I travelled on Ryanair last Friday back Monday OPO/STN/OPO. On both journeys the member of CC making the majority of announcements, including the safety briefing, had a thick accent. OPO/STN was a lovely girl who sounded German and the return was a lad who sounded Spanish but whose name was Asian I believe. Now the majority of pax on both flights seemed to be either Portuguese or Spanish and as I had great difficulty understanding my own language whilst spoken with these accents, what chance for the foreigners for who English is not their first language, if at all?
I was always under the impression that the safety briefing had to be performed in the languages of the two countries that you are travelling between. Obviously I am wrong as this was not the case here, though it does happen on TAP. However, as some announcements (sorry advertisements) on these Ryanair flights were pre-recorded, would it not make sense for the safety briefing to be done that way also, then it would be understood by English and other nationalities alike?
Well done to the CC on the return on Monday evening. He also stopped the briefing as the majority of the pax seemed to think that, just because they couldn’t understand English, this was an opportunity to talk excitedly about their weekend at the London sales. Not until the cabin went quiet did he continue with the briefing. Top marks also to the CC who moved non-English speaking pax from the rear exit row.