Twitter Interview With Charmayne Paul

Twitter Interviews – #CKinterview

Today’s Cross-Cultural Interview is with Charmayne (Char) Paul. Char is the person behind the Twitter handle @psitutor.  And Char is one of the people on Twitter I enjoy being around the most. Although she has not travelled she has a wealth of cultural skills the most experienced of us can appreciate. Her business is dealing with people from different cultures. You can tell that she experiences all of the challenges of cross-cultural communication on a regular basis and has a healthy approach to dealing with these differences.

Char is an Online Tutor:Mentor for students in higher education. She has a Bachelors Degree in Psychology (with Honors) from JCU, Cairns, Australia. She is currently completing her TESOL certificate online and taking e-courses to develop as an online instructor.

PSI stands for “Personal Study Instruction” to emphasise the tailored services to meet the needs and expectations of students. Students come to her when they need additional support with understanding concepts or completing an assessment. Over half of Char’s clients are ESL speakers who may be studying here in Australia or overseas, such as Saudi Arabia, China or Western Europe.

Char uses Skype, email and her blog to provide students with a range of academic services:

• Help with research for an essay/presentation or thesis
• Writing aid to structure an argument that flows
• Research design and analysis using SPSS
• Proofreading and formatting to APA, Oxford, Chicago and MLA styles
• Improvement of academic English skills for ESL students

Char also runs a Daily Skype Study Chat (psi_tutor) for students feeling overwhelmed with their workload at uni or college or just needing to bounce their ideas off somebody else.  In 2010 PSI Tutor:Mentor will be running a series of online workshops~ so let her know what you find most challenging with your studies!  Here’s a video to watch.

This is a 2 part interview:

• Part 1 – The Blog Interview
• Part 2 – The Twitter Interview for 10 Cross-Cultural & International Questions

Charmayne Paul – Part 1

Here is the first part of the interview with Char.

Hi Char, for those who don’t know you, can you please tell us something about yourself?

Charmayne Paul: I live in Cairns, a delight for those who adore reef and rainforest in tropical north Queensland in Australia.

My job is great! As an Online Tutor:Mentor I get to work with tertiary students from all over the globe~ from my home. I’ve never lived or worked abroad, but as Cairns is a tourist city there are many cross-cultural work opportunities. After high school I took a Community College course in Japanese and then worked with a Duty Free Store~ they thought my language skills very old fashioned Cultures that I feel close to are those that existed on and around this tropical island I call home; Indigenous Australian, Torres Strait (TI) and South Pacific Islander. Going to school and living next door to people of other ethnic backgrounds was the norm for me.

How did you pick up your cross-cultural skills?

Charmayne Paul: Any cross-cultural skills I have were mostly developed through interactions with those of other cultures. As a kid my friends were Aboriginal, TI, PNG, Dutch as well as Anglo-Australian. Later at TAFE and in the workforce I extended my skills by learning about Japan. As I travelled within Australia I met many international visitors and at uni we had a salad bowl of ethnicities. Nowadays I have Korean and Czech students living with me, coming for tutes and sometimes I provide homestay. Also, as my online tutor:mentor service grew I found that I have needed to take language courses (shout out to EduFire) to understand my clients better, and to show respect for their cultures as well. English may be the international language of communication for now, though it would be terrible to discount other languages because they are not “the norm”. Language is culture.

How do you use your cross-cultural skills in your job?

Charmayne Paul: To cultivate patience I like to learn a few basic words in a client’s language to show them that I value their culture and appreciate that they want to learn about mine. It is a great way to build rapport and to get a better understanding of how each culture approaches communication of particular topics. I also put into practice the basics that I know about different cultures, such as making sure my shoulders are covered on Skype cam for Muslim students, not making too much eye contact for Chinese students, and slowing down my speech patterns for patriarchal cultures. Living in this time where technology allows us to get to know others from around our global village is awesome. I am in awe at how much we can learn from each other, through language and communication styles. These two things reveal so much about how we make meaning of our world, thus how we interact. Amazing.

Can you tell us about your blog?

Charmayne Paul: Disillusioned with the culture within my work environment at the local university, I realised that I could meet my goal to provide student study support and their improved community engagement by striking out on my own. Personal Study Instruction is a common request from tertiary students. Not everyone works at the same pace, in the same way, science knows this yet so often in learning institutions it is not put into practice. I have a patient nature and it is fantastic to work with a student who really wants to understand a concept or achieve an academic outcome~ besides getting a good grade. In the real world employers and users of services want confident, efficient, effective and empathic professionals. The PSI Tutor:Mentor blog aims to encourage and support tertiary students in their personal and professional development. Cross-cultural awareness is a big part of this.

The majority of visitors to my blog are international. I started with a website though found it too static for higher education student needs. The interactive nature of a blog makes it a portal of conversation as well as a storehouse for tertiary resources and a contact point for tutor or mentoring services.

2010 will see the launch of my Membership site (fingers crossed~ must understand the software I’ve bought first!). My $1 for 1 year model aims to make access viable for tertiary students in developing nations as well, whilst providing a source of revenue that will enable me to create jobs for other tutors. I anticipate it to be a win-win-win, for uni/college students-other tutors-and me

Social media like Facebook and Twitter are a must for making contact with an international audience and to learn about their cultures. My excuse for reading the variety of blogs that I do is so that I can post material for students! I am very blessed to work at something I love doing, so even in my downtime what I am reading can usually be related back to my career purpose: To support student learning.

Besides blogging I take part in e-courses such as learning to use Moodle, WikiEducator and e-conferences.
I also run classes on EduFire and publish non-peer reviewed academic articles on Lulu. I am learning to podcast and braving myself for more YouTube videos. Apart from work I use the Internet to exchange poetry and short fiction feedback. Again, this is a great way to meet others from around the globe.

I have a couple of lists I’m building here on this blog, and wonder if you have anything you would like to share.

Have you come across any cultural stereotypes that bother you, or you find inappropriate?

Charmayne Paul: Once in a while a student may assume that because I live in Australia that I am affluent~ and perhaps I am compared to their living situation. However, I come from a very humble background and maintain a very simple lifestyle~ I am not a capitalist per se, more of a sustainable person. My business is not about making a profit, of course some profit is necessary to pay bills and to extend my services, such as providing jobs for others. Overall though, my goal is for equal access to learning support. Students in my home of Cairns have the option to trade fruit and veggies or labor around my home for my services. So, yes, sometimes it bothers me that another assumes that I am wealthy and should want to do work for free or no fee.

Do you have a favorite movie that could help people understand cultural issues?

Charmayne Paul: Sure~ but are they appropriate…? 300 is one i watch regularly as I love the message of celebrating one’s culture and not taking a “melting pot” approach, especially when it means the dilution of the values under the tyranny of another.

The Kite Runner brought home the cultural differences between my country and Afghanistan, as well as highlighting cultural issues for youth that have migrated to a western nation. Bend It Like Beckham shows the difficulties of a second generation Indian teenager who is female and wants to play soccer.

A favorite Aussie movie is One Night The Moon, set in 1932 about a missing Anglo-Australian child whose parents resist taking up the skills of a local Aboriginal tracker due to their racist feelings. The movie highlights how the farmer (Anglo) sees the land as “mine”, whilst the tracker sees the landscape as “me”. Two mutually exclusive ways of approaching life. Beautiful message, cinematography and ending~ tracker find the child.

Do you have a book you could recommend to help others improve their cultural insights?

Charmayne Paul: A Son of the Circus by John Irving, he has a wicked sense of humor and his sarcasm resonates well with my Aussie culture. The book is fiction, about an Indian man and his Indian wife who return to Bombay every couple of years for their holiday. Their Americanized culture is so different to the “norm” in their home country. Lots of laughs as well as insights into cultural values in the East and West.

And finally…

Is there anything else you would like to share?

Charmayne Paul: I would like to travel more overseas when my business is sustainable; it would be great to visit other nations, teach English in trade for homestay and to experience other cultures and their beautiful land and seascapes. So far I have only been to a couple of places in Micronesia~ Guam twice, and Palau. Oh, there was the airport in Manila

I am actively learning at least 500 words and phrases from an assortment of languages at present; Czech (so hard!), German, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Spanish and Arabic. I would like to add to these in 2010 with French, Pali, Portuguese and Turkish.

Due to my pet companions, I am not keen at this point in my life to live in another country; though I am eager to travel more often for 3-6 weeks at a time in one place. Especially I want to travel to the developing world, where I can contribute my teaching and researcher skills. I am also an avid gardener, so perhaps I could help out planting crops or digging holes for a well. Wouldn’t that give me some perspective on life!

Char, thank you for sharing this with us.  I hope others can see why I value your cultural insights. I’m looking forward to  going through the the 10 Cross-Cultural Questions on Twitter with you later today.

Charmayne Paul – Part 2 – The Twitter Interview

This is an interview series of the people I recommend you follow on Twitter for the cross-cultural and international business insights in their tweets.

More Twitter Interviews

• Rajeev Edmonds – @mintblogger
• Rossitza Ohridska-Olson – @culturalrealms
• Charmayne Paul – @psitutor
• Lucy Chatburn – @pocketcultures
• Doreen Iannuzzi – @DoreenatDMS
• Donna Jackson – @wisequeen
• Chris Cotter – @CotterHUE
• Jack Yan – @jackyan
• Silvia Cambié – @XCulture
• Bill Ward – @DR4WARD
• Thierry De Baillon – @t_de_baillon
• Seshu – @PicSeshu
• Neil Urquhart – @culturematters
• Klaus & Flavia Westerwelle – @transdomo
• Donagh Kiernan – @dkiernan
• Christian Hoeferle – @hoeferleconsult
• Caroline – @ohh_la_la
• Deborah Swallow – @DeborahSwallow
• Steve Roesler – @steveroesler
• Matthew Bennett – @matthewbennett

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