Cayman Islands Culture & Language

Caymanian culture is that of a small seafaring people -- fishing, turtle harvesting and the merchant marine were the livelihoods, and Cayman sea salt and logwood are still made -- overlaid since the 1960s by a financial centre and a luxury tourist trade that brought in more than half the present population from 140 countries, Jamaicans first at a quarter of the whole. English is the language, in a Caribbean dialect, with Tagalog spoken by about eight per cent of residents on work permits; Christianity is the faith of 67 per cent, in Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Church of God, Presbyterian and United Church congregations, and religion and family matter enough that shops, banks and services close on Sundays.

The built heritage is modest and cared for: Pedro St James in the south, the restored great house of the islands' early government; the old wooden houses of Bodden Town, the first capital; and George Town's harbour front, where the cruise tenders land from Tuesday to Friday. The natural heritage is the culture's newer pride, the blue iguana and the botanic park opened by the Queen in 1994 above all.

The public culture is conservative and courteous: no nudity or topless bathing, shoes and a cover-up away from the beach, drugs met with decades in prison, and a civility that the advisories' very low crime figures reflect.

English is the language, official and universal, spoken in a Caribbean dialect by Caymanians and in every other accent by the half of the population that came from elsewhere; Tagalog is spoken by about eight per cent of residents, Spanish by the Latin American communities, and Jamaican patois by the largest immigrant group. There is nothing to learn and everything to listen to.