Language Shorthand on Ships

April 7, 2012

There is another language that I have made much better progress on during my time on Silhouette. It is the language of ships. This is the coded vernacular born of expediency, multi-culturalism and shared experience that has resulted in a new language for this band of gypsies.

Yes, we are gypsies. We are inhabitants of another land who travel about and land on the shores and invade the homelands of others. Sometimes we even stay. In Barcelona and Malta my friend Karen ran into two former crew members from the ships now working on land. And like any immigrant we travel with our own culture, customs and language. Let me introduce you to a few of our common phrases.

You OK? That seems to make sense just as it is, but it is a common greeting of those who work on ships. We know that we are away from home for long periods of time. We know the trials and tribulations of working seven days a week for months on end. It is good to check in with each other to see how we are doing. In civilized society that would result in a long conversation that edged gently towards the goal of inquiring as to our state of mental and emotional health. In reality, we have no time for all that courtesy. So, the simple question that it expressed in passing is simply this, “You OK?” We expect each other to answer honestly. Anything less than ‘excellent’ indicates that there may be trouble in paradise. We really don’t expect people to be perfect all the time, and ‘You OK?’ allows us to take a moment to be honest on how we are feeling before we put our game face on and return to portraying the joy that will create an excellent vacation for our guests.

“On ships” is another expression that demonstrates the economy of language by which we live. Part of that vernacular is created by the diversity of languages onboard. Adverbs, adjectives, and even articles seem extraneous when we are simply trying to ensure we communicate basic concepts. ‘On ships’ is a very precise term to refer to anything that refers to our life once we started to work on a cruise line and leave the ‘shoreside’ world behind. Until a person has lived ‘on ships’ they can’t understand the life we live. They will always assume it is romantic. They won’t understand the height of the joys or the depth of the lows. So to ask someone how long they have been ‘on ships’ is to inquire as to how much experience they have in this alternate universe. Anything less than two months is no guarantee of their ability to succeed. If they are at the end of a first contract and plan to come back or are further along they have made the transition to ‘on ships.’

‘Going out’ has no relationship to whether you are dating. It is simply the expression that is used to either ask or state that you are going ashore at a port for at least a short time. “Going out” is a question if you are planning to ‘stay on’ and need to know for whom you have to cover. “Going out” is a statement if you are planning to leave the ship for some period of time to remind yourself what the world has to offer. And where we travel has a LOT to offer.

“Shining Star” and “Crew Bar” are the yin and the yang of our existence. Our customer service philosophy is called STAR service. Our awards for the top performers each month are called Shining Stars. So for us anytime that a person does something that really goes above and beyond the call of duty we immediately dub them a Shining Star. It is our way of saying ‘great job.’ ‘Crew Bar’ is the opposite. The Crew Bar refers to the smoking bar down on Deck 30. Mingles is the non-smoking gathering place on Deck 2. Deck 30 refers to the deck below Deck 0. It is the only smoking crew area on the ship. It is dark, with loud music, fueled with alcohol, definitely smoky, and basically a place that if you want to make a bad decision you probably can. To ask if someone has been in the Crew Bar is a veiled inquiry as to what choices they made the night before. I have only been in the Crew Bar twice on my contract. The first with the HR team to show we would make a presence there and I left after 20 minutes. The second I stayed longer after instigating a silly ‘raid’ from a guest lounge on Deck 3. I stayed longer this time but escaped with my integrity intact. However, I asked my cleaner to have all my clothes dry cleaned the next day, such was the impact of the smoke. ‘Crew Bar’ can often denote bad decisions.

“Talka talka” definitely comes from the Caribbean roots. It refers to any worthless conversation, but pops up in a variety of contexts. If someone is wasting your time they are ‘talka talka.’ If they are spreading slander about you it is ‘talka talka.’ If they are simply saying something that doesn’t interest you it is ‘talka talka.’ This is a very handy term in society as a whole.

My personal favorite phrase from the lingua franca is ‘Got a banana.’ This refers to anyone that has received a very negative result from something they have said or done. If someone messes up royally and is reprimanded for it they ‘got a banana.’ By the way, this is not pronounced as Americans would. It is properly stated ‘bah-nah-nah.’ You seriously don’t want to get a banana. So far I’ve avoided it but I’m sure my day will come.

Welcome to my second language of ‘ships.’

And the adventure continues . . .