My French Is Old...

So airports in general are interesting places. You have so many people around you and you are still all alone. Interestingly I feel the same about marriages too!!! So I am at Frankfurt airport walking towards my gate to catch a United flight to San Francisco. Now this airport is crazy for the amount of walking you might have to do to reach from one place to other.

So I start walking and the gate for my flight has not been decided. I just know that it is going to be C something. So I sit down near C1 waiting for the exact allocation of the gate. There is this old female security person who is trying to explain something to this old guy. She waves some directions and he goes along. She looks at me, throws a smile and starts a conversation. I have absolutely nothing to do and I don't want to waste money on any duty free shopping as well. So I grab my chance and shower my attention on her. I guess she is sick of answering to so many people but really not talking to anyone.

First thing she says:" You know, my French is old"!!! I immediately ask her, " You mean, your French is bad". No, No...comes the reply. I used to know French when I was a teenager( and she promptly adds that people don't realize how old she is. You know, I am 50. I feel like shouting, I definitely knew you were not less than 50!!). So she tells me that she learnt French and Spanish in her teens but now can only understand it. So this guy to whom she was telling directions, he was French and she was having difficulty answering his questions in French.

She goes on to tell me how even if someone asks any questions in Japanese, she understands it a lot of times...why? because most of the time, people are asking for toilets which majority of the times are inside the gates and very few in general terminal area. So she has to keep reminding everyone to not go out otherwise they would have to go through security check again. People keep wondering how many languages she knows. I call this the language of experience. If you are a security guard at the airport and people keep stumbling upon you with questions, how many different type of questions they would have? Where are the toilets? What gate is my flight on? How can I reach terminal 2? When would the gate number be announced? So pretty much, you can have a list of 10 questions which would cover pretty much all the cases. Now this person has answered these same 10 questions for last 20 years and no wonder, she can answer anything asked in any language.

How long would it take to train someone to this level if you decide to lay off folks and then hire them again? I guess a lot of people struggle with this question these days...