Radio-exchange in French
Randy at Home
news:qdmu5-...@www.thrillseeker.net...
> In article <Yy1j9.11256$q41...@news02.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com>,
> Randy at Home <rsbecker...@hotmail.com_nospam_atall> wrote:
> >While the "Bonjour" greeting might appear polite and courteous, it will
> >probably get you in serious trouble. Speaking French on initial contact
> >directs the controller to continue all further interactions in French, in
> >Quebec. There is no standard phraseology for "But I don't speak French,
> >please switch to English", so you'd be stuck, unless the controller was
> >nice.
>
> Hardly.
>
> The controllers I used never had much trouble understanding which
> language to use if I opened with "Bonjour xxxxx Control, this is
> november one two three four five passing flight level one eight zero
> for flight level two three zero." Maybe they were just brighter than
> the ones you worked with and understood all that English in the
> contact signified something.
Perhaps if you don't have a "November" in front, they're different. Try
"Bonjour, Montreal, Arrow Gulf Juliette Uniform November" instead and see
what happens. I was specifically told in ground school, by my VFR and IFR
instructors, and examiners, never to do that for the reasons I stated above.
Any Canadian ATCs out there who care to comment?
Billy Harvey
Randy at Home <rsbecker...@hotmail.com_nospam_atall> wrote:
>Perhaps if you don't have a "November" in front, they're different. Try
>"Bonjour, Montreal, Arrow Gulf Juliette Uniform November" instead and see
>what happens. I was specifically told in ground school, by my VFR and IFR
>instructors, and examiners, never to do that for the reasons I stated above.
>Any Canadian ATCs out there who care to comment?
If they're keying on the word "Bonjour" then they are simply being
intentionally difficult (which is admittedly not unusual among those
who are not happy that English is the ATC standard). Standard
terminology does not have any "politeness words" in it and have no
meaning in the transmission - hence my earlier statement that it was
unnecessary anyway. I could as easily say "Merhaba Montreal ..." and
they certainly wouldn't reply in Turkish. All they need to hear in
the initial contact is your callsign and appropriate flight parameters
(usually altitudes). The language used after the callsign tells them
what language to speak if they did not already know from the
controller handoff, and if there is any question, they should use
English. To do otherwise then they are doing a disservice.
Billy