BEIJING (Reuters) - Less than a tenth of China's pilots meet international aviation English standards, the airline regulator said Tuesday, encouraging them to rise to the challenge of bolstering their linguistic skills.

But some pilots have the wrong attitude and are prevaricating, the civil aviation authority said in a statement on its Web site (www.caac.gov.cn).

"The requirement to raise pilot's English abilities comes from a formal decision by the International Civil Aviation Organization," it quoted deputy aviation minister Li Jian as saying.

"I hope those comrades who have the wrong thinking drop their illusions, don't wait around and don't rely on others, grasp the present good conditions for studying English and dare to fulfill their responsibilities," Li said.

"This will be long, hard, comprehensive work," he said.

At present, only 651 Chinese pilots had passed the English exams, the statement said. That leaves some 8,000 who still need to pass.

China is experiencing a boom in airline travel on the back of its surging economy, but officials have freely admitted service, training and hardware standards have struggled to keep up.

Many Chinese pilots are ex-military and speak little or even no English, though some airlines do now train their new pilots overseas to ensure they have the required language skills, especially ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

After viewing this video, they have good reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziyAX2jXPwY

I used to work at an Airport on the US/Mexico border and I've been in the tower several times when the language barrier caused problems. This can be very frustrating and could be hazardous at busy airport that Major airlines fly into. There's a flight school at the airfield I'm training at now, who's training foreign students. I must admit it's very frustrating to listen to them yet alone try to give them instructions.

Not only their language but their uniforms are going to have to change (kidding).

This is good news. Some of the chinese students we have at UND are very difficult to understand over the radio and can make things difficult for everyone in a busy traffic pattern. While I applaud them for thrusting themselves in an environment where not only are they learning a new language, but learning "aviation" english which isn't classroom taught this change will make things run more smoothly for pilots and ATC in GFK.

Typical American - if they don't understand, say it louder

Yes, and record it so it can be put on the web too!!!!!! I love it. I wish I could've recorded MDW tower chewing on a 172 pilot who missed 5 calls once.

There's the delays at JFK...

I understood the pilot/s just fine. My problem was trying to figure out the controller!

You must be fluent in "Engrish" There was some post that had a website dedicated to the lack of good translation. I'm sure it goes both ways, surely some english terms just don't have an equivelant, but I ain't going to believe it until I see it.