What do all you pilots think about the ICAO english Proficiency Airman Certificate endorsement requirement?

Incompetency in English is a serious problem for pilots flying internationally around the world. I'm glad the ICAO has moved forward a bit, but the regulations still have no teeth, and some countries deliberately try to get away with as little compliance as possible, which undermines the whole principle of requiring English competence and creates unnecessary dangers in aviation.

It's similar to ISO, International Organization for Standardization. International standards are just that and can not exempt specific nations.

Alternatively to follow Cherokee's suggestion the FAA Certificates could be restricted to domestic operation and International operation would require ICAO Certification. That is already an established procedure in some third world countries.

Odd situation. As an english speaking pilot it makes no difference to me, however, my wife is a french speaking first, english second language pilot. Yet she knew, long before she started flying, that she would need fluent english and just made certain she had it. In most places it is not a big issue. Its an understood requirement.

Its pretty stupid for the pilots from the united states that are from the states to get this, when the people coming from over the oceans and controllers are still using a lot of air time trying to get their point across...

It is kinda stupid, the FAA reluctantly went along to comply with ICAO standards. IF you are not leaving the US, there is no need to have the "endorsement"

Kind of dumb in my mind too. having to have english proficient on the Airmen certificate from a country the requires proficiency in english is like forcing restaurants in China to hang a sign in Chinese 'We are chinese proficient" at this restaurant"

from the-other-sie-of-atlantic view, it is perfectly normal and useful :) Enforcing the standard phraseology is a different thing, though.