23 July 2007 - Poor English grounds cabin crew hopefuls
KUCHING: Poor command of English has "grounded" hundreds of AirAsia cabin crew hopefuls who attended a recruitment drive here over the weekend. Of the 426 applicants, about 95 per cent were shown the exit because of their lack of command of the language, poor communication skills and personal grooming. "The ability to communicate well in English and Bahasa Malaysia is a criterion," Bo Lingam, AirAsia executive vice-president for operations, said yesterday. "And English is a must." He said of the 16 applicants called for the final interview yesterday, half of them might not make the cut. The budget airline is looking for about 300 cabin crew as it prepares to take delivery of 35 to 37 new planes starting from year-end. Lingam said that AirAsia might have to recruit crew from Thailand and Indonesia, countries where its subsidiaries were operating, if the local drive did not meet its target. He said this would be in line with its plans to have cabin crew who could speak foreign languages. "For example, we are looking for Mandarin-speaking crew for our China routes," Lingam said.
 Even my children did not want to listen to me when I said it is good to learn another language such as Japanese, Mandarin and even French. There are so many resources on the Internet and one can even learn a language for free .. Aiyaa .. tak tau lah .. don't want to listen one ... |
"English is a must"
Unfortunately its the truth if we want to go international.