BEIJING (Reuters) - Less than a tenth of China's pilots meet international aviation English standards, the airline regulator said on Tuesday, encouraging them to rise to the challenge of bolstering their linguistic skills. But some pilots have the wrong attitude and are prevaricating, the civil aviation authority said in a statement on its Web site (www.caac.gov.cn). "The requirement to raise pilot's English abilities comes from a formal decision by the International Civil Aviation Organisation," it quoted deputy aviation minister Li Jian as saying. "I hope those comrades who have the wrong thinking drop their illusions, don't wait around and don't rely on others, grasp the present good conditions for studying English and dare to fulfil their responsibilities," Li said. "This will be long, hard, comprehensive work," he said. At present, only 651 Chinese pilots had passed the English exams, the statement said. That leaves some 8,000 who still need to pass. China is experiencing a boom in airline travel on the back of its surging economy, but officials have freely admitted service, training and hardware standards have struggled to keep up. Many Chinese pilots are ex-military and speak little or even no English, though some airlines do now train their new pilots overseas to ensure they have the required language skills, especially ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUKPEK25230020070619?feedType=RSS
about time. Globalization Economy + major foreign investments in China. alot of people that doesn't speak Chinese are flying to China - not all of them trust China Airlines; but, need to provide service to the few that does.
Well, even if the pilot speaks perfect English, I am still iffy about China Airline... Too many horror stories (some of them I've heard, some of them I've seen) throughout the years...
wow... didn't know that their english was that bad lol.... but isn't it ok as long as the flight attendants speak english well? I dont see much communication between the pilot and flyer
Hmmm, about overbooking and let the overflow people sit in the aisle? I can understand if other's can't believe it happened. I couldn't until I see it with my own eyes... But it's a long time ago. Or the maintainence on the birds are not very updated... so risk of its coming down is high. Oh, and the best one? The airline staff rummage through checked in luggages for loot and claim they didn't do nothing to it afterwards... Although I am quite sure they fixed all these shortcomings, I just rather fly with an airline which is more trustworthy...
That's why it's such a cool thing to live in Hong Kong Plus, I would rather ride the train, which takes longer, than to risk my neck...
i think there is a need for the pilot to speak good english, not because to show off, but is for their work. because they are going to international flight, and that means they will fly to english speaking country. when they landing and take off, they need to communicate with the relevant department. if people cant understand their english, the people might have difficulties giving instructions to the pilot. or vice versa. i know that chinese is also important, but nowadays, most of the people still treat english as an international language, we have to think about our safely before we can do anything.. so i can understand why they want the pilot to practice good english . well i also hope you guy able to understand what am i tying to tell u people. sorry that my english is poor as well
I thought you meant actual horror stories, like ghost stuff -noclue But yeah, they have horrible English! I don't understand them most of the time. The whole time they were asking me what food I wanted and stuff, I kept thinking "I can do this job." But then I remembered that I'm really bad at Chinese -tongue2
hmmm...just wondering, would chinese airlines have different standards for intercontinal flights and flights within china....it it would be a domestic flight, the need for english isn't really there.... but if its about an international flight...every pilot needs to speak and understand English...
Interesting topic! I have also encountered several "asian" pilots during my flying career. They have no difficulty understanding English as all pilots MUST be fluent in English in order to fly. Unfortunately, there is no standard as to the fluency of speech hence all accents are tolerated. In the following radio, there is a miscommunication and it happens OFTEN @ JFK due to the high traffic with jets and GA a/c. I found this video: [youtube]iWDEIvjwaFU[/youtube]
It doesn't matter if you're flying intercontinental or international. Anyone who is responsible for the lives of hundreds and even thousands a day, must read, write and speak English adaquetly. True "Asian" pilots from Asia take written tests in English, but sadly there is no speech test. The only time the pilots would need to speak English is during the interview portion of the selection process and I think the HR Recruiters and Capts. are quite generous on the asia-born pilots.
Many Captains of Asian legacy airlines are from overseas (especially Cathay, Singapore and Emirates). Most of the captains are from the UK or the US so they can mentor the Asian pilots.
Lmao, thats pretty funny yet scary at the same time knowing the the pilot and the guy at the tower don't quite understand each other that well.
China Airlines = Taiwan Air China = Mainland China but I don't think there's a difference in quality. Air China aircraft are an absolute horror when it comes to two things. 1) going to the washrooms. there are only two washrooms, and one aisle. good luck! 2) the televisions. someone PLEASE fix their english subtitles. it's people like mainlanders who perpetuate the engrish stereotype. that being said, I had a lot of fun making fun of their subtitles.
