Air carrier flight crew reported language barrier issue with ATC caused altitude assignment too low ...

Attributes
ACN	1655274
Time
Date	201906
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	MMGL.Airport
State Reference	FO
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Check Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Narrative:

While flying the arrival into mmgl; ATC said we were number 7 for the app. ATC vectored off the arrival for spacing on the app. They gave us a heading and a descent to 7;000. I responded with the heading and 7;000. I thought the altitude seemed low for the terrain in the area; but he still had time to turn us in on the app and be clear of the terrain. We got to 7;900 MSL and ATC asked if we were maintaining 9;000 and asked if we were VMC which we were. It seemed as if he almost forgot about us due to him being very busy. We immediately climbed to 9;000 feet. And were then given a heading to intercept the localizer 28. Once on the app the plane started a descent before reaching top of descent which lead to us getting low again and receiving a terrain aural message in which we took the autopilot off a climbed back up. I believe the language barrier with ATC and him been busy lead to him giving us a clearance that wasn't ideal do to the terrain in the area. I should have been more proactive in questioning his instructions as I thought the alt was low for the area.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier flight crew reported language barrier issue with ATC caused altitude assignment too low for terrain during approach to MMGL.

Narrative: While flying the arrival into MMGL; ATC said we were number 7 for the app. ATC vectored off the arrival for spacing on the app. They gave us a heading and a descent to 7;000. I responded with the heading and 7;000. I thought the altitude seemed low for the terrain in the area; but he still had time to turn us in on the app and be clear of the terrain. We got to 7;900 MSL and ATC asked if we were maintaining 9;000 and asked if we were VMC which we were. It seemed as if he almost forgot about us due to him being very busy. We immediately climbed to 9;000 feet. and were then given a heading to intercept the localizer 28. Once on the app the plane started a descent before reaching top of descent which lead to us getting low again and receiving a terrain aural message in which we took the autopilot off a climbed back up. I believe the language barrier with ATC and him been busy lead to him giving us a clearance that wasn't ideal do to the terrain in the area. I should have been more proactive in questioning his instructions as I thought the alt was low for the area.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Air carrier flight crew reported language barrier issue with ATC caused altitude assignment too low for terrain during approach to mmgl.