Training
Photograph by Luis Enrique Ascui for USA TODAY.
"Trainee stewardess taking notes and listening during the in-flight service training on board a mockup plane" (Clark, 2002).
The chosen potential Singapore Girls undergo four months of training, the longest of any airline in the industry. For the sake of comparison, U. S. carriers train their flight attendants for two weeks for commuter airlines to eight weeks. In SIA, three weeks are devoted to safety instruction which includes mock crashes, fire fighting and life saving. Most of the time is spent on teaching service: poise, deportment, wine connoisseurship, hair cutting to match their faces, smiling at any passenger of any temperament, what make-up matches their skin tones, how to sit, walk and climb stairs.
Their instructors remind them that once they are in that uniform, they are on show. In the words of cabin crew training chief Ban Eng Goh, passengers expect an “experience. Not just transport” (Clark, 2002).
Here is a taste of what they do in training (Clark, 2002):
- Deportment “Stand straight; maintain eye contact; never point; and smile, smile, smile.”
- English "verbal gymnastics" Reciting with happy intonation, “One wan weary white woman wearily weeping”.
- Wine appreciation course How to handle a discontent first-class passenger. “Q: If he has refused three bottles, do you open a fourth? A: Offer him something else, but if he wants another opened, do it.”
- Serving Hand-delivering trays and never loading off from a cart; when serving wine, keeping the wine bottle’s label facing the passenger. “Q: If a passenger doesn't want a drink, should you still offer him peanuts? Yes. Never assume. Assumption is very dangerous.”
- Grooming Complexion is scrutinized by a specialist; lips are always red to ensure a “beacon of color in a dimly lit cabin”. Hair cannot be lighter than dark brown and if it goes below the collar is worn up in a chignon or a French twist (no visible pins). Finger and toe nails are glossy red.
- Safety Drills In their sarongs, sliding out of a Boeing 747 mock-up crash; jumping into an indoor wave pool from an abandoned Airbus 340-300
