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Accountability sinks

(aworkinglibrary.com)
517 points l0b0 | 1 comments | 19 Oct 24 23:39 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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rougka ◴[20 Oct 24 05:35 UTC] No.41893123[source]▶
I remember experiencing this in one of the German airports/airlines and having that exact thought.

It was this fully automated airport, where the checkin is self serviced and you only interact with computers.

Eventually, when I inserted my boarding pass I had a printed piece of paper back that said that they had to change my seat from aisle to midseat

I then tried to find someone to talk to the entire way, but computers can only interact in the way the UI was designed, and no programmer accounted or cared for my scenario

The ground attendant couldn't have done anything of course because it wasn't part of the scope of her job, and this was the part of germany where nice was not one of their stereotypes.

Eventually I got a survey a week later about a different leg of the flight, so could I really complain there? that one was fine? I had a paranoid wonder if that was intentional

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eloisius ◴[20 Oct 24 06:41 UTC] No.41893412[source]▶
I had a similar experience in Germany about a year ago. Train stations are mostly self-service now. The ticket kiosk ate my €50 and promptly rebooted. It didn’t print a receipt or anything. The only human I could find was a security guard. He told me to call the number on a sticker on the machine. The person who answered couldn’t speak English. My €50 is out there somewhere but it would cost me more than that to track it down.
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jhrmnn ◴[20 Oct 24 08:57 UTC] No.41894023[source]▶
> The person who answered couldn’t speak English.

It sounds like this was the main point of failure. I’m not sure it can be considered an error in the system. I’d consider the risk inherent in traveling in a country without knowing its language.

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1. simonask ◴[22 Oct 24 07:26 UTC] No.41912006[source]▶
In Europe in 2024, it is totally unreasonable to expect every visitor to speak the local language at a high enough level. Yes, your language is big and important, but we can't all learn all of English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Polish, which are the 5 biggest - alongside our native language.

The absolute arrogance of particularly French and German speakers is staggering. All of us from smaller countries and language spheres speak at least 2-3 languages, often more at a basic level, but they scoff at anyone who visits that didn't happen to learn theirs. Contrast this with Spanish and Italian speakers, where my experience is that they are often not great at English, but very much willing to try. To add, I've also never met an American who wasn't willing to do their best to help out.

When somebody is asking for help in a language you don't understand, your obligation as a human being is to do your best, if nothing else to help them find someone who does understand one of the likely several languages you have in common. Not everyone who speaks English at you thinks less of you because you aren't good at it, and everybody is just doing their best.