Indicators are only used by foreigners as Spaniards all know which way they are going. Waving to another motorists causes much confusion as this is only done to friends and family so if you try and wave someone on, they are busy trying to work out who you are and won’t move. Here it is the opposite and means “keep clear pal, I have the right of way”. One of the most obvious is in the use of flashing headlights which back home is a polite indication to proceed when you give way. Whilst we are on the subject of mis-communication, there are differences in non-verbal communication between motorists in the UK and the locals. “Ah yes” they say and have a go at mispronouncing it Mis-communication My name doesn’t have a Spanish equivalent so over the phone I frequently have to say “Granada, Roma, Alicante, Huelva, Alicante, Madrid”. The letter W doesn’t appear in native Spanish, only with imported words Exceptions are Queso (cheese), Uva (grape), Xilófono- have a guess and Yeso (plaster). You will notice that the majority are the names of countries or cities and for sure regional variations will exist. Ok so now we move to Spain and whilst the Spanish armed and police forces may use the NATO phonetic alphabet, Jose and Maria revert to homelier sounds just like non- military Brits do so it is useful to know for when dealing with the police as an alternative to NATO or those more frightening people, the bureaucrats! So here goes NATO So, those of us who are ex-service rattle off he phonetic alphabet after being force fed it- literally. The modern day NATO phonetic alphabet was established in the 1950’s after introduction in the airline industry where giving clear instructions to pilots from various countries is also paramount One of the most famous being “Easy company” from the excellent series “Band of Brothers”. The old USA war movies taught us Able, Baker, Charlie and Dog. Imagine this in a military concept, “no sir, I want reinforcements, what would I need three and fourpence for?” so communication is vital in many circumstances. Yeah he could have a look himself but it’s a long way from the driver’s window to the front of the car. The alphabet is still pivotal in today’s communication despite the massive leaps in technology.Ever tried to write someone’s name down or perhaps more challenging their email address? “No it’s P for Peter not B for Billy you knob, and it’s S for Susan, not F for Freddie” so when the nice friendly policeman asks you for your registration number so he can look up if you have been a bad boy or not, it is best to get it right unless of course you want your mate to get into trouble instead. Similarly, the aviation sector also uses it to communicate passenger records and flight names. For example, the IT sector uses the alphabet to communicate long sequences of data that may be flummoxing. Consequently, the ICAO states improved the alphabet and a draft was ready by 1956 and is still in use today. However, the reversion did not mean that the need disappeared. The majority of the pilots did not feel that the new alphabet was better than the old one and so they stuck to the old system. As with most debuts, there were problems. The professor worked in close association with NATO between 19 until a first draft was ready to be tested in the year 1951. A linguistic professor, Jean-Paul Vinay, was tasked with coming up with the phonetic alphabet system. In transmitting information with no margin for error, a means of clearer communication needed to be established. For examples, the letters "m" and "n" as well as "b" and "d" sound very similar when the name of the letter is said out loud. The ICAO phonetic alphabet was created and adopted primarily to avoid confusion among flight crews as some letters of the English alphabet can be easily confused when heard orally. Civilians and the military all over the world use the system. The alphabet is also known as the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Phonetic Alphabet, or the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Phonetic Alphabet. The NATO phonetic alphabet is a radiotelephone spelling alphabet that assigns code words to each of the 26 letters of the alphabet and used for international radio communication worldwide.
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