The Language Barrier: Converting from English to Engine Room

It’s been a weird day. As of this point, I have been in “training” mode for two months and I still have about a month left. That’s three months of training for a twenty-four month commitment. That is, for every eight months of commitment, one month of training. What’s weird though is that there are very few left from the original group with whom I joined the ship that are still in “training” mode. About 90% have already settled into their jobs and I along with a few others still have to train.

This realization hit me today; that I was still in training after already two months away. I have to admit it was very discouraging. I started to doubt my ability to even be here. I thought with all that college education and world experience (I’ll wait for the laughter to stop), I’d adjust easily into this new life. I guess I’m human.

See, it’s the engine room that requires all this extra training. There is a load of information that we have to cover in a short period of time and it is quite overwhelming at times. But what’s more overwhelming is the fact that you have to see everyone else on the ship hard at work while you are sitting around and studying. It gives me a desire to do a really bang-up job once I get to the engine room on a full time basis (I’ve been there and worked there, just not without a training purpose behind it), but it is difficult to see that end.

One of the things that I was sad and grateful for at the same time before coming here was the fact that I didn’t have to adapt to a new language. The language on the ship is English. Granted it’s some strange combination of UK English, American English, Australian English, and ship English (you know; port, starboard, that sort of stuff), but it’s English. I felt sad, for one, for the people who do have to adapt to English. I can’t imagine changing location, culture, and language all at once. I felt grateful because I don’t have to go through that stress of learning a new language; or do I?

See not that my training sufferings are in any way equal to those suffering from language barrier but I’m kind of learning a new language as well. The engine room is a new language and I’m still smack dab in the middle of learning it. Like any language training there’s classroom learning and then there is leaning by emersion. I think to be encouraged I have to think of this time as overcoming my language barrier.

I know of folks living overseas in different culture who have been there for years and still have language issues. They are still studying language and I’m complaining about two months of learning. The problem I often have is that my expectations far out reach that of those that actually exist in reality. I expect no mistakes, no problems, no barriers. That is never the case. There are always mistakes, there are always problems, there are always barriers. So, I just have to accept that there is this barrier of engine room “language” that I have to overcome and that this training is the way I have to overcome it. Simple as that.

It’s not so simple actually. There are still my fellow shipmates who walk by our training who are working and I still feel guilty for not working.