IAMU News No.13, October 2006

Mariners Abroad

Written by Cameron Ross and Ryan Salkaln - Intro by R.Adm Leonard Tyler - President MMA

During the spring semester, thanks to our participation in the International Association of Maritime Universities, Maine Maritime Academy was the host to two students from Dalian Maritime Academy. Cai Junxi and Yue Xu arrived on a very cold winter day but left here at the height of summer after participating in our annual training cruise. It was a wonderful experience for both young men as they experienced hands-on training aboard the 500' T.S. State of Maine and visited many foreign ports including Barcelona, Spain; Gibraltar; Gdynia, Poland and Cobh, Ireland. Two of our students, Ryan Salkaln and Cameron Ross attended Dalian Maritime Academy during the spring semester. They learned so much about the Chinese people, the culture and the educational system. The exchange agreement reached between our two colleges was that each student would pay to his own university the cost of attendance for the semester so that there was no additional cost of attendance in the host country. Because of the IAMU connection, we have already hosted students from Spain, Poland and Russia, either aboard our ship, or as part of our undergraduate or graduate programs. It was an arrangement that worked wonderfully well for all concerned and which we hope to repeat with other IAMU member universities in the near future. The article written by Ryan and Cameron demonstrates what a great experience they had and how much our young people benefit from exposure to different languages, customs and cultures.

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February 22, 2006. We can remember it as if it were yesterday, sitting in the Newark Airport waiting for our departure for Beijing. We were participating in the first student exchange program between Dalian Maritime University (DMU) and Maine Maritime Academy (MMA). As we were waiting, it hadn't sunk in yet, the fact that we were going to China for a semester without knowing any Chinese or much about their culture. Crazy? A majority of our friends believed we were.

It was 11pm when we arrived in Dalian, on the last flight of the day. The truth is, now we were nervous. Due to complications at the airport in Beijing, we were forced to change our flight into Dalian. We were worried that no one would be at the airport to greet us. We are truly grateful to everyone working at DMU's Exchange Office. Despite the hour, we did receive a warm welcome. They had been waiting all along.

We were enrolled at DMU's College of Transportation Engineering & Logistics and Foreign Language School. We were surprised at how fast we were able to adapt. Our classes were taught in English and presented in the traditional lecture style.

There were several things at DMU that caught our interest. First, students pursuing maritime licenses participated in physical fitness training five days a week. Every morning we were awakened to the sound of students running in cadence. Second, the variety of food offered at any one of DMU's seven dining facilities was amazing. Hundreds of different styles of dishes were available on any given day. Third, people in Dalian and at DMU were incredible friendly. Despite the language barrier, the Chinese were always patient with our attempt to convey our meaning through sign language; at times, our only means of communicating. It was pretty amusing to witness.

The biggest obstacle for both of us was trying to understand the Chinese culture. Neither we nor our Chinese friends had an accurate understanding of each other, let alone geography. A year ago we had no clue where or in what country Dalian was located, a Chinese city of 6 million people. On the other hand, very few Chinese could locate Maine. What little we know about each other was taken from television and movies. Students from DMU were fond of American reality television and MTV, which they could access from the campus intranet. On many occasions we had to literally sit down and discuss situations we witnessed in public; we had to question why one would act in a particular way. We are not criticizing their culture by any means. It was simply different from anything we had ever experienced in the past.

Five months went by fast. In the end, we had taken over 200 hours of Chinese language lessons. We visited Beijing and Shanghai and made friends all along the way, something the two of us consider to be the highlight of our trip. We spoke to individuals from every area of society, from government officials and army officers, to construction workers and expatriates.

As we reflect on our experience, we look back and realize that we would not change it for the world, and what we experienced is not something that every college student has the opportunity to do. We will have this experience under our belts and have it with us for the rest of our lives. In a world that is becoming more and more globally intertwined, it is essential that we learn about different cultures. We believe that this exchange program has given us a chance to grow as individuals and we are fortunate to have had the opportunity to live in China.