Intercultural Negotiations

Intercultural Negotiations - St. John, U.S.V.I.

Unlike most of the other students in this course, my travels have not led me to another country.  Instead, I am living in Beaufort, North Carolina at the Duke University Marine Lab for the semester.  Interestingly, class is structured into four separate blocks so students only take one class at a time for four weeks.  During my first block I traveled to St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands for almost three weeks as part of a travel component of my marine ecology course.  Therefore, I will be discussing the culture I experienced during this field course.

During our stay in St. John, we were not exposed to much of the people, towns, or culture because we were living in a research field station (Virgin Island Environmental Research Station or VIERS) that was essentially located in the middle of the woods.  Each day we would travel to various beaches and bays to snorkel and observe marine ecology, the majority of which were more reclusive and less touristy beaches.  Therefore, I will be speaking about the culture I experienced during our two dinner outings and a handful of visits to touristy beaches, which may not expand to the island culture as a whole.

VIERS research station 

A noticeable difference I encountered between St. John and the northeast United States, where I was born, raised, and attend college, is that people are considerably more friendly and outgoing to strangers.  I am accustomed to avoiding eye contact when passing a stranger in an attempt to avoid invading their personal space or making either of us uncomfortable.  The more friendly people in this region will smile to some strangers or ask “how are you” without really engaging in the response.  The individuals living in the Virgin Islands are a lot more personable.  While working on my independent project on marine snails with my partner at a small, remote dock, we encountered maybe 10 people during our long days of experimentation.  The majority of these people would stop what they were doing and engage in a lengthy ten-minute conversation about where we are from, what we were doing, how long we were staying, etc.  These people were very friendly and always comfortable engaging us.  Also, when walking down the long dirt road to this local dock, every driver that passes makes sure to wave and smile.

(Greater Lameshur Bay where we conducted our snail experiment)

This common behavior may be connected to the casual nature of the culture on the island.  As opposed to the northern U.S., where most people are constantly busy and rushing around, the people of St. John appear to live life more in the moment with less concern about efficiency and productivity.  This may be explained by the fact that the island is largely driven by its tourist industry, which centers around relaxing along the beach in the hot island sun.  In contrast, most U.S. cities are focused on private businesses that require the aforementioned efficient and productive setting. People in St. John are not worried about what they are doing the next moment or keeping to a schedule, so they have the time flexibility to stop and talk to strangers.  Another example of this casual, slow-paced nature of the island is our experience at the two restaurants we dined at.  My professor, Dr. Brian Silliman, made early reservations to avoid the “dinner rush”, but despite being there when the restaurant was essentially empty, we still waited about an hour and a half for our meals at it just is not an issue for most people.

Based on my experiences I would loosely consider St. John, U.S.V.I. to be short-term orientated according to Geert Hofstede classification system because people are less concerned with long-term goals and a hard working attitude but instead live in the moment and have a care-free attitude.  It was very refreshing to be submerged in this culture; it felt less stressful and intense and instilled the value of enjoying the present, which many people in the United States often forget.