"Ramapriya" wrote in message
oups.com...
Have anyone of you had a problem with the accents of various ATC chaps
around the world? The German guy in our office always has a problem
picking up words I (an Indian) pronounce, and I can't fault him for
that, because most Europeans can't figure Indians' pronounciation.

But I guess this problem is with a few Spaniards and Italians too, the
way they speak English, with accentuated guttural sounds and all that.

Is this a trivial problem, considering the standard phraseology in use
in ATC communications, or can it lead to something worse?

Ramapriya

I once missed several calls from the guy working arrival / departure at
Yuma, AZ because he pronounced "Skyhawk" as something akin to "Sawk" (said
very quickly...) and my brain wouldn't connect that he was talkin' to me.
Upon further review, he had a pronounced Texas twang so that explains
that...g d r

Conversely, Chinese pilots who train out of Ryan Airfield near Tucson
sometimes give the controllers fits. Yes, they're speaking English, but
barely. Couple of weeks ago, it took a dozen tries for one of the Luke AFB
controllers to get a handle on what this guy was asking. It started to give
me a headache just listening to him.

Jay Beckman
PP-ASEL
AZ Cloudbusters
Chandler, AZ