The best solution, until everybody speaks with a USA Midwest
dialect, is to say, "Unable to understand the clearance,
please speak slower and use "words twice" please."

I think when language becomes an issue, missed radio calls
and blocked transmissions are more of a problem because the
frequency congestion is not noticed.

The use of a good headset is very important, cabin speakers
are generally terrible.


--
James H. Macklin
ATP,CFI,A&P

wrote in message
...
| 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.