Name: Louis_______ Message: Am two days into my cruise on the Liberty. How can Carnival employ people who have no English speaking skills. Communication impossible with my waiter from Indonesia, his English is nonexistent. Same everywhere around the ship. American company carrying Americans should hire Americans. Very unhappy with this situation. This was received two weeks ago on my blog and I am disappointed in myself that I missed it and was unable to investigate and help Louis with a visit from the maître D etc. You know, I am often asked “ why don’t you hire more Americans” and while we do in areas such as entertainment, spa , shops and other areas we don’t have any (I will check on that ) in the dining room or housekeeping. Now that’s not because we do not want Americans to work in these areas but rather they don’t want to work in these areas. Now we did do a trial on the Destiny as the Sunshine was back in 2002 when we hired 100 or so Americans for the dining room but after just a month, there were very few left. They had either quit or we had to let them go. Now it is important for me to say we don’t have many Brits working there either or Canadians for that matter because the work load is challenging and certainly I have nothing but admiration for people who can walk through a dining room on a moving ship carrying 12 plates of prime rib. It is also worth mentioning that in the cruise industry our crew are not required for the most part to pay tax . Only a few countries demand this of their citizens and the USA is one of them. This means the joys of a tax free salary are not available to them, another reason why we don’t have more American crew in the service areas of our ships. As for the comment from Louis that the crew do not speak English, well I have also heard this a few times before and it really is not true. English is my first language however I forced myself to learn as much Dutch as I can so I can speak to Heidi’s family and friends, especially her Mum who is staying with us for the 2015 new year celebrations and does not speak English. I’m so out of practice though that it’s often a struggle to convey simple concepts as “would you like a cup of coffee” and “I amo embarssed I just fated in front of you.” When I speak Dutch to anyone, they have a tendency to slap their thighs, laugh out loud and make sound recordings my attempts for future entertainment of their friends and family. Dutch is a very hard language to learn. You need half a ton of phlegm in your mouth to pronounce most of the words. Don’t ever stand to close to a Dutch person and enter a conversation with him …………………..you will be washing spit out of your hair for months. Speaking a second language is something most of us cannot say we can do yet all our staff in the dining room and who service the cabins and serve you cocktails all speak a second language. They may not be able to discuss if Jed Bush will be running for President or converse with you about the chemical properties of Yak turds but we insist as a company that all our service staff pass a proficient English test before they are allowed to serve in guest areas as indeed do United Sates Coastguard. And as I have said many times before, all our crew speak one other language………………the language of fun………………..and I think they speak that fluently.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 14:54:51 +0000
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