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We are not all the same...

 

Navigare, 4, 2000
"It's naive to believe that people from different cultures will be able to interact and cooperate from the very beginning. We're not all the same, neither in the way we look nor in the way we think. To avoid misunderstandings and trouble, knowledge and training in cross-cultural communication is necessary. The consequences of not doing so can be disastrous", says Ms Mette Karina Thorp, an adviser in communication matters.
BY EGIL TORPMANN HAGEN

Ms Thorp believes that people who are able to communicate across cultural barriers with people from other parts of the world will find themselves in a privileged position as the contacts between nations are being extended and deepened. She has been working within this area for many years herself, for both Norwegian businesses and Norwegian public institutions, in the export and shipping industries and for the police and customs authorities.

Five Pakistanis in Norway in 1967!

Ms Thorp reminds us that as late as in 1967. Only five Pakistanis were registered as domiciled in Norway' Today, the Pakistani community in Norway consists of more than 20,000 people, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. Add to this all the other immigrants in Norway from countries with cultures widely different from ours! We know that this mix may cause trouble! In Norwegian ship environments, the mixing of cultures has progressed much faster than on Norwegian soil. The days are gone when tens of thousands of Norwegian seafarers served on board foreign-trading ships and the number of foreigners on board was comparatively low. Today's situation is exactly the opposite: only about 3,800 Norwegians are employed in the NIS fleet, nearly all of them in officer positions, while there are 15.000 foreigners, most of them of Asian origin. And on board a ship there is no way you can avoid your next-door neighbor, so the ability to communicate is essential.

A common language is a must

English is more of a world language at sea than onshore and indispensable as a lingua franca in the maritime community. Norwegian shipping interests have recently launched a recruitment drive directed at the river people of northern China with a view to supplying crews to the NIS fleet "I keep asking myself whether these people are able to read and write English", says Ms Thorp. "And besides, do we really know their cultural background? What do they know of us and our culture, the culture that they will at least to some- extent have to familiarize themselves with when working on board a Norwegian ship? Those are questions that should be asked."

Great risk of human error

"Most of us probably know that poor communication in an emergency situation can jeopardize human life and health. The tragic consequences of the 'Scandinavian Star' fire is but one of many examples of this. When it is claimed, as a rule of thumb, that 80 per cent of all marine casualties are caused by human error, it is scaring to know that some operators fill their ships with multicultural crews without seeing to it that the crew members are able to communicate with each other. If they aren't, the risk of misunderstandings and human error will be overwhelming."

Impetuous Norwegians

"Different cultures mean different behaviour", Mette Thorp points out- The impetuous tone or behaviour often found among Norwegians is a potential source of trouble when communicating with Asians. We tend to forget to add a few drops of the 'lube oil' called politeness to our interaction with people from other cultural backgrounds. For instance, 'losing face' is a concept which is deeply rooted in the culture of East Asia. If you make someone lose face, he may be bearing a grudge against you for a long time afterwards. An Asian's body language is also far better developed than ours. Northern Europeans tend to be more verbal in their communication. This is something that one should be aware of.

Courses are necessary

The answer to these challenges is of course knowledge, both linguistic and of the cultural background and characteristics of the nationalities on board. This knowledge must work both ways. In the shipping industry, some companies and operators have already done a great deal arranging courses for both the employees onshore and the seafarers, but only a minority in the industry have come so far, says Ms Thorp. Note, that this is not only a question of making Norwegians understand foreigners on Norwegian ships. The foreigners must also understand their Norwegian shipmates. The Hoegh shipping company understood this very early and charged Mette Thorp with producing the video "The Norwegian -who is he?". It was distributed to all the company's ships with Filipino crews and was later bought by the Norwegian Shipowners' Association for use on Norwegian ships with foreign crew members.
All Norwegian secondary school students should learn about foreign cultures at school, says Ms Thorp enthusiastically. She is surprised that this is not yet the case, not even in shipping, where everyone seems so keen on understanding the human element, she says with a smile. 

The company's responsibility for co-ordination

It is the responsibility of the company to ensure that employees on ships are able to communicate with each other. This obligation is clearly expressed in the revised 1995 STCW Convention, Chapter I, regulation 1/14 concerning responsibilities of companies - paragraph 5, to the effect that every company is required to ensure that: "the ship's complement can effectively co-ordinate their activities in an emergency situation and in performing functions vital to the safety or to the prevention or mitigation of pollution." The above provision is also Included in the Safety Management System (ISM).

 

 

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