Originally Posted by
Squawk7777
It's ignorant replies like this that make me shake my head.
Indeed, but for a different reason than yours. The incident in question (CDG near miss, mixed languages identified as a contributing factor in investigation) is relevant here. One of the recommendations that came out of the BEA reports was that CDG ATC should be English only, in account of the safety implications. Everyone that mattered agreed with that at the time: Air France, CDG management, and ATC... unfortunately some obscure, minority ATC union (see the coincidence?) and some equally obscure right wing group objected, made a fuss, the politicians got involved
and the rest is history.
Sorry I don't have references, although they can be found on the net--perhaps someone else can provide some.