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  • #16
    Quoth Lingering Grin View Post
    It just makes sense... you KNOW people are coming from a country with a different language... shouldn't you provide the info that is being given out (while BETWEEN the two countries), in that countries language as well as your own?


    Note: This is directed more at the people who created the forms, not the flight attendants giving them out.
    I'd imagine it comes down to cost, some countries have multiple official languages (South Africa perhaps?). Indeed anywhere within the EU you can have any of the other member states citizens residing due to open borders, so in theory you'd need to provide a translation for all EU member states whenever you travelled to/from *any* EU state.
    A PSA, if I may, as well as another.

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    • #17
      Yeah, I think cost is a big part of it. With Mexico, there's 3 or 4 different forms that passengers entering the country have to fill out. And the Mexican government only gives out a certain amount of forms to US customs, to give to the airlines. So it's not the airlines that are to blame for having single-language only forms; it's the Mexican government that refuses to spend the money to create the forms in English. In all fairness, they might not be able to afford it.
      "we pay our debt sometime..."

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      • #18
        According to the example listed here it has a few languages available if you don't speak English.

        My understanding from the overseas friends I have is that if you don't speak the language available then there are others that can be filled out in that person's native language.

        Bear in mind this is what I have been told and I do not have any experience myself with them. The furthest country I've been to is Canada.
        Random conversation:
        Me: Okay..so I think I get why Zoro wears a bandana
        DDD: Cuz it's cool

        So, by using the Doctor's reasoning, bow ties, fezzes and bandanas are cool.

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        • #19
          The one that always got me was asking how much cash you are carrying.
          If I dropped everybody who occasionally said something stupid from my list of potential partners, I wouldn’t even be able to masturbate

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          • #20
            Quoth flygirl View Post
            Yeah, I think cost is a big part of it. With Mexico, there's 3 or 4 different forms that passengers entering the country have to fill out. And the Mexican government only gives out a certain amount of forms to US customs, to give to the airlines. So it's not the airlines that are to blame for having single-language only forms; it's the Mexican government that refuses to spend the money to create the forms in English. In all fairness, they might not be able to afford it.
            I see a couple of PR opprtunities for an enterprising airline:

            1. With co-operation of the Mexican government. Airline develops a bilingual form (might need a slightly smaller typeface) in both Spanish and English, laid out in the same manner as the government issued form (so from the point of view of a Mexican customs inspector, it would be the same form), gets the layout approved by the Mexican government, and prints the bilingual forms at their own expense.

            2. No input from Mexican government needed. Airline prints (disposable or reusable, their choice) a letter-size "crib note" with an image (actual size if customs form is small, photoreduced if it's letter-size) of the customs form, with english translations (and possibly brief explanations) of what needs to go in each blank, with arrows leading to the blank in question.

            Either way, it saves time - both for the flight attendant not being repeatedly asked the same question by someone not literate in Spanish, and for the customs agent who doesn't wind up dealing with people who filled their forms in wrongly because they didn't understand the language.

            Oops - if it makes sense, it's not allowed.
            Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

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            • #21
              It makes sense, would cost the airlines money, and would get them nothing (in a business profit-and-loss sense) in return. No way it would ever happen.

              "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
              Still A Customer."

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              • #22
                Quoth Jester View Post
                It makes sense, would cost the airlines money, and would get them nothing (in a business profit-and-loss sense) in return. No way it would ever happen.
                It might get them slightly-less-aggravated flight attendants, but that's probably not a good enough incentive.
                I don't go in for ancient wisdom
                I don't believe just 'cause ideas are tenacious
                It means that they're worthy - Tim Minchin, "White Wine in the Sun"

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