Quebecer
I am an air traffic controller having spent some time in Ottawa, Toronto, Geneva Switzerland and presently in Bahrain. I have worked with french in Geneva and shortly after I arrived there the management changed the "rules" and said we could no longer use french on the frequency in the upper airspace. The pilots got along just fine, Air France made up for 20% of the traffic and no problems at all. Speaking any other language than english in ATC is a "convenience". Have I seen situations where safety was compromised for using other than english. ABSOLUTELY. Now I cannot speak for all gulf countries but all R/T in Bahrain is english. The arguement used by many that "at least if we let them use their own language they can communicate better".. Sorry that's a load of crap. If you cannot speak english you should not be flying. Some say pilots don't have situational awareness. I disagree, most do have a real good idea what's going on. I was even thanked by a BA 747 crew for speaking english in Geneva. He said it was the first time he had heard ATC in Geneva speaking english to Air France and thought it was a great thing for safety. After all, what does it hurt us to speak the same language?