“For your own safety, laying on the floor is strictly prohibited”

During the longest plane journey of my life, I would have given absolutely anything to sprawl out comfortably across the floor and pass out.  But, as it was against the safety regulations, I had plenty of time in between awkward sleeping positions to notice the slight differences between what I had previously experienced on flights and what I was currently experiencing on South African Airways. I found the slight colloquial differences between words to describe places on the plane and facets of the flying experience fascinating.  I first noticed as the Commander (our version of Captain) asked for the attention of his passengers for “the sharing of the safety video.”  Sharing struck me as an interesting verb choice because it conveyed that the process of being reminded to wear my seatbelt and take the brace position was an experience that was being offered to me rather than one I had to sit through once again.  Other words took on a slight transformation that made the actions and objects seem more important and serious; our “overhead bin” became the “overhead stowage compartment” and our “frequent flyer” became a “voyager.” My absolute favorite change was the switch from “exiting the plane” to “disembarkement,” a phrase I had never heard before. 

These changes in language gave me the impression that the process of flying was something that was taken incredibly seriously, but during the few times that the fasten seatbelt sign was lit mid-flight, many of the standing passengers either ignored it or took their time returning to their seats.  Granted this was an international flight and not all its passengers were South African, but a fair bit of them were.  I wonder if this relaxed attitude to following rules is something that translates over into the rest of their lives and if it is something that I will be seeing quite a bit.  It reminded me of something that was discussed in our first online class meeting; the concept of “now” in South Africa and how “now” means more typically, “eventually” or “in a little while.”  Anyways, tomorrow is the first day in the school so hopefully, everything will go well!