The decision to have announcements in more languages in KLIA and international airports has to be made based on statistics and data. Too many announcements will be a nuisance to airport users who do not understand the languages. There should be a limit on how many languages used in the public announcement.
Can Malaysia Airports Berhad make a pareto analysis on tourist arrivals and share it with the public on top three airport users according to their language spoken. I suspect Indian visitors mostly are English and Hindi speakers, Tamil speakers are in a minority since only 5% Indian population are Tamil descendants.
Go ahead to add Tamil language announcement if Tamil spoken visitors are in the top three airport users, otherwise let scrap the idea for lesser noise pollution in our airports.
Limit languages for airport announcements
I REFER to the news report in The Star, that the Transport Ministry plans to have Tamil announcements at KLIA, LCCT.
Such a decision has to be made based on statistics and data.
Too many announcements will be a nuisance to airport users who do not understand the languages. There should be a limit on languages used for public announcements.
Can Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad do an analysis on tourist arrivals, and share it with the public, pertaining to the top three airport users according to language spoken.
I suspect visitors from India are mostly Hindi speakers. Tamil-speaking visitors may be in a minority, since only 5% of the Indian population are Tamils.
Go ahead and add announcements in Tamil if it is shown that Tamil-speaking visitors are among the top three airport users, otherwise scrap the idea.
N.K. KHOO,
Kuala Lumpur.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/12/22/focus/10144847&sec=focus
Transport Ministry wants Tamil announcements at KLIA, LCCT
PUTRAJAYA: The Transport Ministry wants announcements to be made in the Tamil language at Malaysifa’s international airports.
In a statement Wednesday, Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha has recommended that announcements in Tamil be made available in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) starting next year.
“The Government is aware of the needs of all levels of society in the country, and this is in line with the 1Malaysia concept that is currently in practice,” said Kong.
He added that the recommendation was made after taking into consideration public demands, the needs of the Indian community in the country, and the volume of passengers arriving from Indian cities like Chennai.
According to Kong, 434,050 passengers were received by KLIA and LCCT this year from Chennai, with 207,697 departures and 226,353 arrivals.
“The Government realised that almost 90% of the passengers who take the Chennai route understand Tamil rather than English due to differences in accents,” said Kong.
“To make sure that these passengers understand the information and announcements made (in the airports), the Government has agreed to the proposal of having announcements in the Tamil language, especially when there are flights to Chennai, India,” he added.
Kong said he agreed with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak that there would not be a problem with finding announcers fluent in Tamil as there are many who have good command of the language in the country.
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