Your skills - Communication

Air hostess Communicates
This is a basic skill for those aspire to become a air hostess or flight attendant. Use it for other purpose especially in your interview for air hostess.

As an air hostess, you will be in continuous communication with the passenger. Sometime, we tend to assume that communication is what we utter or speak, actually it is much more than that, it refer to the messages that we send and what the other person (recipients) perceived. As a pramugari, or airhostess we need to interact with passengers all the time. It is the same in a Cabin Crew Interview; you must interact with the interviewers. If you don't make a positive impression on the interview panel, you will not get to be a airhostess.

Different Types of Communications.
Of course there are many classification of communication,but we are not indulging in an academic discussion. You many divide it into Verbal, nonverbal and written. However for our daily dealings with the passengers, the verbal and non-verbal is more critical.

Verbal Communication
With the verbal communication, please consider these two items:
- tone of our voice
- choice of words
- timing

It will be obvious to the pax if you sound annoyed or angry, whether you actually are or not is not important, how it was perceived is significant. The passenger will not feel positive towards your. Do be careful not to be boosting and putting yourself too high. Sarcasm is of course the biggest turn off for the passengers and most people. Actively listen to what the passenger has to say and respond to it and show you are interested , friendly but professional at the same time.

The same is for us during interview, practise these skills as they may not be the natural thing for you.It’s also true that the tone of your voice is important although hard for us to to gauge it personally. May be you can ask your friend's opinion on how “pleasant” your voice is. Mat be you try to record it on the tape and listen to it. Try varying your tone and pitch.

Choice of words.
We should never make our passenger feel little or embarrassed. Do not be bossy in your responses. Do remember that words had the cultural significance. Back in the villages, the term uncles or unties are acceptable and even welcomed. Never use it in flight or interview, use the formal terms... Mister, Madam..Sir.


Non Verbal Communication

Choice of dress and look.
This is a topic by itself. Do spend time read articles about dress and make-up to get some more detail.

Eye contact.
Eastern culture tend to put lower value to this, especially ladies are expected not to be looking too long at a man. Play is by the ear. Different culture is different. your eye contacts show interest. Do not over do it , you might be seen as staring.

Body Language

Be careful as gestures are interpreted differently with various cultures. Don’t fold your arms or lean against the cabin door , as I saw it on a some flight. Leaning forward to engage the person you’re talking to will show your interest. If you are tall, bend or stoop so that you are at the same level as the person you are talking to. Turn your whole body to face the passenger and not just your neck. Your posture is critical as it send different messages to the passengers.Don’t slouch , slump or show the soles of your feet (especially rude in some parts of the world).

The command of the language

I am making the assumption that the participants have a good command of the language. Without it, it willl be almost impossible to perform the given task. For those whose mothers' tongue is not English, I will take this as the first challenge that has to be overcome.

There major areas to be of concerns:

**the vocabulary - there are certain words that are more commonly used by crews when they interact with the custommers. What are these words, find out, about words that are used in the cabins.

** The pronunciation - Of course we dont expect a Singaporean to speak with the Queen's English. However there is certain accepted ways in pronunciation. It will not be acceptable to have a crew, not able to differenciate between 'stick' and 'steak'.

Thank you for reading, I bet you will be a great stewards or air hostess.