Matt Whiting writes:

Why, all real countries have ATC who are English capable. France
probably being an exception. :-)

I've heard that the nickname some people have for French ATC is the "kess kee
dee," because whenever someone tries to talk to French ATC in English, one can
hear the controller whispering to his colleage, "Qu'est-ce qu'il dit?" (which
means "What did he say?" although it's pronounced "kess kee dee").

When I flew into St. Petersburg, the Russian controller's English wasn't
great, but I could make out most of it. I think I understood it better
though than did the two German pilots of the Lufthansa Airbus in which I
was riding jump seat.

When one person is a foreign speaker with an accent and the other is a foreign
listener, errors are compounded. I suspect a lot is simply not understood,
and pilots and ATC just guess at what they've heard (and are lucky enough to
usually get it right). See Tenerife for an example of what can happen when
guessing doesn't work.

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