What bothers me.

[Brie]

First of all: i have a big respect for atc and i know you have a very stressy job but as a foreigner there are some things that really bothers me when i'm going to the UK or Ireland.

I fly commercial non scheduled so i'm not familiar with every airport. Every time when atc gives me a taxi instruction they slap it around my ears with high velocity speed and with an accent i'm not familiar with.

I really appreciate it if atc pronounce it well, not too fast and keep it to the phraseology. I know i sound harsh but i hate it to ask 3 times the same thing. It may sound strange but for a non english speaking person it can be very frustrating.

I hope atc guys will not be offended but i'm sure that there are people recognising this situation.

Thx

[Lookatthesky]

Divvint nae wat youw mean

[goatface]

Ask the controllers to speak slowly, even at busy airports it's easier for the ATCOs to do that once rather than have to repeat themselves 3 times.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Tip: Don't ever, ever fly to the USA!!

[mstram]

Does transmitting "unfamiliar .... request progressive taxi" work in the U.K. ?

[45 before POL]

The majority of us atcos appreciate the language barrier is always an issue, especially non-english speaking countries, we try to slow it down(some times difficult when busy,)and also accentuate when possible 2's 3's always a problem even with accents, but got to admit have more problems with americans than french, thai, japanese, chinese......why???? ...who knows, answers on a postcard please

[bucket_and_spade]

...and while we're at let's get the French/Spanish/Greeks/etc. to stick to English in their airspace...but that's another thread!

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

I have to say that in 31 years of being operational with Heathrow traffic I cannot recall any serious language problems. One always spoke slower to one or two airlines but the vast majoritywere fine. However, my standard "delivery" was always somewhat slower than some people!!

[fireflybob]

Reminds me of visiting the New York area ATC setup in about 1974 when myself and the crew had some time to spare there. They did us proud and showed us round the whole set up. Towards the end our Captain said to our host that there was one GMC at Kennedy who talked so fast we could hardly understand him. The host controller said that he knew exactly who we were talking about as he had recently been on a famil flight with one of the local airlines sitting in the jumpseat and how embarassing it was. The skipper gave him a headset and said "You're an air traffic controller - you tell me what this guy is saying!" It was a B727 with three crew and the skipper points to the engineer and says "He gets some of it" then pointing to the FO "He gets a little bit more and then I get a bit and we just try and piece it all together!"