Course details

The full course consists of 10 lessons and 2 scans. The lessons include visuals of situations on board in which the perspectives from both cultures will be explained.

1. The workload is 2 lessons per week for 6 weeks. Lessons take 15-30 minutes to complete.
2. After going through all activities, the course will be finalized with a final (online) test.
3. If the test is passed, you will receive a certificate.

Course topics

• Different ways to get to know each other and build trust.
• Giving and receiving feedback, criticizing people, and how people respond to being criticized.
• Being a leader, what makes a strong leader, who should be involved in decisionmaking?
• Time in Different Cultures. What Is Time?
• What different people consider polite.
• How 'being very clear' can be understood in very different ways.
• How even 'the truth' can mean different things.
• The group and the individual.
• Speaking up (or not).
• Following (unwritten) rules.
• Communicating under pressure.

Some words from seafarers about the course

A new approach to prevent misunderstandings in communication

"Something that changed for me after the course is that I learned to be careful about how to confront people from another culture. I learned that there's a way to avoid misunderstanding and to improve a good relationship between crews with diverse cultures."

"I learned first to analyze what kind of topic or questions I should ask if a colleague doesn't have the same nationality."

Explaining the theory with visuals

"I already knew a lot from my experiences on board, but this course helped me to structure my knowledge."

"Learning about the Lewis model has shown me that directness in communication between people of different cultures can not be perceived in the same manner."

Insight in own behaviour

"As a chief officer, I prefer to be more task-oriented for ratings, but for officers on bridge I am more relationship-oriented person, as I need to have a strong team on bridge, than a strong group of individuals."

"The next time I am on board, I will see other cultures (especially the russians) with a different eye. Knowing they are mostprobably more task oriented."