Announcements

Sitting at the Gold Coast airport waiting to board a delayed flight reminded me that I have been meaning to blog about the making of announcements at railway stations and at airports.    Doesn't anyone tell those responsible to s-l-o-w down when speaking into a microphone?

Waiting for that delayed plane(s)

At airports, shrillness and volume seem to be regarded as the key to ensuring that the message is conveyed.  Well, I beg to disagree.    Slower and more deliberate delivery would help a lot - along with keeping the message simple.

Metro of course are worse.    Yes, the automated announcements are quite good, but they're often not used when there are changes.   Not only are their human announcements almost indecipherable at times, being delivered rapidly, but they're often incomplete, leaving out important information such as whether a particular train will operate as an express.  Yet these are the announcements that matter the most, since they are made when disruptions have occurred.

If those of us who are accustomed to English as spoken in Australia sometimes struggle, I hate to think how non-English speaking tourists manage!