English / Sminglish
Go easy guys , some of the ATC in the States is ridiculous , no idea of being proactive and slowing a little for foreigners and/or those unfamiliar with certain airports infrastructure / taxiways etc. Besides , how come Americans are the arbiters of how English should ,or should not , be spoken , ( 'Gee, you have such a cute accent' - mind you , I love to hear that from American ladies !!! )
I recall being at the infamous Chicago O'Hare , some years ago now while flying the classic 74 for a certain Big Airline , all 3 crew ( including F/E ) struggled to copy taxi-clearance ( having been geed -up by my FO saying 'ready guys ? ) asked it to be repeated , only to receive yet another garbled machine-gun delivery , asked this time for 'slowly' , only to be met with ' gee you Brits sure slow things up ' !!
Less than a month later one of our 74s had to abandon take-off at the same airfield near V1 with all the expected tire / gear overheat problems associated with a RTO at MTOW , when a local 73 landed on a cross runway and was so busy trying to copy / acknowledge its taxi clearance while still engaged in the stopping scenario that they made a runway incursion - the dreaded LHSO ( 'Cleared to land and hold short operation ).
The subsequent enquiry was not pretty reading , but 'what the heck , noone got killed ! '
It is a problem with non-English speaking crews speaking English only when required to do so by ATC , and spending the rest of the flight speaking their native language to each other / cabin crew / passengers .
When suddenly confronted with a pressure-situation they can falter. Barking at them , faster and faster, and losing your cool at the same time is not helping.
CRM must be applied by ATC all over the world .After all , us natural English-speaking aviators can thank our lucky stars that the chosen language of aviation is our mother-tongue.
Imagine what it must be like for a pilot whose second ( or even 3rd ) language is English trying to make sense on a scratchy HF when even us lucky ones are struggling and asking for relays etc?
I suspect some of the protesters on this thread have never tried flying into places like Jakarta , where the controllers are also struggling with a foreign language ie English .
Perhaps the ATC unit concerned should be asked :- ' Do you think you could have handles this any better ? '
Patience is a virtue and certain controllers need to learn it - in the Western world especially , SET AN EXAMPLE.
Take care up there
KK