Military very poor and I've
sometimes reported difficuly copying, but that's usually been due to
distortion on their transmission.