Twitter Interview With Lucy Chatburn

Twitter Interviews – #CKinterview

Today’s Cross-Cultural Interview is with Lucy Chatburn. Lucy is is co-founder and managing editor of PocketCultures.

She is the person behind the Twitter handle @pocketcultures. And if you do not follow her there, I highly recommend you do. Lucy always shares interesting links for anyone interested in culture, travel and different place in the world.

This is a 2 part interview:

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

UPDATE: The transcript of the Cross-Cultural Twitter Interview with @pocketcultures is now below.

Lucy Chatburn – Part 1

Here is the first part of the interview with Lucy

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

Lucy Chatburn: Hi Cindy. Thanks for inviting me to do this interview. About me, originally I’m from the UK but I have lived in Turkey for the last 3 years. I have also lived in France (2 years), Spain (3 years) and spent 3 months in Italy. So those are also the languages I know. I’m studying Arabic too, but I’m still at a basic level.

Turkish culture is quite different from English culture – among other things it’s less individualistic and people here are more gregarious – but I feel very much at home here. Maybe having experience of other Mediterranean cultures made it easier to adapt.

How did you pick up your cross-cultural skills?

Lucy Chatburn: I don’t claim to be a cross-cultural expert! But I do love learning about other cultures and meeting people from different places. My passion for discovering other cultures started with an ERASMUS exchange to Paris when I was at university. I also studied a master’s degree at IESE in Barcelona, which is a very international school. It was a great opportunity to make friends from many different places and backgrounds.

I find it fascinating that two people from different backgrounds can see and interpret the same event in very different ways.

Can you tell us about your blog?

Lucy Chatburn: The best thing about PocketCultures is getting to know and exchange opinions with people from all over the world.

Our main aim with the project is to help people discover foreign countries and cultures from the inside. Sometimes the view of a country you get from the outside is quite different to the one you see if you visit, or talk to someone from that country.

Many sites and news sources feature accounts by travelers and expats or analysis from international experts, and these are very valuable perspectives for understanding other cultures. But we can learn a lot from the locals as well, and sometimes (more so for some countries than others) their voices are not heard as much. With PocketCultures we would like to give them a voice.

So we try to emphasize the local point of view. We feature blogs and stories from around the world and we also have stories from people in cross-cultural relationships, as this is one place where cultural differences are sure to pop up! We’re currently building a team of regional contributors from around the world who can write about their country from an insider’s perspective. At the moment we represent 6 different countries, and we’re looking for more contributors who would like to join us in this mission.

A couple of my favorite posts are:

• The real Phad Thai
• Celebrating peace and freedom

These posts are great because they show local opinions from Thailand and Costa Rica. I could never have written them myself!

We also write about international issues, like world languages and the effects of globalization. An example would be this post on the Top 20 Languages of the World

Current world social and demographic trends mean that this top 20 list could look quite different in 20 years time.

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?

Lucy Chatburn: Well, all stereotypes are inappropriate to a certain extent, because they reinforce the idea that you can describe a place or a culture with a single point of view. I really liked this TED Global presentation by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which I think illustrates the problem very well.

One of the things we try to do with PocketCultures is choose stories that challenge cultural stereotypes and show a different side to countries that suffer from undeserved reputations.

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

Lucy Chatburn: The movie ‘The full Monty’ has a very silly storyline (please don’t think such a thing would happen in real life!), but it captures very well the background and people of my hometown, Sheffield. Things have moved on now, but many British towns went through a similar slump following the demise of UK manufacturing. With The Full Monty they managed to make a very funny film out of a bad situation. It was hugely popular in Sheffield when it came out.

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

Lucy Chatburn: I’ll stick with the UK theme, because that’s what I know best. Anyone familiar with the UK will know about the ‘North-South divide’: a slight mistrust which still exists between the different parts of England. George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier is not a light read but gives some useful insights into the background behind that tension.

I also enjoyed The White Tiger (by Aravind Adiga), which is set in contemporary India. But to come back to the single story idea again India is huge and varied, and one book can only show one small part of it.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

Lucy Chatburn: We’d love to hear from anyone who is interested in sharing their country and culture with PocketCultures readers. There is more information here

Lucy, thank you for sharing this with us.  I’m looking forward to  going through the the 10 Cross-Cultural Questions on Twitter with you later today.

Lucy Chatburn- 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
• 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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