English

[Astro_Digital]

I wonder how tourists cope in these parks if they only know English?

 

[Tim G]

I wonder how tourists cope in these parks if they only know English?

Reasonable good... most of the CMs talk english.. <sorta>

flench flies... etc. etc. but still understandable, never had any problems with understanding... my chinese isn't that good...

 

[maelstrom]

The way I understand it, there's generally someone around who speaks English, at least at Tokyo Disneyland. I haven't read much about Hong Kong Disneyland.

 

[toadh63]

The way I understand it, there's generally someone around who speaks English, at least at Tokyo Disneyland. I haven't read much about Hong Kong Disneyland.

Hong Kong was British until the turn of the century, and English was one of the two official languages. Anyone old enough to work in HK had English all the way through school. One of the easiest places to be an English-only speaker outside of UK, Ireland, Australia, US or Canada.

 

[DigitalDisney]

Of course, there's more to it than just CMs speaking English

The signage is all in the park's native language and English. No problems there

The biggest problem is that the on-ride audio is almost always going to be in the native language. If you go on anything over at TDS, you probably won't have any idea what is being said on the actual attractions. The only exception I know of is the Jungle Cruise over at HKDL, which has separate lines for different languages (English being one of them). Of course, there may be other attractions that are set up like that.

Edit: And don't forget about the food, too...

 

[RonAnnArbor]

First of all, remember that all Disney parks are perceived around the world as American Parks - and the visitors in each country expect to hear and see a lot of English language.

While there are a few attractions that you require either a hand-hand translater in which you choose the language, almost everything at the foreign-speaking parks is done in a special sound system that broadcasts several languages as once - your native ear picks up your native language - that system is the same on all the rides like the haunted mansions, Pirates of the Carribean, etc in all of the international parks. The only parks that do not use that sound system are the US parks, which broadcast in English only.

You will have absolutely no problems understanding what is being said or reading any of the signs.

All of the live attractions use something I have dubbed "Disney Speak"...whether in Japanese or Chinese of French, each of the live attractions are done in the native language AND english with two hosts...

They work something like this:

Narrator will say (in French or Japanese) Welcome! How are you doing? Having Fun?
The Second Narrator/host will reply (in English) Hello! I'm doing fine! Are you ready for a great show?"
The Original Narrator will say (in their language with a great big smile and nod of the head) Yes, we are ready for a great time!
The English narrator will say (in English) "Great, then lets get started"
The Original Language narrator will say (in English) OK!
etc
etc
etc combining both languages. Your ear eventually learns to pick out the one you are listening to and pretty much ignore the other. This is consistently used across all of their parks.

All of the menus in the restaurants and snack stands are in both the original language and English. There are photos next to everything, even things like photos of the brownies.

The last thing Disney wants is ANY language problem in their parks. You will never be in a situation in which you won't understand what is being said or done. This was one of the original big complaints at Disneyland Paris resort, for example, that the French locals said there was too much English being spoken -- but today, that is the international language.