The bizarre truths behind cultural differences

I always knew that working on ships was going to be an adventure, but I never realized what a “global village” it would be. I guess I was under the illusion of it mainly being South African, especially since we were five South African girls travelling together from Cape Town to Vancouver. We also saw a few familiar faces on our journey from Cape Town International, Heathrow and then Vancouver International, who we then figured out were heading to the same final destination of the Sun Princess as us.

Of course my assumptions were obliterated as soon as we landed in Vancouver with all of us crew members with “travel restrictive” passports being herded like cattle in a room by Immigration whilst they confirmed that all our paperwork was in order. This was my first overseas trip so you can just imagine how out of my depth and “frightened” I was, but thank heavens for my travel savvy companions.

Having worked in hotels prior to joining ships I did get to work with other nationalities, but this was completely different! In my department alone we were a mix ed bag from South Africa, Australia, Canada, Germany, England, New Zealand, Italy, Romania, Mexico and United States. One would think that the language barriers and overall “mannerisms” would cause a small world war, but let me tell you, the rest of the world could learn a thing or two about different nationalities coming together, working side-by-side with no animosity at all. Yes, on the odd occasion there would be a misinterpretation of a word or a hand gesture, but you soon learnt the lingo! There were MANY different nationalities including Irish, Zambian, Scottish, Welsh, Indonesian, Danish, Filipino, Indian, French, Austrian, Nepali, Maltese, Finnish, Swedish, Swiss, Vanuatu, Georgian, Hungarian, Slovakian, Portuguese, Croatian, Polish, Jamaican, Hong Kong, Brazilian. Gosh the list is really long and I could go on forever!

When it came to “dating” I found myself crossing borders on all occasions. Not once did it ever cross my mind to date a South African! Yes, I took a liking to those damn Italians when I should have really stayed in the United Kingdom or Denmark, but lets not talk about that. It is time to let bygones be bygones. I am very happily married to my South African with English parents (LOL).

(Photo credit to Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels)

The other misconception is that certain nationalities would stick together and yes the “commonwealth” countries do tend to gravitate towards each other, but I decided to really have an “open-mind” and try and learn about all nationalities and what makes them tick. We really tend to put people in boxes by what we hear from others experience, but there is nothing like getting first hand experience and making up your own mind before you jump on the bandwagon of certain nationalities being “weird” just because they are different to you.

Over the years whilst on different contracts, I joined in with the celebrations of Canada Day, Australia Day, Thanksgiving, Cinco de Mayo, 4th of July, Halloween. Yes Halloween needs to be mentioned because growing up in South Africa, it was never a thing for us. You saw it on TV, but you must be crazy to think that it was okay knocking on strangers doors asking for sweets whilst being in full costume! There were of course many other “days” which were celebrated, but those are the ones that comes to mind right now.

Then there was the “around the world” cabin parties! I absolutely loved those! Each cabin would do a theme around their country, decorating it, playing your traditional music and eating food and drinking alcoholic beverages popular in your homeland! I was also extremely fortunate to be invited to many Indian curry nights, Nepali Gurkha nights and Portuguese fish nights. I say fortunate because those invitations were sort after ones! The food, atmosphere and hospitality were out of this world and one really got to experience the pride of the people from those countries sharing their love for food with others. We also created our own cheese and wine nights and Swiss fondue, although my best fondue was still prepared by our Swiss Corporate chef who decided to give us a bit of a treat.

One of my favorite memories from ships was that of a Football World Cup on-board with a bunch of Italian football fanatics especially when they won as well! The singing, the crying and just the experience of it all comes a close second after experiencing it for myself when South Africa was host nation in 2010.

When I started writing this blog, I had no idea which direction this was going to go. I wanted to highlight cultural differences, but at the end of the day, we might be culturally different, but there are a few things which brings us together. The breaking of bread and sharing our culinary pride, especially over a glass of Pino or Verve, a Sea Breeze or an ice cold Corona. Our love for travel and learning the swear words or “love” words and hand gestures. Our passion for sports and sharing our heritage. Our love for music and crew disco, themed parties and games nights, especially Bingo, and Karaoke, although some cultures love those nights more than others! Our love for our families at home and those that becomes family on-board. Our hate for clocks forward, but love for clocks backward, our hate for sea days, but love for port days. Our hate for the norovirus, but love for parties in the Medical Centre with fake blood and alcohol from a drip. Our hate for crew drills, 90 day inspection, cabin inspections and Coast Guard drills.

This is what binds us, makes us one, yet so uniquely different. If you want to learn about cultural diversity, being color blind, breaking walls and boundaries, acceptance and just being an overall good human being then sea life might just be for you.

Until next time.

Light, love and positive thoughts

Ophelia