Non-English Announcements on SQ

[singaporeairlinesboi]

WOW
now i really believe that a Singapore Girl can speak swiss. Just watch the video

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[KeithMEL]

Hmm... at what specific point in the video does an SQ crew member speak 'Swiss' (Swiss-German? Italian? French?). All I see are views from the plane window?

[singaporeairlinesboi]

Hmm... at what specific point in the video does an SQ crew member speak 'Swiss' (Swiss-German? Italian? French?). All I see are views from the plane window?

its near the end like at 4-5minutes in to the film.

[KeithMEL]

its near the end like at 4-5minutes in to the film.

Ah cheers. I hear it now. For someone with zero knowledge of German - that sounds good to me.

[singaporeairlinesboi]

Ah cheers. I hear it now. For someone with zero knowledge of German - that sounds good to me.

lols told you, sounds good huh?

[up and away]

It is German.
The accent isn't swiss though. Might be English or American (very heavy "o".

[jjpb3]

It is German.
The accent isn't swiss though. Might be English or American (very heavy "o".

The accent in German sounded American to my ears (the Brits don't quite pronounce their r's at the end of syllables, e.g., "vorsichtig", "vor", "Personal").

But I have to give credit to the SQ FA for the otherwise fluent delivery.

[icn.sg]

This sounds exactly like the FA who made the German announcements on my flight! Yes, the delivery is smooth, but it doesn't quite sound as German as it should be. She pronounces her "r" is a very un-German way which sounds nothing like the German I hear in Germany.

There are certainly more authentic sounding announcements e.g. the FA on my SIN-FRA flight recently.

[jjpb3]

Yes, the delivery is smooth, but it doesn't quite sound as German as it should be. She pronounces her "r" is a very un-German way which sounds nothing like the German I hear in Germany.

There are certainly more authentic sounding announcements e.g. the FA on my SIN-FRA flight recently.

Slippery slope there. Which variety of German? Some Austrian, Bavarian or Swiss accents wouldn't really sound like the Hochdeutsch often taught in schools in the Anglo-Saxon world.

Does a non-standard or non-native (i.e., 'non-authentic') accent diminish an announcement? Personally, I don't think so -- otherwise, I'd cringe at any English announcement that doesn't sound like RP in British English or like the midwestern variant of American English. (I love a Southern drawl or a North English or Scottish or Irish lilt.) As far as I could tell, the announcement was grammatically correct.

I personally revel in accents, as long as they don't impede communication. That goes with English, or any other language in which I'm fortunate enough to have some kind of proficiency. In this case, I don't think the accent detracted from the message.

[flo]

hah. I'm a German native, so here is my opinion.

This is definetly not a native German/Swiss accent and definitely not Austrian/Bavarian or any other provincial German/Swiss/Austrian dialect. It sounds like somebody overpronounces every r and o ... and has no further knowledge of the German pronounciation. It looks like somebody just read something off some flight manual. It even kinda does not sound British or American to me because English native speakers usually have a better grip of the vowel lengths and sentence structure / sounds.

Anyway, it sounds better than it sounded five years ago

[jjpb3]

It sounds like somebody overpronounces every r and o ... and has no further knowledge of the German pronounciation. It looks like somebody just read something off some flight manual. It even kinda does not sound British or American to me because English native speakers usually have a better grip of the vowel lengths and sentence structure / sounds.

I'd be careful about that statement. With languages, there is, among adults, a difference between recognizing and being able to repeat.

Someone may fully recognize the difference in pronunciation, but he or she may not be able to replicate it. That's a function of that particular adult's linguistic ability (this isn't quite true for children of a certain age). As an analogy, many Westerners can hear the difference between words in tonal Asian languages (e.g., Chinese and Thai), but if you ask them to reproduce the difference, they'd be unable to do so, at least without a lot of effort.

Or maybe an American or British actor doesn't quite sound British or American, respectively, because he or she may be able pronounce individual syllables but not quite pull off the cadence or relative pitch across the words in a sentence. But these actors can very well tell you whether someone sounds American or British.

[flo]

sorry, I'm not a linguist but it seems like the person speaking can't apply the German pronunciation properly. It just somehow seems to me that it may be that the speaker was just reading directly out of the manual but then again, I'm not a linguist ... sorry. But I figure it should be clear now what I wanted to say. No hard feelings.

[LightSpeed]

SQ takes the easy way out with flights into South India (just got back from there recently); they don't bother with cabin crew making the announcements: they've got a pre-recorded message playing. Solves the accent / enunciation issue right there!

[Danny Bhoy]

Same with CAI, JED, DXB and AUH. SQ uses Arabic recordings, that's if they bother to have Arabic announcements at all.

[KeithMEL]

sorry, I'm not a linguist but it seems like the person speaking can't apply the German pronunciation properly. It just somehow seems to me that it may be that the speaker was just reading directly out of the manual but then again, I'm not a linguist ... sorry. But I figure it should be clear now what I wanted to say. No hard feelings.

Unless SQ actually hires native German speaking FAs, I don't think you're going to get perfect pronunciations and what not in these announcements. Same goes for announcements in other languages where they do not have FAs who speak those languages natively.

However you do have to give them credit for effort.