A talented stewardess

I was flying home from Edmonton to Vancouver on Air Canada the other day. One of the stewardesses looked Asian. I wondered if she spoke Chinese or Japanese. I usually try to resist speaking Asian languages to Asian looking people in Canada. It is impolite. They may have been born here, or even if they were not, they do not appreciate being addressed in an Asian language as if they are somehow not "Canadian". You just have to be careful.

Anyway, soon the safety announcements were made on the public address system. The announcements in Canadian airplanes are always made in English and French. The French announcement was made in flawless but slighly Chinese-accented Parisian French. It had to be the Asian looking stewardess.

I went to the back of the plane and asked her in French if she had made the French announcement. She said yes. I complimented her on her French and asked her how she learned. She said that she had lived in Paris for 5 years. I tried to speak some Chinese to her but she preferred to stay in French. She spoke so well, with such a French verve, that it was obvious that she enjoyed speaking French, something that she did not get the chance to do in Vancouver, where she was living now. She confirmed to me that if people enjoy another language they can achieve tremendous results.