Languagelab

Hi there,
Just wondering what people's opinions were of the ICAO minimum english requirement?
Is there anything in particular which is hindering your progress? Do you think the minimum requirement was a necessary measure or is there still more that needs to be done? Have you ever had difficulty in communicating between ATCOs and pilots because of language problems?

yates

There's no difference between the requirements for ICAO Level 4 in English, Spanish, French, German or any other ICAO recognised ATC Language.
The important thing is that you can use standard ATC Phraseology making your pronunciation and delivery clear and concise.
You'd be suprised how many non native speakers who can communicate in almost perfect English at normal conversational level, but only make level 4 or 5 when it comes to Aviation English (or other language)

Spitoon

Except that non-English native speakers have to achieve level 4 proficiency. As someone whose brain does not seem to take to learning languages I count myself very lucky - pretty much every day - that I was born into an English-speaking environment. Just imagine, if history had been just a little bit different, we could all have had to learn a completely, to some of us, alien tongue just to do the day job!

TC_Ukraine

It was a big problem for our old controllers in 2008 to meet 4th level requirements. They needed just elementary english knowledge during soviet times - in every ATC center we had an interpreter))), that time the english-speaking traffic was just 0,5% of total.
But...in one of the most corrupted European countries, u can get the certificate for money (prox 300$). I call these guys with a fake 4th level "Say-agains". Guess why)

Jester Wester

Does anybody out there know of any Aviation Spanish ICAO level 4 training courses?
I am just wondering because there are lots of Aviation English courses, and now that we all have European licences has anybody come up with a plan to help the English speakers acquire ICAO level 4 in Spanish (or any other language for that matter!)