The Curious Case of Air China

How many times have I flown between Korea and Canada? The total stands at seven times. Generally speaking, that has been the extent of my travel expertise. Making that incredibly long trip between Incheon and Ottawa. I’ve done it enough times, I know what to expect at this point.

Since 2007, I have taken several different airlines for that trip. I generally take Air Canada, but I have also flown Korean Air (to Tokyo, or from Daegu to Incheon), United Airlines, and Japan Airlines. I prefer Air Canada due to the modernity of the fleet and the awesome personal entertainment system. Japan Airlines was a close second, although the open bar policy created a lot of noise with some American soldiers on the flight I took in 2010. Korean Air was okay for the short flights I took with them. United Airlines was gross.

Being an English instructor, I can’t help but notice the level of English employed amongst the flight attendants. I also notice how versed they are in speaking other languages.

The long haul flight with Air Canada gets top marks in this category. English and French are spoken as per Canadian law. However, Japanese and Korean are also present, so you have the staff speaking at least four languages throughout the flight. Communicating isn’t a problem.

Japan Airlines had Japanese and English as the primary languages. I can’t remember if there were any Korean speakers, although I think a stewardess spoke some basic Korean. The level of English was okay for me, but was giving other people problems. It wasn’t a grammar or vocabulary issue, just North Americans having trouble with an accent they weren’t familiar with.

United Airlines spoke English, since it was an American company. They may have spoken Japanese and Korean too, but I can’t remember. I just remember being squashed in the middle of five seats. And a stray dog running around the flight (seriously).

The Korean Air flights spoke English, Korean, and Japanese. Their English was passable. They spoke it in a very Korean/Konglish way, so while not a problem for me, your actual mileage may vary. I have been on a few flights where the stewardesses couldn’t really speak in English, and gave up once they understood I spoke Korean.

It’s the same at Incheon and Narita airport. The English is good enough, but nothing truly exemplary. It’s enough for basic understanding, but for anything deeper, you might have to pull out the native language. I’ve flown enough times I’ve come to expect it, so I rarely pay the English levels any heed.

But then I flew to Singapore.

From Incheon to Beijing, and then Beijing to Singapore (and back again), I flew Air China. The entire trip took two flights to leave Korea, and two flights to return. It was my first time to fly Air China, so I didn’t know what to expect.

Having spent so much time in Korea, some Koreanisms have rubbed off on me. One of these Koreanisms is how Koreans view other East Asian countries. I figured the English service on Air China would be passable, or useless. I figured Chinese and Korean would be the top two languages on the flight to Beijing, and English would be a distant third.

In Canada, I viewed China as a country with restrictive freedoms. That was the primary image I had of the country. Here in Korea, many Koreans view China as a poor country. I have been hit with that message so many times, I just assumed the level of English education would not be on par with Korea’s or Japan’s.

And that is where I was wrong. In retrospect, it’s kinda shameful I bought into that kind of ethnocentrism, but there you go.

How was the English on the flights? Damn near impeccable. Everyone spoke in Chinese or English (with one or two announcements in Korean). The level of English was far beyond anything I saw on Korean Air or Japan Airlines. I wouldn’t say they spoke in a North American accent, but it was very close, and clear. In any case, grammar and vocab were spot on.

At the airport, I had to go through security again. Although it was at a ridiculous time, early in the morning, the security (made up of uni students it looked like) could all speak great English.

I was beginning to clue in that I had unfairly judged China.

I had assumed with all the English education happening in Korea, Korean Air’s and Incheon Airport’s staff would be a touch above everyone else’s. When comparing the amount of native English teachers in Korea and China, surely this would be a no brainer.

And yet, it wasn’t as simple as that.

There was another thing that caught my eye: the courtesy levels of the stewardesses. I’m accustomed to Korean and Japanese crews fawning over passengers, and Canadian ones with being overly-polite. The Chinese girls were awesome. If a passenger was being an idiot, regardless of age or sex, the stewardesses would be abrupt with them. They would tell them to sit down, without a smile or bow of the head. If they were making unreasonable demands they would tell them to be quiet, or to stop complaining. If the passengers were polite, then the stewardesses would follow suit. It was refreshing to see this change. I wish the staff at other airlines had this kind of backbone.

Aside from English proficiency and mannerisms, there is one more difference I caught. Korean Air is famous for its drop-dead gorgeous women. In fact, the first thing I thought when I boarded the flight from Incheon to Daegu, in July 2007, was: “wow, everyone is a supermodel”. Everything about a Korean Air stewardess is meant to be beautifully elegant and graceful. The Air China staff was pretty, but they weren’t as dolled up as my encounters with Korean Air. Their hair and uniform were neat, but their skin tones were more natural, and didn’t have the artificially bleached look the girls at Korean Air use all the time.

Am I saying Korean Air prefers superficiality over customer-handling expertise? I don’t know if I am qualified to make that judgement call.

However, I do have some experience with Korean Air’s hiring program. One of the secretaries at my Daegu hagwon had dreamed of being a flight attendant with Korean Air. She was a few years older than I, and this was very important. Eventually it got to the point where being 30 wasn’t good enough, because at that point she was too new at the game and her looks would only deteriorate [*their opinion, not mine*]. While she was a good friend of mine, her English abilities were rudimentary at best. This past summer, one of my former high school students needed help getting through the personal interview process. I coached her, and she got through. But while I would absolutely defend my students to the death, her English levels cannot compare to the girls on my Air China flights.

Aside from kicking myself for misjudging China purely on Korean instinct, I began to question other things. Namely, just how effective is English being taught in Korea?

But that will be a future post.

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DISCLAIMER:

China has 1,000,000,000, people, so I am not saying per-capita China’s everyday English users are a cut above Korea’s. I’m just saying the handful I ran into, while traveling, were better than the groups I normally encounter at Incheon (and Narita).

I’ve never traveled throughout China, so it’s entirely possible many of the proficient English studiers go into airline-related industries. It’s also possible I just managed to go to Incheon and fly Korean Air on days all the best English speakers were home. Who knows?

The point of post is not to slam Korean Air, or Korean English speakers by proxy, but to give mad props to the crews of Air China and to chastise my own ignorance.