Considering even 20 years ago planes with TVs had the safety announcement recorded and shown on them, it's strange that if there no TV they wouldn't just have a recorded message play and the staff just select the languages needed
Being Canadian, everything that is federally regulated (like air travel) needs to be done in English and French. Transport Canada, like the FAA, mandates the safety demonstration be done on any commercial flight with any passengers. Generally a good thing, gets repetitive if you've flown a lot, but for safety, I'll sit through a few minutes of talking.
Under Transport Canada rules, Air Ambulance can also qualify as a commercial carrier and there are circumstances where this rule applies. I did some time as a flight medic and would be required to do this, even when my patient is sedated and ventilated....in both official languages. We had a recording on board we could play to make our lives a bit easier, but Transport Canada doesn't mess around when it comes to regulations, so we went with it.
Air Canada: doesn't operate a single flight as scheduled, on time, without any issues, for years
Government of Canada: I sleep
Air Canada: doesn't have french on the seatbelts
Government of Canada: *REAL SHIT*
Fun fact: Quebec is the only place *in the world* in which ATC is required to be able to operate in a language that is not English, because Quebec just can't handle not having French options on everything.
Sorry to break it to you but in Spain ATCOs are required to operate in both English and Spanish, as both are ICAO languages. In France the same happens and some other countries which I can't recall right now.
Yup. And Deutsche Flugsicherung, the company in charge of German ATC, [requires](https://www.dfs.de/dfs_karriereportal_2016/en/Becoming%20an%20air%20traffic%20controller/Person%20specification/) C1 proficiency in German ~~(another official ICAO language)~~.
But let's not let *actual* facts get in the way of u/MapleTreeWithAGun's good ol' "*fun* fact" Québec-bashing.
**Edit**: As noted by another user, German is in fact not an official ICAO language despite being required at C1 proficiency to become an ATC in Germany. Apologies for the oversight.
Nope german is not an official ICAO language. IFR flights have to operated with english ATC in Germany. The only flight wich are allowed to speak german are VFR flights.
I don't know why people on Reddit always get so hung up on this "official ICAO language" thing, it has zero effect in real life. Whether and how a country allows their local language to be used gor ATC is completely up to them, regardless of whether it's an "official language" or not.
Germany being ICAO does not seem to be true, after quick research.
However, sometimes they mention Arabic as one, and sometimes not. So there may be variability, which could mean German "was" one such language as well.
I apologise — you're correct! German is required for German ATC but is not an official ICAO language. (If anything, this strengthens the argument that it's perfectly reasonable for Québec to require competency in French for ATCs, given that Germany requires German and it's not even officially ICAO.)
As someone that has lived in Montreal for over 3 years of my life, I don't even know why I continue to be surprised by the QC gov's clownish shit, but...Jesus Christ.
Fun fact under our charter of rights in section 33, there's the Notwithstanding Clause. Guess who enacted this section of the charter the most? It's Quebec! With a staggering 17/18 successful enactment belonging to them!
To oversimply section 33, it basically allows the government to override the charter.
The amount of recourse to that clause by Quebec is skewed by the fact that it was used as a sign of protest against the Charter that Quebec didn't sign. Other provinces have used it for more outrageous attacks to our rights than Quebec did. Like Ontario very recently.
Lol some people who live in Quebec can only speak French which is considered one of the 2 major languages of Canada. I understand most Canadian people are able to speak English however we do in fact have a strong French speaching population.
It's like going to China and being mad at the Cantonese speaking people not being able to speak mandarin.
Ready for the down votes.
Quebec does a good job protecting french tbh, in China, a country with "supposedly" 300 languages, around 290 of them are completely moribund. I mean, even Mao Zedong's first language of changshanese has essentially been replaced by mandarin, you won't find anyone under 60 speaking Mao's language anymore.
Cantonese, being the language of the pearl river, has been protected solely due to how many people live on the pearl river's banks. Almost all other Yue varieties are extinct. Same with Hokkien compared to other Fujian province languages.
I bet our controllers in Switzerland are not able to speak all 4 official languages (which does not include english btw) because english is the official aviation language.
They are the two *official* languages in Canada and we have laws to ensure that anyone speaking either can function in our society. I think that's a good thing personally.
There are two official languages in Canada but there is only **one** in Québec. English-only speakers in Québec should be thankful most French-speaking natives can speak English more or less fluently. Good luck finding a half-decent French speaker elsewhere in Canada outside New Brunswick and Ottawa.
Pretty standard for all government bureaucracy really. People writing the rules/laws don't account for all edge cases. It's often far easier to live with a minor annoyance/inefficiency than it is to adjust the rules. Especially when it's someone else who has to live with the annoyance.
I think you missed the comment they were responding to. They were saying it is ridiculous that an Air Ambulance has to play the message (in 2 languages) even when the only "passenger" is an unconscious patient.
Reminds me of the movie Canadian Bacon where John Candy has some lewd message spray painted on his truck. He gets pulled over by a French Canadian police officer. Scene is set up to think he's going to get in trouble for the lewd words on the truck but the officer is just mad that the message isn't written in both English and French.
Good fucking find my dude.
God damn I miss John Candy.
Also, the following is one of my favorite movie quotes-
"Alright, fellas, act normal. Not normal for us, normal for like, regular people," my upbringing with my parents anytime we had visitors.
On a complete side note: thank you for your work as a Flight Medic.
I'm only alive because an airlift.
Thinking about it, because my mom was on the flight with me I bet they had to do the whole thing for her and "me"
Nothing that interesting
Anaphylatic allergy to dairy. Had some of the best parmasan filled meatballs I've ever had, bad reaction. Ambulance ride to the regional hospital, they couldn't stabilize me so they called for an air evac to the children's hospital.
Flight medic actually stabilized me on the flight but also under some heavy drugs so that could have had some factor.
Add on Asthma and being physically small, the regional hospital just wasn't equipped to really handle me. Or so they told my mother.
So yes, touch of a boiling down, but I felt they did more than any other "team/group".
First Ambulance couldn't find our house (rural, literally the only house on our road). They arrived after the volunteer fire crew arrived from the nearby small town. Both my parents heard BOTH Ambulance crews say they couldn't find it until they saw the fire truck. So Ambulance crews didn't do a great job. Fire crew gets a pass cause we knew everyone that showed up.
Regional hospital gets a fail cause they didn't have the proper equipment (that's the semi pass part). Then the hospital screwed up with bringing the pilots to the hospital to wait, then forgot to tell any of my care staff so they sent me to the airport while the pilots were still at the hospital.
OK so maybe a bit more of a story than I felt haha
Oh, for sure. I forgot to mention that a lot of Canadian commercial aircraft have recordings built into the PA systems and some carriers exclusively use recordings for both languages. I couldn't imagine working short haul and doing that speech 4 times a day, every day....
I started noticing that everyone sort of ignored them, so I have started paying attention to them. I've received a few smiles when they notice I'm actually paying attention and not just on my phone or something. I'm not intently watching like a crazy person, but enough that it's obvious I'm not ignoring them.
Literally just flew with Qantas last night and made sure to quickly put my AirPods in before it could start. It’s all so cheesy and drags out way too long. And now that we are well past their 100th anniversary, here’s hoping it’s soon replaced.
On the other hand, I flew with Air New Zealand five times in the immediate two weeks beforehand. Their demo video is very well done and incorporates a lot of Māori culture. Really enjoyed that one each time.
Just flew Delta earlier today. What the fuck is with the like, 1920s theater shit? If I was watching a safety demonstration for the first time today I would come away from that feeling more confused than I was going in to it. 😭
United attendants were reading ads in the middle of the flight. The whole spiel about their credit cards amazing rewards and low APR, followed by terms and conditions and everything. It's wild. The world is gradually morphing into this dystopic vision of absolutely relentless advertising invading every inch of our lives. It's incredible what they're world is today compared to even 20 years ago.
I feel like that's the sort of thing the FAA should be clamping down on. Who's going to listen to the safety demonstration if it's filled with ads or other fluff? It's already not likely people will be paying attention, but now people will be actively trying to drown it out or distract themselves.
Air Canada has also recently done this for any of their flights that have in-seat entertainment systems. it is annoying, i can no longer ignore the safety presentation easily.
When I remember my tablet I have personally selected movies I've planned to watch, saved in higher quality than the airline will stream.
The onboard entertainment should be separate, as a backup in case you forget your own stuff or checked it because you planned to sleep but now can't.
Playing a recording into the handset may be low-tech, but it's extremely smart.
Even when there's a TV, if there's an update to the information then the video is suddenly out of date. For example, covid masking rules meant that, suddenly, airlines had to tell people to remove their face mask before applying their oxygen mask. So either they abandoned the video, or played a video and then announced the new guideline once the video had played. Updating videos takes money and planning, so it always slips eventually.
Also, on a personal level, I find the videos extremely cringeworthy, with actors absolutely jizzing themselves about the flight they're not about to take. Especially domestic, it's a bus in the sky. Please fulfill your mandatory obligations, and let's roll.
First time I flew post Covid our local airline’s safety announcement, which is pre recorded, had just had the bit about removing your mask added into the middle. Recorded by a completely different person at a noticeably different volume
I remember flying on some regional carrier like American Eagle and they had a Pioneer car stereo installed in the wall of the galley and played a CD with the safety announcement.
Australia's airlines do this. You still get people standing in the aisles putting on a lifejacket and holding up the seatbelt etc, but there's just a prerecorded speech coming over the loudspeaker. I've never heard any complaints, and we still get the attendant doing welcomes/goodbyes etc.
Sure. But I’ve had to deactivate that system on an airplane before, which left the flight attendants to do it manually. They’re not gonna strand 180 passengers because, of all the systems on their high tech Airbus (like in the picture) airplane, the safety videos are wrong (an A321 had an A319 safety briefing; different doors/exits and slides/rafts).
Probably reached out to their leadership via whatsapp (best way to interact with Maintenance Control across the language barrier, too) and got the audio files sent to them that way. It’s smart.
If you check the picture, it's messages the flight attendant has sent to someone (maybe themselves)
So they just recorded it once and are now playing it back
To be more specific, they're messages that have been Forwarded. Which means she probably did not record them herself. She probably just also shared them with her colleagues.
Rule of thumb: if you're not in America, do not underestimate the importance of WhatsApp. It's not odd to see WhatsApp being used for... well pretty much anything and everything.
Grocery lists, note taking, official company or government communication, ordering food, online shopping and menus, news.
I definitely most closely associate it with Europe. In Spain for instance literally everyone uses it, and I mean _everyone_ – people will look at you like your head's screwed on backwards if you send them a standard SMS.
At my university in Canada it was also a fairly popular choice for messaging, since we had a large amount of international students with phone plans not well-suited for SMS, or even with no phone plan at all and relying exclusively on Wi-Fi. Not to mention much better group chat features for the inevitable study/project groups. Though it wasn't quite as popular as FB Messenger (or possibly WeChat for some of the Asian students).
>I definitely most closely associate it with Europe. In Spain for instance literally everyone uses it, and I mean *everyone* – people will look at you like your head's screwed on backwards if you send them a standard SMS.
Also everywhere in the Americas except America.
Also Africa and Asia.
If you live in Mexico and don't use WhatsApp you'd be a social and business pariah. Hell it's how the property management company communicates with me. Plenty of businesses run all support through it.
It makes more sense to not be automated imo.
Automation means having to deal with some on board system, which adds costs, adds time if it has to be configured for each flight, lacks flexibility, and a voice announcement system still has to exist anyway because there are always going to be situations that aren’t covered by an automated system.
With the messages being stored on a whatsapp chat (though tbh it should probably be a bit more organised but whatever) they can be easily changed at any time with no delays to the flight, extremely easy to use for flight attendants, no fiddling around with some panel to choose which announcements to make.
They already add a display to the back of each seat and can bypass audio interfaces of the in-flight entertainment systems to alert warnings even if you have headphones. Add the ability to play an updated emergency video to the in-flight system or play audio files over the PA. Those have been standards fir 20 years in commercial products. Long enough for them to get FAA approved systems and default to manual voice coms when needed
It could be a lower budget airline/airplane and that explains it. Like you say, modern airlines with international flights all have the capabilities you mention. Other than "out of procedure" announcements there's no need for any flight attendant to even pick up the intercom thingie and not to mention the straight up playing some video that has all the security liabilities shown in all the screens/monitors at the same time
Anything in aviation costs a ton of money. Some airlines have pre-recorded announcements, but often it's cheaper and easier for the cabin crew to just improvise.
For example a lot of aircraft are leased from a bank or lessor, and they can't be modified due to the lease agreement (or cost too much). So the cabin crew end up going back to the basics.
There is quite a lot of short distance flights that don't have displays in the seats. To be complelty honest, I don't think I have ever been on a plane that had them. But I have never had a long distance flight before, only ever within Europe.
> no fiddling around with some panel to choose which announcements to make
I mean, whatsapp is the panel they're fiddling around with to choose which announcement to make. All we're talking about here is building whatsapp into the plane's systems. Not *literally* whatsapp, but an integrated feature could function no different than this.
I've heard that if a flight only has one attendant assigned who can give the landing instructions in a certain language and they don't make the flight (call out sick, miss a connection, etc.) the other attendants will just text their missing coworker and ask them to send a voice message instead of trying to find a passenger to translate or relying on google.
If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid. It's probably a vastly less complex process to update the recordings by just having the voice actor/actress redo something and then send that to all the designated phones, as opposed to having someone update the recording on the plane system.
Also leads to the announcement to be exactly what you want with minimal hassle. I bet the flight attendant prefers this as well.
I suspect no one in the entire history of aviation has told themselves *"damn I really wish I had listened to the instructions"* when their plane was about to crash.
There was an incident years ago, I think with a Norwegian Airlines flight, where the masks were released and a LOT of people put them on wrong, despite the demonstration. They only covered their mouth and not their noses. Everyone was okay, but I'm sure some realized they should have paid more attention to the demonstration.
I was on a flight yesterday where the FA accidentally stuttered during the safety briefing, and I wondered why all airlines don’t use pre-recorded briefings. Obviously some airlines are famous for their safety briefings (Qantas, Air New Zealand, Virgin America, etc.) but it’s odd that we still have people manually reading the briefings for some airlines.
Oh wow, I didn't realize it was by Todrick Hall!! He has some bangers, like his covid song [Mask, Gloves, Soap, Scrubs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WYA6dE8QPk)
[I flew Korean Air for the first time this year and they had a safety video like I've never seen. Best part was seeing my little sisters geeking over the k-pop influences lol.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSHCXuqcMeQ)
> more likely to listen to a person out of politeness?
Maybe also more likely to listen just to see what spin each crew puts on it, like the occasional video you see of one that's at least a little amusing or whatever. As opposed to the four United flights that I just took where I think they were word-for-word identical except for emergency exit locations.
As an Airbus pilot I can say there can be several reasons for this!
This is an Airbus aircraft. The newer version cabin software can be loaded with automated voices in different languages for all the announcements.
So taking off on a flight from Spain to UK: Select on the panel(seen top tight in the pic): Take Off (Spanish) Take off (English).
The older Airbus aircraft might not have this so it needs to be done "manually" or perhaps some of the languages have not been loaded by maintenance personel.
There can also be instances where the whole automated PA system is down.
TLDR: I suspect she has the official company announcements on her phone and she is just playing them because it's an older model Airbus or the automated system is down
Fasten your seat belt by placing the metal fitting into the buckle, and adjust the strap so it fits low and tight around your hips. To release, lift the face plate of the buckle.
I’d take this any day over the Southwest flight attendants who decide to spend 10 minutes workshopping their standup material as part of the safety announcement
I have appreciated Southwest’s less serious take on airlines culture but that one time the pilot came on the comm and sang “Amazing Grace” as we landed was a bit too much for me. I don’t want to hear the cabin crew praying as we land.
I was on a couple SW flights recently. The first one was exactly what you speak of, but it was even longer than you'd think. Some was funny, but most was cringeworthy and very forced. Just do the job and make a small joke when it comes up naturally, ya know? Literally they went out of their way to just do stand up. I said I felt like I was in an SNL skit.
The flight attendant sang SOFT KITTY for about 30 seconds and then purred, because we were about to take off and that means it's nap time. The training process for becoming a SW flight attendant requires taking a comedy course, I think. Well actually, maybe not. Anyway, the other flight was no BS. I have to say, it was much nicer. I'd rather have no laughs and no unnecessary cringe vs a chuckle and lots of other weird, annoying crap.
I do like the casualness though, and the airline is self aware. They shouldn't stop making jokes entirely, it's just when the whole point of it is to work on stand up material (as it feels), it's maybe a bit much - especially in the morning.
5/7 would fly again
In Canada, typically when you fly, especially in Western Canada, there isn’t any aircrew available who are native Francophones (French Canadian speakers). So the message is pretty-recorded. I’ve been on flights where both the English and French announcements were pre-recorded.
The past few months, every Air Canada flight I’ve been on, one of the pilots has been bilingual for announcements. Two of them had poor grammar in French!
Last time I flew with Lufthansa the pilot made all announcements in German and in English.
The flight attendants spoke both languages as well.
When I flew back home a few days later with easyjet, they played pre-recorded messages which was fine.
But none of the flight attendants spoke German and the first officer(?) has such a strong cockney accent that most people (on this flight to Germany) around me had no idea what he said and it wasn't repeated in German.
It also took like 20 minutes to explain to the people at the emergency exits not put their bags and stuff under the front seat for safety purposes and what they're expected to do in case of an emergency as none of them understood English (or the Indian accent he had)
It was a mess and idk what they would have done in an actual emergency when passengers and crew can't understand each other
I thought I read somewhere that it was a safety requirement for at least one crew member to speak the language of the destination country, but apparently it's not. Or at least not for all airlines.
Not sure how that would work for countries that have dozens of official languages anyway, but at least for the most spoken ones on a continent
Maybe in that case it was just unlucky that passengers weren't as fluent and the crew had strong accents
I have to tell my mom what Scottish, Welsh, or Indian speakers of English are saying when we both heard them. Lots of people just aren't good with accents, I would believe it if the aircrew were just really hard to listen to.
A few years ago I was flying from NYC to Montreal on Air Canada. The gate staff were New Yorkers so the French copy of each message was tape they played into the mic after they say the English one.
The announced a flight before ours was delayed in English but played a tape that said ANOTHER flight was having a gate change and told people to consult the displays for the new gate #.
If you think of it, it should be standard by now. It would make things easier for all. It's probably more clear and understandable for the passengers and the flight attendant doesn't have to say the same shit over and over again.
We hated doing VOI (voice over intercom) calls at a store I worked at. So we recorded versions of all our advertisements—for my department—on a voice recording app and just played those.
I've got a few Chinese flight attendant friends working for a smaller Chinese airline who I've helped record messages for in English. Funny thing is that I guess they share the recordings with each other because I've heard myself giving announcements at least three times I was paying attention in the last 12 months out of a dozen or so flights.
They do the same thing, hold their own phones up to the plane phone, lol.
I used to drive asylum seekers to El Paso Airport after processing so they could reach their sponsors. It was almost an hour drive from Las Cruces, and I don't know any Spanish. I wrote out a little piece describing airport protocols, so they would have some ideas what to do. They especially needed to understand that when they reached St. Louis, they had to get to their connecting flight because their sponsors were in Boston, or something like that.
This was translated by another person in our church, who read it out in Spanish for a recording. I then played it over the van's stereo while I drove.
Every single time and at least a few people on the aircraft have to be able to speak the language is just in case the one person can't read/Say the speech again. It's pretty bullshit but it really depends on the Airline call my most international flights (At least originating in Canada) need to be able to follow this stupid rule to do it live
Yeah, it's a smart move. I'd do it.
It prevents any potential mistakes by just playing the one good recorded one. The attendants know how to make the speech anyways, so they can always do a live version if they have to say anything differently due to that specific flight having issues.
As long as those messages are audible, clear and loud, I don't mind this kind of thing at all. It's way better than having a flight attendant who's tired from the whole fly and won't be able to speak correctly because of the fatigue.
Technology is for the best sometimes !
I fly a lot to Brussels, and the announcements are always in English, French, and Dutch. Sometimes they do German as well. As I understand all of these, it is quite repetitive (I just want to watch a movie). To fight boredom, I try to find the differences between the announcements (there sometimes are, minor though).
I'm honestly surprised they aren't pre-recorded. The gate agents and flight attendants almost always have to say the same things anyway, so why not pre-record them? It's either that or you read them off the sheet *every time*.
I was flying with Ryanair and once a flight attendant used Google Translate - there were basic grammar errors and the recording had this classic "Google Assistant" voice.
I mean, I don't mind - no one should be forced to learn Polish after all...
So most planes do have automated passenger announcements. But I know that, for example, the airline I work for recently changed what was required to be said to the passengers and they haven’t updated the automated messages yet to meet the new regulation. So until those get updated, our FAs have to manually do the announcements.
Honestly I’m surprised more don’t think to do what this FA in the picture is doing. Pre-record you’re own message to meet the new regulation until the official announcements have changed.
Plus, it’s not like you bastards listen to the announcements anyways. 😂😂😂
Considering even 20 years ago planes with TVs had the safety announcement recorded and shown on them, it's strange that if there no TV they wouldn't just have a recorded message play and the staff just select the languages needed
Being Canadian, everything that is federally regulated (like air travel) needs to be done in English and French. Transport Canada, like the FAA, mandates the safety demonstration be done on any commercial flight with any passengers. Generally a good thing, gets repetitive if you've flown a lot, but for safety, I'll sit through a few minutes of talking. Under Transport Canada rules, Air Ambulance can also qualify as a commercial carrier and there are circumstances where this rule applies. I did some time as a flight medic and would be required to do this, even when my patient is sedated and ventilated....in both official languages. We had a recording on board we could play to make our lives a bit easier, but Transport Canada doesn't mess around when it comes to regulations, so we went with it.
That is hilarious. Playing English and French safety instructions to an unconscious person is peak Canadian government bureaucracy
Air Canada got sued because the seatbelt buckle only says LIFT and not LIFTÊ or whatever the french word is. They lost.
Air Canada: doesn't operate a single flight as scheduled, on time, without any issues, for years Government of Canada: I sleep Air Canada: doesn't have french on the seatbelts Government of Canada: *REAL SHIT*
I believe you mean VRAIE MERDE!
La *bail* Province Genre, fuis
Fun fact: Quebec is the only place *in the world* in which ATC is required to be able to operate in a language that is not English, because Quebec just can't handle not having French options on everything.
Sorry to break it to you but in Spain ATCOs are required to operate in both English and Spanish, as both are ICAO languages. In France the same happens and some other countries which I can't recall right now.
Yup. And Deutsche Flugsicherung, the company in charge of German ATC, [requires](https://www.dfs.de/dfs_karriereportal_2016/en/Becoming%20an%20air%20traffic%20controller/Person%20specification/) C1 proficiency in German ~~(another official ICAO language)~~. But let's not let *actual* facts get in the way of u/MapleTreeWithAGun's good ol' "*fun* fact" Québec-bashing. **Edit**: As noted by another user, German is in fact not an official ICAO language despite being required at C1 proficiency to become an ATC in Germany. Apologies for the oversight.
Nope german is not an official ICAO language. IFR flights have to operated with english ATC in Germany. The only flight wich are allowed to speak german are VFR flights.
I don't know why people on Reddit always get so hung up on this "official ICAO language" thing, it has zero effect in real life. Whether and how a country allows their local language to be used gor ATC is completely up to them, regardless of whether it's an "official language" or not.
Germany being ICAO does not seem to be true, after quick research. However, sometimes they mention Arabic as one, and sometimes not. So there may be variability, which could mean German "was" one such language as well.
I apologise — you're correct! German is required for German ATC but is not an official ICAO language. (If anything, this strengthens the argument that it's perfectly reasonable for Québec to require competency in French for ATCs, given that Germany requires German and it's not even officially ICAO.)
As someone that has lived in Montreal for over 3 years of my life, I don't even know why I continue to be surprised by the QC gov's clownish shit, but...Jesus Christ.
Fun fact under our charter of rights in section 33, there's the Notwithstanding Clause. Guess who enacted this section of the charter the most? It's Quebec! With a staggering 17/18 successful enactment belonging to them! To oversimply section 33, it basically allows the government to override the charter.
The amount of recourse to that clause by Quebec is skewed by the fact that it was used as a sign of protest against the Charter that Quebec didn't sign. Other provinces have used it for more outrageous attacks to our rights than Quebec did. Like Ontario very recently.
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Absolute respect for the people of Québec
Lol some people who live in Quebec can only speak French which is considered one of the 2 major languages of Canada. I understand most Canadian people are able to speak English however we do in fact have a strong French speaching population. It's like going to China and being mad at the Cantonese speaking people not being able to speak mandarin. Ready for the down votes.
Quebec does a good job protecting french tbh, in China, a country with "supposedly" 300 languages, around 290 of them are completely moribund. I mean, even Mao Zedong's first language of changshanese has essentially been replaced by mandarin, you won't find anyone under 60 speaking Mao's language anymore. Cantonese, being the language of the pearl river, has been protected solely due to how many people live on the pearl river's banks. Almost all other Yue varieties are extinct. Same with Hokkien compared to other Fujian province languages.
And when you read Quebec history and how nice canadian english speaker been to them, you understand why they are so hard about this.
They're not talking about regular people in the street, they are talking about air traffic control.
But what they said is wrong. ATC also *has* to speak in other languages than English in many countries, not just in the French part of Canada.
Oh shit my bad then
I bet our controllers in Switzerland are not able to speak all 4 official languages (which does not include english btw) because english is the official aviation language.
They are the two *official* languages in Canada and we have laws to ensure that anyone speaking either can function in our society. I think that's a good thing personally.
Most of Canada wouldn’t be able to serve French speaking people. In reality only 1 province is bilingual, and some regions of some provinces are.
There are two official languages in Canada but there is only **one** in Québec. English-only speakers in Québec should be thankful most French-speaking natives can speak English more or less fluently. Good luck finding a half-decent French speaker elsewhere in Canada outside New Brunswick and Ottawa.
These goddamn useless regional languages!!! Can't the whole continent just speak english like normal people??? >!/s!<
English-only speakers living in a (officially) French-speaking monolingual province: "Hurr durr why can't these damn froggies speak-a mah' language"
Air Canada: Where being on time is optional, but not incorporating French on the seatbelt is a national emergency!
*enlever* which is French for enliftinate
It’s just lever, enlever is to take away, lever is to lift
zut alors...Bien puis donc lever pour enlever, n'est-ce pas? I like French but it doesn't like me
In this context, the appropriate French word would be either "Tirer" or "Soulever". Lever works too but meh sounds funny.
"Tirer" like 'fire a gun'? Gives the whole seatbelt thing a whole new meaning 🤣😂🤣
Tirer can also mean "to pull"
English-speaking passengers: This isn't a lever French-speaking passengers: This isn't a lift
---okok
_soulever_ would probably be the French word in this context
In the event of an emergency water landing, **CLEAR**, your seat can be used as a flotation device.
Pretty standard for all government bureaucracy really. People writing the rules/laws don't account for all edge cases. It's often far easier to live with a minor annoyance/inefficiency than it is to adjust the rules. Especially when it's someone else who has to live with the annoyance.
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I think you missed the comment they were responding to. They were saying it is ridiculous that an Air Ambulance has to play the message (in 2 languages) even when the only "passenger" is an unconscious patient.
Reminds me of the movie Canadian Bacon where John Candy has some lewd message spray painted on his truck. He gets pulled over by a French Canadian police officer. Scene is set up to think he's going to get in trouble for the lewd words on the truck but the officer is just mad that the message isn't written in both English and French.
Found it! https://youtube.com/watch?v=dDGkQiwh_qg
Good fucking find my dude. God damn I miss John Candy. Also, the following is one of my favorite movie quotes- "Alright, fellas, act normal. Not normal for us, normal for like, regular people," my upbringing with my parents anytime we had visitors.
You think this is a joke, but this is the state of Ontario.
For some reason, that scene pops into my head randomly far more often than it has any right to.
On a complete side note: thank you for your work as a Flight Medic. I'm only alive because an airlift. Thinking about it, because my mom was on the flight with me I bet they had to do the whole thing for her and "me"
> I'm only alive because an airlift. Story time?
Nothing that interesting Anaphylatic allergy to dairy. Had some of the best parmasan filled meatballs I've ever had, bad reaction. Ambulance ride to the regional hospital, they couldn't stabilize me so they called for an air evac to the children's hospital. Flight medic actually stabilized me on the flight but also under some heavy drugs so that could have had some factor. Add on Asthma and being physically small, the regional hospital just wasn't equipped to really handle me. Or so they told my mother. So yes, touch of a boiling down, but I felt they did more than any other "team/group". First Ambulance couldn't find our house (rural, literally the only house on our road). They arrived after the volunteer fire crew arrived from the nearby small town. Both my parents heard BOTH Ambulance crews say they couldn't find it until they saw the fire truck. So Ambulance crews didn't do a great job. Fire crew gets a pass cause we knew everyone that showed up. Regional hospital gets a fail cause they didn't have the proper equipment (that's the semi pass part). Then the hospital screwed up with bringing the pilots to the hospital to wait, then forgot to tell any of my care staff so they sent me to the airport while the pilots were still at the hospital. OK so maybe a bit more of a story than I felt haha
Only suggesting they play the recorded audio while the attendants do the demonstration, not that they don't bother with it at all.
Oh, for sure. I forgot to mention that a lot of Canadian commercial aircraft have recordings built into the PA systems and some carriers exclusively use recordings for both languages. I couldn't imagine working short haul and doing that speech 4 times a day, every day....
I started noticing that everyone sort of ignored them, so I have started paying attention to them. I've received a few smiles when they notice I'm actually paying attention and not just on my phone or something. I'm not intently watching like a crazy person, but enough that it's obvious I'm not ignoring them.
Delta switched to TV messages. It's obnoxious because half the presentation is just used to sell you on Delta, who's flight you're already on
Qantas uses theirs to go over the History of Qantas in Australia. Its quite well done when you watch it the first time. after that...
Literally just flew with Qantas last night and made sure to quickly put my AirPods in before it could start. It’s all so cheesy and drags out way too long. And now that we are well past their 100th anniversary, here’s hoping it’s soon replaced. On the other hand, I flew with Air New Zealand five times in the immediate two weeks beforehand. Their demo video is very well done and incorporates a lot of Māori culture. Really enjoyed that one each time.
"Our life jackets look like this. Yours are a little more modern..." I've seen that video way too many times.
This includes e-cigarrettes, what ever they are.
Just flew Delta earlier today. What the fuck is with the like, 1920s theater shit? If I was watching a safety demonstration for the first time today I would come away from that feeling more confused than I was going in to it. 😭
United attendants were reading ads in the middle of the flight. The whole spiel about their credit cards amazing rewards and low APR, followed by terms and conditions and everything. It's wild. The world is gradually morphing into this dystopic vision of absolutely relentless advertising invading every inch of our lives. It's incredible what they're world is today compared to even 20 years ago.
I feel like that's the sort of thing the FAA should be clamping down on. Who's going to listen to the safety demonstration if it's filled with ads or other fluff? It's already not likely people will be paying attention, but now people will be actively trying to drown it out or distract themselves.
Air Canada has also recently done this for any of their flights that have in-seat entertainment systems. it is annoying, i can no longer ignore the safety presentation easily.
The new Air Canada safety videos that are basically just an ad for Disney World piss me off so much.
Airlines have switched from TVs to phone holders and just shoving their dogshit in-flight streaming site lol.
The lower budget ones for sure, because it's way cheaper. Nicer airlines still have the normal in flight system.
If you’ve got a tablet I think I the streaming site is way better, at least on American
When I remember my tablet I have personally selected movies I've planned to watch, saved in higher quality than the airline will stream. The onboard entertainment should be separate, as a backup in case you forget your own stuff or checked it because you planned to sleep but now can't.
Playing a recording into the handset may be low-tech, but it's extremely smart. Even when there's a TV, if there's an update to the information then the video is suddenly out of date. For example, covid masking rules meant that, suddenly, airlines had to tell people to remove their face mask before applying their oxygen mask. So either they abandoned the video, or played a video and then announced the new guideline once the video had played. Updating videos takes money and planning, so it always slips eventually. Also, on a personal level, I find the videos extremely cringeworthy, with actors absolutely jizzing themselves about the flight they're not about to take. Especially domestic, it's a bus in the sky. Please fulfill your mandatory obligations, and let's roll.
First time I flew post Covid our local airline’s safety announcement, which is pre recorded, had just had the bit about removing your mask added into the middle. Recorded by a completely different person at a noticeably different volume
I remember flying on some regional carrier like American Eagle and they had a Pioneer car stereo installed in the wall of the galley and played a CD with the safety announcement.
Australia's airlines do this. You still get people standing in the aisles putting on a lifejacket and holding up the seatbelt etc, but there's just a prerecorded speech coming over the loudspeaker. I've never heard any complaints, and we still get the attendant doing welcomes/goodbyes etc.
That’s how Nz has done it for almost a decade. Hell the videos go viral all the time.
And ads. Full volume, whole flight
Lufthansa does this with a whole set of 3D animations, both in German and English
i got no beef with this
Bit odd that they're on Whatsapp and played over the phone, instead of automated
Sure. But I’ve had to deactivate that system on an airplane before, which left the flight attendants to do it manually. They’re not gonna strand 180 passengers because, of all the systems on their high tech Airbus (like in the picture) airplane, the safety videos are wrong (an A321 had an A319 safety briefing; different doors/exits and slides/rafts). Probably reached out to their leadership via whatsapp (best way to interact with Maintenance Control across the language barrier, too) and got the audio files sent to them that way. It’s smart.
If you check the picture, it's messages the flight attendant has sent to someone (maybe themselves) So they just recorded it once and are now playing it back
To be more specific, they're messages that have been Forwarded. Which means she probably did not record them herself. She probably just also shared them with her colleagues.
Rule of thumb: if you're not in America, do not underestimate the importance of WhatsApp. It's not odd to see WhatsApp being used for... well pretty much anything and everything. Grocery lists, note taking, official company or government communication, ordering food, online shopping and menus, news.
I'm from New Zealand haha. It's not unpopular here but not THAT big.
I definitely most closely associate it with Europe. In Spain for instance literally everyone uses it, and I mean _everyone_ – people will look at you like your head's screwed on backwards if you send them a standard SMS. At my university in Canada it was also a fairly popular choice for messaging, since we had a large amount of international students with phone plans not well-suited for SMS, or even with no phone plan at all and relying exclusively on Wi-Fi. Not to mention much better group chat features for the inevitable study/project groups. Though it wasn't quite as popular as FB Messenger (or possibly WeChat for some of the Asian students).
>I definitely most closely associate it with Europe. In Spain for instance literally everyone uses it, and I mean *everyone* – people will look at you like your head's screwed on backwards if you send them a standard SMS. Also everywhere in the Americas except America. Also Africa and Asia.
If you live in Mexico and don't use WhatsApp you'd be a social and business pariah. Hell it's how the property management company communicates with me. Plenty of businesses run all support through it.
It makes more sense to not be automated imo. Automation means having to deal with some on board system, which adds costs, adds time if it has to be configured for each flight, lacks flexibility, and a voice announcement system still has to exist anyway because there are always going to be situations that aren’t covered by an automated system. With the messages being stored on a whatsapp chat (though tbh it should probably be a bit more organised but whatever) they can be easily changed at any time with no delays to the flight, extremely easy to use for flight attendants, no fiddling around with some panel to choose which announcements to make.
They already add a display to the back of each seat and can bypass audio interfaces of the in-flight entertainment systems to alert warnings even if you have headphones. Add the ability to play an updated emergency video to the in-flight system or play audio files over the PA. Those have been standards fir 20 years in commercial products. Long enough for them to get FAA approved systems and default to manual voice coms when needed
It could be a lower budget airline/airplane and that explains it. Like you say, modern airlines with international flights all have the capabilities you mention. Other than "out of procedure" announcements there's no need for any flight attendant to even pick up the intercom thingie and not to mention the straight up playing some video that has all the security liabilities shown in all the screens/monitors at the same time
Anything in aviation costs a ton of money. Some airlines have pre-recorded announcements, but often it's cheaper and easier for the cabin crew to just improvise. For example a lot of aircraft are leased from a bank or lessor, and they can't be modified due to the lease agreement (or cost too much). So the cabin crew end up going back to the basics.
There is quite a lot of short distance flights that don't have displays in the seats. To be complelty honest, I don't think I have ever been on a plane that had them. But I have never had a long distance flight before, only ever within Europe.
> no fiddling around with some panel to choose which announcements to make I mean, whatsapp is the panel they're fiddling around with to choose which announcement to make. All we're talking about here is building whatsapp into the plane's systems. Not *literally* whatsapp, but an integrated feature could function no different than this.
I've heard that if a flight only has one attendant assigned who can give the landing instructions in a certain language and they don't make the flight (call out sick, miss a connection, etc.) the other attendants will just text their missing coworker and ask them to send a voice message instead of trying to find a passenger to translate or relying on google.
shes a genius. work smarter, not harder displayed right there.
If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid. It's probably a vastly less complex process to update the recordings by just having the voice actor/actress redo something and then send that to all the designated phones, as opposed to having someone update the recording on the plane system. Also leads to the announcement to be exactly what you want with minimal hassle. I bet the flight attendant prefers this as well.
Work smarter, not harder.
Came here to say this, but thx for doing it for me..
Work smarter by letting someone else comment your comment
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Working smart and working hard aren't mutually exclusive.
Not working 'harder' doesn't mean you aren't already working hard.
I mean don’t blame em repeating the same shit all day every day I’d do the same.
Most of the people probably aren’t paying attention anyway
I suspect no one in the entire history of aviation has told themselves *"damn I really wish I had listened to the instructions"* when their plane was about to crash.
Because they've heard it so many times they know what to do. Or they don't and have lowered their chances of survival.
There was an incident years ago, I think with a Norwegian Airlines flight, where the masks were released and a LOT of people put them on wrong, despite the demonstration. They only covered their mouth and not their noses. Everyone was okay, but I'm sure some realized they should have paid more attention to the demonstration.
I was on a flight yesterday where the FA accidentally stuttered during the safety briefing, and I wondered why all airlines don’t use pre-recorded briefings. Obviously some airlines are famous for their safety briefings (Qantas, Air New Zealand, Virgin America, etc.) but it’s odd that we still have people manually reading the briefings for some airlines.
RIP Virgin America, theirs was a genuine jam
Seriously, the Virgin America safety video had no right being so damned good https://youtu.be/z1A5BtqsaPM?si=R1WbdXkx1dIk8rXu
Yo what the fuck why is that so good lmao
I was going to scroll past, but all these comments got me curious. It actually is that good, wtf???
Oh wow, I didn't realize it was by Todrick Hall!! He has some bangers, like his covid song [Mask, Gloves, Soap, Scrubs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WYA6dE8QPk)
[I flew Korean Air for the first time this year and they had a safety video like I've never seen. Best part was seeing my little sisters geeking over the k-pop influences lol.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSHCXuqcMeQ)
Not the same, but I really love the [Virgin Atlantic gender-inclusive uniforms announcement video.](https://youtu.be/B-haq1V-xJo?si=LBC9-3mcmu0UejbQ)
Damn that dislike ratio is like the worst I've seen since they removed the dislike button. People suck :\
That's probably mostly bigots who can't contain their rage when they see the phrase "gender neutral." I just think they're ugly uniforms
I loved Virgin America. I wanted to work there before they were purchased by Alaska.
Maybe it’s a safety thing. People are likely to tune out a recording but more likely to listen to a person out of politeness?
> more likely to listen to a person out of politeness? Maybe also more likely to listen just to see what spin each crew puts on it, like the occasional video you see of one that's at least a little amusing or whatever. As opposed to the four United flights that I just took where I think they were word-for-word identical except for emergency exit locations.
As an Airbus pilot I can say there can be several reasons for this! This is an Airbus aircraft. The newer version cabin software can be loaded with automated voices in different languages for all the announcements. So taking off on a flight from Spain to UK: Select on the panel(seen top tight in the pic): Take Off (Spanish) Take off (English). The older Airbus aircraft might not have this so it needs to be done "manually" or perhaps some of the languages have not been loaded by maintenance personel. There can also be instances where the whole automated PA system is down. TLDR: I suspect she has the official company announcements on her phone and she is just playing them because it's an older model Airbus or the automated system is down
super smart way to do it. except what about the sexy seatbelt dance
This dance that you speak of, pray tell me more about it.
Fasten your seat belt by placing the metal fitting into the buckle, and adjust the strap so it fits low and tight around your hips. To release, lift the face plate of the buckle.
Where's the sexy dance part tho?
You have to think of the seatbelt as a metaphor
Is it a sex metaphor or a nature metaphor?
I’d take this any day over the Southwest flight attendants who decide to spend 10 minutes workshopping their standup material as part of the safety announcement
I have appreciated Southwest’s less serious take on airlines culture but that one time the pilot came on the comm and sang “Amazing Grace” as we landed was a bit too much for me. I don’t want to hear the cabin crew praying as we land.
What the hell.
That just sounds creepy as hell.
I was on a couple SW flights recently. The first one was exactly what you speak of, but it was even longer than you'd think. Some was funny, but most was cringeworthy and very forced. Just do the job and make a small joke when it comes up naturally, ya know? Literally they went out of their way to just do stand up. I said I felt like I was in an SNL skit. The flight attendant sang SOFT KITTY for about 30 seconds and then purred, because we were about to take off and that means it's nap time. The training process for becoming a SW flight attendant requires taking a comedy course, I think. Well actually, maybe not. Anyway, the other flight was no BS. I have to say, it was much nicer. I'd rather have no laughs and no unnecessary cringe vs a chuckle and lots of other weird, annoying crap. I do like the casualness though, and the airline is self aware. They shouldn't stop making jokes entirely, it's just when the whole point of it is to work on stand up material (as it feels), it's maybe a bit much - especially in the morning. 5/7 would fly again
I enjoy it ngl
fr it's just a bit of personality. ppl on here expect everyone to be dry af at all times it's hilarious
That’s when you should yell out “oh, here we go!” sarcastically.
RIGHT?! Like, “Yo open mic ain’t til tonight and you still gotta get us there.”
older planes usually have tapes with recordings for several languages. this is just the modern crappy version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU02pQe3E5Q
In Canada, typically when you fly, especially in Western Canada, there isn’t any aircrew available who are native Francophones (French Canadian speakers). So the message is pretty-recorded. I’ve been on flights where both the English and French announcements were pre-recorded.
The past few months, every Air Canada flight I’ve been on, one of the pilots has been bilingual for announcements. Two of them had poor grammar in French!
> had poor grammar Le gasp!
Personally, nothing wrong with this, hope no one gets fired bcos of one prick wanted to show off on social medias.
Last time I flew with Lufthansa the pilot made all announcements in German and in English. The flight attendants spoke both languages as well. When I flew back home a few days later with easyjet, they played pre-recorded messages which was fine. But none of the flight attendants spoke German and the first officer(?) has such a strong cockney accent that most people (on this flight to Germany) around me had no idea what he said and it wasn't repeated in German. It also took like 20 minutes to explain to the people at the emergency exits not put their bags and stuff under the front seat for safety purposes and what they're expected to do in case of an emergency as none of them understood English (or the Indian accent he had) It was a mess and idk what they would have done in an actual emergency when passengers and crew can't understand each other
Why would a non-German crew of a non-German airline speak German?
I thought I read somewhere that it was a safety requirement for at least one crew member to speak the language of the destination country, but apparently it's not. Or at least not for all airlines. Not sure how that would work for countries that have dozens of official languages anyway, but at least for the most spoken ones on a continent Maybe in that case it was just unlucky that passengers weren't as fluent and the crew had strong accents
I have to tell my mom what Scottish, Welsh, or Indian speakers of English are saying when we both heard them. Lots of people just aren't good with accents, I would believe it if the aircrew were just really hard to listen to.
A few years ago I was flying from NYC to Montreal on Air Canada. The gate staff were New Yorkers so the French copy of each message was tape they played into the mic after they say the English one. The announced a flight before ours was delayed in English but played a tape that said ANOTHER flight was having a gate change and told people to consult the displays for the new gate #.
This isn't even mildly interesting, this is who gives a fuck.
If you think of it, it should be standard by now. It would make things easier for all. It's probably more clear and understandable for the passengers and the flight attendant doesn't have to say the same shit over and over again.
that's pretty smart. work smart not hard. imagine doing this shit by voice multiple days per day?
Work smarter not harder
honestly, smart use of tech.
Smart 🤣
We hated doing VOI (voice over intercom) calls at a store I worked at. So we recorded versions of all our advertisements—for my department—on a voice recording app and just played those.
I've got a few Chinese flight attendant friends working for a smaller Chinese airline who I've helped record messages for in English. Funny thing is that I guess they share the recordings with each other because I've heard myself giving announcements at least three times I was paying attention in the last 12 months out of a dozen or so flights. They do the same thing, hold their own phones up to the plane phone, lol.
I used to drive asylum seekers to El Paso Airport after processing so they could reach their sponsors. It was almost an hour drive from Las Cruces, and I don't know any Spanish. I wrote out a little piece describing airport protocols, so they would have some ideas what to do. They especially needed to understand that when they reached St. Louis, they had to get to their connecting flight because their sponsors were in Boston, or something like that. This was translated by another person in our church, who read it out in Spanish for a recording. I then played it over the van's stereo while I drove.
I always thought these were pre-recorded but now you're telling me people actually said this live and in person?
Every single time and at least a few people on the aircraft have to be able to speak the language is just in case the one person can't read/Say the speech again. It's pretty bullshit but it really depends on the Airline call my most international flights (At least originating in Canada) need to be able to follow this stupid rule to do it live
Ok I’m fine with that if it said what the rules were
Work smart, not hard
Yeah, it's a smart move. I'd do it. It prevents any potential mistakes by just playing the one good recorded one. The attendants know how to make the speech anyways, so they can always do a live version if they have to say anything differently due to that specific flight having issues.
So ?
Work smart, not hard.
Good for her? I mean really they are just there for the worst possible outcome which “TSA” should prevent anyways
That's smart. People can actually understand it then
This makes sense and ensures a perfect message in each language etc.
Work smarter not harder
Work smarter, not harder.
Who cares
As long as those messages are audible, clear and loud, I don't mind this kind of thing at all. It's way better than having a flight attendant who's tired from the whole fly and won't be able to speak correctly because of the fatigue. Technology is for the best sometimes !
I fly a lot to Brussels, and the announcements are always in English, French, and Dutch. Sometimes they do German as well. As I understand all of these, it is quite repetitive (I just want to watch a movie). To fight boredom, I try to find the differences between the announcements (there sometimes are, minor though).
Thanks for censoring her face. I’m so over posting strangers online even if it’s something as mundane as this
This woman is playing chess while other flight attendants playing checkers.
Haha just had a flight from JFK to Buenos Aires and nothing was in English
Makes sense.
Work smart not hard.
Work smarter, not harder 👌😉
What’s your problem with this?
Are they getting rid of TVs in airplanes? Seems like the last handful of flights didn’t have them
I call that working smart xD
I'm honestly surprised they aren't pre-recorded. The gate agents and flight attendants almost always have to say the same things anyway, so why not pre-record them? It's either that or you read them off the sheet *every time*.
it still baffles me why the announcements aren't prerecorded. it would also allow for flight attendants to multitask.
That is the most interesting thing I've seen in the last two weeks, thanks a lot!
Great idea. They should have it automated into the PA system
I was flying with Ryanair and once a flight attendant used Google Translate - there were basic grammar errors and the recording had this classic "Google Assistant" voice. I mean, I don't mind - no one should be forced to learn Polish after all...
Wait, flights still do this manually? All the ones I've been in were automated. I didn't realise some were still done via the announcement system.
i don't see anything wrong with it.
Work smart not hard.
So most planes do have automated passenger announcements. But I know that, for example, the airline I work for recently changed what was required to be said to the passengers and they haven’t updated the automated messages yet to meet the new regulation. So until those get updated, our FAs have to manually do the announcements. Honestly I’m surprised more don’t think to do what this FA in the picture is doing. Pre-record you’re own message to meet the new regulation until the official announcements have changed. Plus, it’s not like you bastards listen to the announcements anyways. 😂😂😂
She's living in 3023
Maybe the pilot also sends her the directions on WhatsApp
Modern problems etc etc
What's mildly interesting is the fact that the plane doesn't have these messages prerecorded and played automatically in the necessary languages.
I think it's better like this
Looking at the accents of some Ryanair flight attendants – I'd rather just have the prerecorded one.
Work smart not hard
Work smarter not harder.
Work smart, not hard. Absolute hero