From the course: Public Speaking for Non-Native English Speakers

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The ICAO alphabet: A tool for clarity

The ICAO alphabet: A tool for clarity

From the course: Public Speaking for Non-Native English Speakers

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The ICAO alphabet: A tool for clarity

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- My last name is Novak, spelled N like November, O like Oscar, V like Victor, A like Alpha, K like Kilo. In 1951, the International Civil Aviation Organization created an alphabet to help clear up misunderstandings whenever there was interference on the radio or telephone. If you've ever flown in an airplane, you may have heard the captain use, runway Charlie niner, or Delta two. And this alphabet is also helpful for clearing up misunderstandings around language and pronunciation. So I recently saw a video on social media where someone was spelling her name over the telephone, and she says, "Yes, my name is Pat. "P as in pneumonia, A as in aisle, "and T as in tsunami," right? Not very helpful at all. And oftentimes it's just one word in a sentence that causes misunderstanding between speakers and listeners. Now the most-used method for clarifying that misunderstanding is to spell the problematic word but spelling can…

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