Vacation? A Cruise of Diversity
I was lucky to take a fabulous vacation last week, a cruise to the Bahamas. I thought I was leaving behind all the international, culture and language learning world behind. Little did I know…I was going to be surprised.
One of the best things about this vacation was the diversity of the staff and the passengers. My waiter was from St. Vincent, our assistant waiter was from Mexico, and our stateroom attendant was from Jamaica. After asking around, I found that over 60 nationalities were represented in the staff of 750 people. That is amazing diversity! Ultimately, they live 6-8 months of the year together on a small floating city, and from what I hear, in general, get along wonderfully. It seems we can learn a lot from them. All different languages, cultures, and traditions combine to form a microcosm of the world! English was definitely the uniting language but you could hear all sorts of languages being spoken by the crew and the passengers. On a daily basis, I heard Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and many more. What a great place to practice my language skills. I used my Portuguese and Spanish on more than one occasion and even found myself seeking out those that I could chat with.
If you want to practice your language skills, meet really wonderful people, and see the world at the same time. I highly recommend a cruise.
Where have you gone to meet very diverse people?
