3 ms·

I was feeling bad because I couldn't understand through the accent, which I consider my failure, not theirs. But I know one can improve understanding with prac

• sokoloff 3y ago
  There is a very regular sequence of phrases and that helps an enormous amount. I had little trouble understanding the VASA recording (which is surely lower quality than what was actually hitting the cockpit radios). I had a difficult time getting the word "accident", but the part that mattered operationally "the runway is closed" was entirely clear. If you ring up ATC and tell them “I’m eating a ham and Swiss sandwich” (an entirely non-standard transmission), you’re very likely to get “say again?” regardless of the quality of the radio link or native English pronunciation and accent. Even transmitting the ordinary items in a different sequence (altitude, route, code, destination, then frequency rather than the expected destination*, route, altitude, frequency, transponder code) will cause confusion. * technically, clearance limit, but that's most commonly a destination.