airwiz
June 7, 2001, 05:15 AM
I recently received the following question in my email. I thought I'd share it with everyone as well as my attempt at a cogent answer. Perhaps someone else can add something to what I thought was a very valid question.
HI
how important is writing skill?
Can You tell me how important writing skills are for flight attendant
training and on the job? I ask because I come from another country (India)
and speak two foreign languages (Hindi and Gujarati), but by English writing
skills are really bad. Is that going to be a problem? Are there certain
airlines that are a better chance for me to apply to? Do you have any advice
or any reading materials--for example notes you may have kept from your
training classes?
If so, please email me and I'll be happy to let you have my mailing address.
Please email me at Mike9003@aol.com. Thanks,
Best wishes,
Hemant IN WEST HOLLYWOOD
Mike:
I can tell you--absolutely--that voice communication--the spoken word--is far more important to the mission of a F/A than the written word. Indeed, it is critical and crucial that each crew member understand the other with little chance for error. You must remember, we are there to ensure the safety of our passengers before all else....everything else we do, meal service etc., has become the defining mode of our job..because the average passenger...the same one who is reading a magazine or listening to a walkman during the safety briefing.... has come to expect waiter and waitress service in lieu of life-guarding. It is due to the statistical wonder of the unparalleled safety of our industry that these same passengers have become so lulled into complacency about a possible onboard emergency. Pardon the digression. My point: In an emergency every crewmember becomes a part of a single, well-trained reaction team, and there is to time to repeat an instruction or a question. The clear, concise spoken word is paramount. To be quite honest, I know of a few, not many, but a few newhire F/A's who would be hard pressed to write a literate sentence in English. However, their spoken command of our native language (indeed, the official language of international aviation)as well as Spanish or French or Japanese and occasionally three or four additional languages, has qualified them not to properly pronounce the names of menu entrees, but, in an emergency, to understand instructions from the flight deck and convey them clearly and rapidly to passengers in their native tongue, all the while listening to and acknowledging what their fellow crewmembers are saying in English. No mean feat! Each carrier has set forth comprehension standards, both oral and written for crewmembers. You should ask the hiring representatives or write or call the office of the Director of Inflight Services at the particular carrier you are considering joining. They will be able to provide you with the proficiency standards which are in place.
Finally, I'm sort of honored that you took the time to ask one of us. It signals to me that you think enough of the collective "wisdom" of this forum than to think someone would say..."why bother, hire on at Air India!"
HI
how important is writing skill?
Can You tell me how important writing skills are for flight attendant
training and on the job? I ask because I come from another country (India)
and speak two foreign languages (Hindi and Gujarati), but by English writing
skills are really bad. Is that going to be a problem? Are there certain
airlines that are a better chance for me to apply to? Do you have any advice
or any reading materials--for example notes you may have kept from your
training classes?
If so, please email me and I'll be happy to let you have my mailing address.
Please email me at Mike9003@aol.com. Thanks,
Best wishes,
Hemant IN WEST HOLLYWOOD
Mike:
I can tell you--absolutely--that voice communication--the spoken word--is far more important to the mission of a F/A than the written word. Indeed, it is critical and crucial that each crew member understand the other with little chance for error. You must remember, we are there to ensure the safety of our passengers before all else....everything else we do, meal service etc., has become the defining mode of our job..because the average passenger...the same one who is reading a magazine or listening to a walkman during the safety briefing.... has come to expect waiter and waitress service in lieu of life-guarding. It is due to the statistical wonder of the unparalleled safety of our industry that these same passengers have become so lulled into complacency about a possible onboard emergency. Pardon the digression. My point: In an emergency every crewmember becomes a part of a single, well-trained reaction team, and there is to time to repeat an instruction or a question. The clear, concise spoken word is paramount. To be quite honest, I know of a few, not many, but a few newhire F/A's who would be hard pressed to write a literate sentence in English. However, their spoken command of our native language (indeed, the official language of international aviation)as well as Spanish or French or Japanese and occasionally three or four additional languages, has qualified them not to properly pronounce the names of menu entrees, but, in an emergency, to understand instructions from the flight deck and convey them clearly and rapidly to passengers in their native tongue, all the while listening to and acknowledging what their fellow crewmembers are saying in English. No mean feat! Each carrier has set forth comprehension standards, both oral and written for crewmembers. You should ask the hiring representatives or write or call the office of the Director of Inflight Services at the particular carrier you are considering joining. They will be able to provide you with the proficiency standards which are in place.
Finally, I'm sort of honored that you took the time to ask one of us. It signals to me that you think enough of the collective "wisdom" of this forum than to think someone would say..."why bother, hire on at Air India!"