It is true that many Maritime Training Colleges in the Asia Pacific region have established English language courses providing considerable training hours each Semester - yet - still concern is expressed in various spheres of the international shipping industry that many Graduate seafarers trained in this region cannot express themselves clearly in English, and have difficulty communicating with other crew members from non-English speaking countries, as well as on the VHF or in contact with Pilots and Port State Control officials.
// Poor communication between multi-cultural crews on today's vessels is well documented and the potential for miscommunication increases daily, as ships become larger, computerised, technologically more complicated, and yet still subject to human error and the sea's dangers. The crews of some of the new mega passenger vessels may come from a dozen different countries - while, in Western Australia recently I was told of a large bulk carrier at Port Hedland, loading iron ore with a crew of 18, of whom only the Master and Chief Engineer were the same nationality.
// Examples of poor communication or inability to respond in English are given in a new report published in February this year; known as the 'MARCOM' report - for 'MARINE COMMUNICATION'.
Volume I provides clear evidence of ship collisions, groundings and other incidents where the enquiries established that miscommunication, or even non- communication, directly contributed to the accident.
// The Report goes further in Volume II in discussing the problems of Teachers' in non-English speaking countries trying to teach 'Maritime English' without any background in teaching technical or industrial English to seafaring trainees. The research project was funded by the European Commission, carried out by 4 different Universities, including the World Maritime University and the project coordinated by the Seafarers' International Research Centre in Cardiff, who also wrote the
Final Report. (which can be contacted for copies);
