There’s a story on the local news today about a french fellow who was on a flight, and attempted to order a 7-up by translating the name directly to french (“Sept en haute” I think it is… Not sure of the spelling…sorry.)
When the attendants don’t understand what it is he wants, he gets all pissed off and is now suing. You have to read all about it to believe it, but here is the link:
Actually, we call a 7-Up, a 7-Up also. But basically, I agree with the guy. He was on a Mtl-Ottawa flight, on the national air carrier, not on a private flight in the boondocks. Sure, being served a 7-Up in French is trivial, but what if it would have been a medical emergency and the victim only spoke French ?
From what I hear on the talk-radio show, the fellow made up the french version of the name himself, and this is where the confusion arose. If there was a french translation of the name as indicated on the container printed by the bottler, I can see that causing some upset, but to make up a name yourself and expect others to understand it is just nonsense. It’s like he went out of his way to cause a problem just so that he could sue for it later…
Oh well…
You have misrepresented the content of the article. It doesn’t say he translated the name of the beverage into French; it says he ordered it in French (“un 7-up, s’il vous plaît” or something of the sort, I assume).
In that case, he has every right to expect Canada’s national airline, with service all across this bilingual country, to be able to provide service in French. Especially on a flight from Montreal to Ottawa!
Whether he has a case for the lawsuit is a matter for the judge to decide. But he has every right to be upset that he couldn’t be served in an official language of the country and of the province in which the flight originated.
It appears, therefore, that the Official Languages Commissioner (a federal office) agrees with him that he was linguistically ill-served aboard that flight.
I’m not so certain he deserves the monetary settlement he’s asking for, but the complaint itself is certainly not trivial.
I’d have the cops meet him at the airport as well.
Other than that, yea there should be bi-lingual services available. But unless there is an emergency nobody should yell at airplane personel. (And I, a one language gal, can figure out “un 7-up, s’il vous plait” means bring the man a 7-up. There’s more to it than that.)
I agree with matt_mcl, that he has a valid complaint and was fully justified in reporting this to the necessary authorities. However, the man seems to have taken a temper tantrum while on board. Demanding, no, YELLING a demand to speak to the captain because you weren’t served in the language of your choice when you ordered a damn beverage is not just juvenile, it’s damned well ridiculous. AIr Canada may well have a problem getting many fully bilingual stewardesses (unless they all come from NB or PQ) but I would say this man has anger management issues.*
I personally am used to being served by francophones who, at times, may speak little english, and sometimes may not be able to make themselves understood in that language - my french is about as bad as that, but we usually manage to work out what it is that each of us needs. Patience is a virtue, I think.
I can’t find a source about his translation of the name into a french equivilent (sept en haute), but the radio program I listen to rarely makes such claims without some evidence to back it up. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear the source due to being at work…
Nevertheless, even if he did use french to order it, you would have to be a complete and utter moron not to derive that he wanted a 7-up if you had heard the words during his sentence… No matter what he said, as long as he would have said said “7-up” during it, anyone with even half a brain could figure out that’s what he wanted, without having to call in an interpreter.
I’m certain that he must have made up his own translation for the beverage, and that is what was not understood. It seems highly illogical that if he had said the words “7-up” in a sentence that he would not have been understood.
The guy is bilingual, he sure as hell knows how to say seven-up in english, he behaved like a jackass to try and make a stupid point, he caused a disruption on an airplane when people are already jittery about flying, then he goes and files a lawsuit over the matter. All because the stew said good morning instead of bonjour. What a :wally .
Actually, this all took place before Sept 11… So people were just normal about flying. Otherwise, today I think people might have attacked him, and charges would have been laid certainly, no?
I don’t think this had anything to do with the actual 7-up. I would imagine that he tried to get the sterwardess to speak to him in French (“serve him”).
Yes, he was being an asshole but he’s legally in the right.
So why would anyone bother to fly from Montreal to Ottawa? If you include all the time farting around the airports, it’s faster to drive. And Air Canada still had time for beverage service? In fact, did I just use the terms “Air Canada” and “service” in the same sentence?
I guess he proves that even assholes can be right. And no, I wouldn’t approve if a court awards him money for “emotional distress”. I would approve a lot more if the Human Rights Commission imposed fines on Air Canada for non-compliance with the Bilingualism Act.
In my 100% guaranteed completely uninformed opinion, it looks like this guy very obviously set out to pick a fight in order to have a legal battle in order to make some kind of political point. He was a government employee, he acted like a total ass, and he has something called the Official Languages Commission backing him. Looks like a political football to me.
It also irked me that he asserted that he was claiming his “right.” I’m wondering what right did he think was violated? His right to be served a 7-Up on a commercial airliner? His right to be spoken to in the language of his choice? I don’t see that there’s a pressing need to pass legislation on my inalienable right to good service from airlines. Maybe things are different in Canada. Just kidding.
If you were flying from Calgary to Winnipeg, and you asked for something in English, and you found that the flight attendant would speak to you only in French, wouldn’t you be just a little bit cheesed?
I think the guy is being ass for suing, but he’s definitely owed an apology, and considering that Air Canada is basically THE national carrier, being able to get service on it is a language of some moment. As someone else said, what if it hadn’t been a seven-up this guy wanted, but medical attention? What if he hadn’t been bilingual? Canada is a bilingual country, and if a corporation is purporting to serve the entire country, it should do so in both official languages.
matt_mcl, I totally agree with you. Being in a bilingual country, the attendants on a Canadian airline should be expected to be able to serve their passengers effectively in English or French.
It’s just my sense that there’s something more going on here than a guy getting upset that he couldn’t obtain a beverage. If the guy had been in desperate need of medical attention instead of a 7-Up, I imagine that he would have been able to overcome his ire at not being served in the language of his choice long enough to effectively communicate his needs to the attendants, non?
