Something about the safety spiel.

This is long so bear with me .
As you all know, every roller coaster at Cedar Point has a safety spiel. It talks about the rules and what not to do and so on. And at the end it mentions "If you do not understand these rules, please contact a ride host." (I think there's more to it)What I can't understand is why they say that if they know how some people who come to Cedar Point can't understand English(well or not at all) and expect them to contact a ride host if they can't understand what's even coming out of the speakers. I know that that phrase is in the spiel also for people who need to clarify they're understanding of those rules but I want to focus on the other people, the ones who can't speak English.

I'm bringing this up because last year there was an incident that I witnessed on Dragster(it's actually kind of funny) that relates to this.
I was waiting in line for Dragster, when it "broke down". 20 minutes into waiting I noticed these 2 men(from some other country) waiting in one of the trains who were smoking. I didn't think much of it until a voice came over the speakers and said "please refrain from smoking on the ride." But the men continued to smoke. It repeated and the men continued to smoke. Those in line (including myself) were signaling to the men to out out their cigarettes, but they continued to smoke. Finally one of the ride hosts came out of the station, went around the unloading platform and angrily took the cigarettes out of the men's hands and threw them on the ground. The men then starting talking to each other in a foreign language.

So this brings me to my question.

Should CP design better ways of enforcing the rules to those who cant speak English? Like putting the rules in different languages and/or repeating some of the audio in a different language. *** Edited 4/10/2005 2:38:26 AM UTC by TTD 120mph***

No they shouldn't have to. Come to the United States you speak English. Nothing gets me more mad then people not speaking English when they come here.

Plus I think they can figure out all the signs with the cigarette in a circle with a slash through it. Isn't that the universal sign to not smoke?

English is our official language.

Absolutely not! We're in America...learn to speak English or don't be here!

Okay, just to be annoying (I don't agree), but we know that if we wanted to go to France, we wouldn't learn French. Or everytime work drags you to Japan do you rush and learn all of those weird symbols?

Exactly. You cant forget that there are people who come here to Cedar Point from different countries just for a short time. It's just as if you were to go to a popular Japanese theme park for a short while without knowing any Japanese. You wouldn't be familiar with their customs that is if there are, as MFJedi2 said, universal signs. Other than that, you would miss any important info said in Japanese without knowing it. *** Edited 4/10/2005 4:09:36 AM UTC by TTD 120mph***

Personally, those men smoking were very rude. I feel the ride host was a bit out of hand by yanking the cigarettes out of the guests hands. It should have been handled differently and if the ride host couldn't handle it, they should have had a supervisor step in.

I agree with the spiels, what about a deaf person? I know you can read the signs, etc, but a lot of people don't (obviously).

I just returned from Six Flags Magic Mountain, there aren't any spiels on any of the rides there. They don't even warn you when you are going to launch (Superman).

There are only four kinds of people who listen to ride safety spiels:

1) Ride inspectors
2) Insurance agents
3) Attorneys
and of course...
4) Obsessed ride geeks

Once you understand that, the nature of the spiel makes more sense. :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Welcome to Millennium Force (Wicked Twister too), for your safety and the safety of other riders please listen carefully to these instructions... Please sit facing forward in an upright position with your....

sorry, couldn't help myself...... :-)

Funny, when I was at SFMM a couple years ago almost all the coasters had auto-speils mixed into some cool music, ala MF, WT, and TTD...

CPFan420 said:
No they shouldn't have to. Come to the United States you speak English. Nothing gets me more mad then people not speaking English when they come here.

No wonder people all around the world think that American's are asses. I obviously realize that not all Americans are like this but it is people like you who give American's that stereotype. If you are going to Italy for vacation are you expected to learn the Italian language and understand everything people say to you? No, but atleast try and learn some simple and useful words/phrases. That goes for anyone visiting a country in which a language is spoken that they do not speak.

Now, for the event that happened on Dragster. That was ignorance on the account of the smokers, if people were signaling to them to put it out, you would think they would clue in. I think it is common sense that you don't smoke while on a ride.
*** Edited 4/10/2005 5:26:26 AM UTC by Vince982***

If I went to Italy for a vacation I wouldn't expect all of them to cater to me. I would learn some customs and catch-phrases beforehand.

Actually, I would have no reason to go to Italy or any other country except maybe Canada and Mexico. Why? Because I don't care enough about other countries cultures to learn enough to go visit.

Guess I'm a lazy, stuck up American.. Or at least the socialist elites would like you to think so.

bholcomb said:
English is our official language.

Not true. The Unites States of America has no "official language."

Your kidding right? Of course we have an official language. When 90% of a country speaks the same language, it's pretty official. Not to mention atlas books, encyclopedias etc.

To the original question, I think that a person not knowing english would not be a strong point legally, because we are in fact in America and Cedar Point can not gaurantee that people of every language, race etc. will be able to understand everything. If you add spanish, people from France, Japan Etc. would you use the fact that they bothered for spanish and not for them as an attack. Basically from a legal standpoint, you put all languages, or english. (I did in fact have a conversation about this with my dad just now, whos a lawyer lol.)

TTD 120mph said:
As you all know, every roller coaster at Cedar Point has a safety spiel. It talks about the rules and what not to do and so on. And at the end it mentions "If you do not understand these rules, please contact a ride host." (I think there's more to it)What I can't understand is why they say that if they know how some people who come to Cedar Point can't understand English(well or not at all) and expect them to contact a ride host if they can't understand what's even coming out of the speakers. I know that that phrase is in the spiel also for people who need to clarify they're understanding of those rules but I want to focus on the other people, the ones who can't speak English.

On most of the coasters, the train is dispatched before "if you do not understand these instructions, or need clarification, please contact a ride host" is said. Many times on Magnum the train is out of the station before that part of the spiel is finished.

If your in America speak English, in Japan, speak the jap language, mexico....speak spanish it would make everything alot easier...

Michael Darling said:

bholcomb said:
English is our official language.

Not true. The Unites States of America has no "official language."

Someone actually paid attention in school. Sadly enough, I am suprised by thet. :)

The U.S. does not have an official language, it just happens to be the one that is majority at the present time. It stays where it's at simply because there isn't a good reason to switch. It would be easier to switch all units of measure to metic which is better, but that hasn't quite happened yet.

Maniaman said:On most of the coasters, the train is dispatched before "if you do not understand these instructions, or need clarification, please contact a ride host" is said. Many times on Magnum the train is out of the station before that part of the spiel is finished.

Then maybe for some of the coaster that do that they should change the spiel to "If you do not understand these instructions, need claification, or have just left the station, there's nothing you can do." :) *** Edited 4/10/2005 5:29:15 PM UTC by TTD 120mph***

Cedar Point might possibly use a second language if enough foreiners visit Cedar Point. Most likely it will be Spanish if anything else. Because of the world wide popularity of Disney they use a few languages.
*** Edited 4/10/2005 5:38:50 PM UTC by BongKong***