Interview in your second language when you are nervous: how the recruiters score a non native speaker, what they forgive and what they do not

Ho Chi Minh City, and I did the SIA walk in last week with English as my second language and I want to write down what I learned about how the English interview is actually scored, from the recruiter's comments afterwards and from the crew who told me before, because the B1 thread on here is from a European angle and the Southeast Asian fear is a different one.

The fear

That the accent fails you. That a grammar mistake fails you. That a pause while you find the word fails you. None of these is true and all of them are what the Vietnamese, Thai and Indonesian applicants believe.

What they score

Whether you understand the question the first time. Whether you can answer it in a way a passenger would understand. Whether you can handle a follow up you did not expect. Whether you can be warm in English, not only correct. The recruiter told me afterwards: 'we are not an English school, we are an airline; I need to know you can tell a frightened passenger what is happening'.

What they forgive

The accent, completely, as long as it is clear. Grammar mistakes that do not change the meaning. A pause to find a word, if you fill it naturally ('let me think') rather than freezing. A simpler sentence than a native speaker would use. Asking for a question to be repeated, once.

What they do not forgive

Not understanding the question and answering a different one. A memorised answer that does not match the question (they can hear the script). Freezing in silence for more than a few seconds. Switching to your first language. And, specifically, a written test score that does not match the spoken ability, which tells them the written was coached.

How I prepared

Six months of daily conversation, as every Southeast Asian thread on here says, with a tutor twice a week and an English speaking friend the other days. Not grammar. Conversation. The questions a passenger asks, the questions a recruiter asks, answered out loud until the words came without the translation step in my head.

The day

The English interview was a conversation with a Singaporean recruiter about my work, a difficult customer, why SIA, and a follow up about a time I was wrong. I paused twice, filled both, understood everything, and was warm. She said my English was 'clear and natural', which is the standard, and I went to the next round.

For the second language applicants

Conversation, not grammar. Fill the pause. Understand before you answer. Be warm in the language. And know that the recruiter wants you to pass and is listening for a crew member, not a grammar score. I am waiting now. The English was not the problem.