Hello. Here I am, back to the waves of the net ocean. It is a relatively easy day today, but the problems of yesterday resoun in my head: now I know that I certainly want to speak as many languages as I can and I always prefer to speak to the people that need our help directly. I suppose I better exlain myself. Yesterday during my shift I had a call from a Spanish speaker. Luckily he had enough English for me to let him know that I would like him to call back later when our Spanish speaker will be in. But what if he had had no English at all? He could easily be in a desperate situation and could have required an urgent help. So, I had a bold desire to speak as many languages as my brain could take in! But after all realistically speaking I could probably take on quite simply a few Slavonic languages and some of West European ones but what would I do if somebody would call up in Chinese or Bengoli?

Yes, there is always a limit after which you desperately need a translator or a help of your colleague. However even if you speak a common language with someone, that does not guarantee you that the person actually really understands you.I don't want to go now into the philosophical issue of achieving true mutual understanding with any other member of human race, but our job occasionally presents us with such riddles. It happens especially when you have to communicate with the seafarer via his relative or a friend. Despite the obvious fact that people who represent seafarers and speak to us on their behalf truly want to help, they often misunderstand, misenturpit given to them information. That can potentially make things more complicated and slow down the process of solving the problem.

But I do understand that sometimes it is not possible to talk to the seafarers directly,- what if their phone is out of reach, what if they don't want their captain to overhear them talking to us, or they could be in hospital and who knows what else. Maritime profession is still very hard and full of hidden and apparent dangers. The fact that world has entered 21st century perhaps only deepens the risk,- sea is more polluted then ever, pirats are equipt with the most modern weapons and the vast majority of the society lives under the illusion that all the seafaring problems that existed in past are now illuminated.

So, thank God for the kind souls who wish to speak to us on behalf of their seafaring friends and family members! But one thing I would love to ask of them: please pass to us the exact information, correct messages and phone numbers. Ask the seafarer you represent as many questions as you can before speaking to us,please try to have their ships correct name and location, and also do ask them what kind of action they would want us to take. It is so very vital that you actually posess the correct and clear information. Everything which is vague and uncertain could cause sometimes very harmful delays!..Returning to the theme of wanting to speak a lot of languages, I wish sometimes that to start with we all could learn one global human language, the language of heart and of mutual trust and respect. If that language would have been widely known our work itself could have become unneccesary as people would stop hirting each other and making each other's existance difficult. But that is not going to happen just yet, so please call us if you have a problem!