English is MEANT to be the language of aviation, however like Craig says, the French and sometimes the Spanish are err a little bit uncooperative on this.
A laugh though, I used to go out with a girl who's dad was a BA 737 pilot and was in Germany, and waiting to get on the runway and take-off. After a not inconsiderable number of minutes a Lufthansa plane zooms straight onto the runway and takes-off. My girlfriends dad said something rather coarse to the tower controllers on the radio to the effect of "What is going on here? I've been waiting nearly 25 minutes for clearance and this individual turns up and takes-off straight away! Were your parents married at the time of your birth!"
Then the German pilot came on the radio and said "Ahh Englander, did you not hear ve got here early zis morning and put our tovels on zee runvay!"
Even my girlfriends dad had to admit, that was one German with a hell of a sense of humour, he cried with laughter everytime he told the story

Ozzy