Twitter Interview With Sean Oliver

Twitter Interviews – #CKinterview

Today’s Cross-Cultural Interview is with Sean Oliver. Sean is the person behind the Twitter handle @SeanJamesOliver.

Sean Oliver is a Project Manager for Language & Culture Worldwide, a cross-cultural training and consulting firm, and translation service provider. He has traveled in Europe and Central/South America, and has lived in Chile and Costa Rica. He currently resides on the far north side of Chicago, in the Rogers Park neighborhood. He graduated Suma Cum Laude from Beloit College in Wisconsin in 2002 with a BA in Anthropology, and self-designed minor in Sex/Gender Studies.

This is a 2 part interview:

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

Sean Oliver – Part 1

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

Sean Oliver: I grew up in Sandusky, Ohio. My parents were both college professors; my Dad is a Poli Sci PhD, and my Mom has two Masters’s Degrees, in Spanish and French. They’re both retired now. They took me and my one younger brother traveling a lot, all over the continental USA, and to Germany, Switzerland, France, Cuba, and other European countries when I was little.

When I was 14, we went to live in San Jose, Costa Rica for about 6 months. My brother and I attended school there. In high school I went to Italy with a class trip, which was pretty much an example of how not to travel, as our “adult” chaperones were drunk the whole time, while the students were forbidden from leaving the hotel. In college, I traveled on my own in Northern Chile, between Santiago and Iquique, then made my way up to Pisagua, where I worked an Archeological site in Pisagua on the coast in the Atacama desert.

After I graduated, I got a job as a “dig-bum” with Far Western Anthropological Research Group, based in Davis, California. I followed my then-girlfriend back to Chicago to try living in a big city, which I had never done. I worked in a restaurant for 6 months, after not having any luck with finding Archaeological work in Illinois, then went to work for Countrywide Home Loans for 4 ½ years. I worked as a math tutor when the housing market collapsed, and then I got hired on by LCW, who liked my varied work history, and my combined culture and business experience. I speak decent Spanish, though my trip to Chile in ’02 was definitely the pinnacle of my ability.

I lived in Humboldt Park in Chicago for 6 years, which used to be a largely Puerto Rican neighborhood, and is still the biggest concentration of Puerto Ricans in Chicago, but I don’t get speak Spanish much since I moved up North with my girlfriend. I still miss Humboldt Park though. It’s about an hour each way taking the L (train) and a bus or two, so I don’t get back there much.

I do have an affinity for Caribbean culture, particularly Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. I cook Caribbean-style food all the time. My favorite recipes are Arroz con Moros (Dominican style) and tostones with mojo criollo. I love Salsa, Bachata, and Reggaeton, although watching me Salsa usually inspires laughter.

How did you pick up your cross-cultural skills?

Sean Oliver: I’ve kind of been a 3rd culture-kid, in some respects, my whole life, though not in the traditional sense. No one in my hometown did any kind of traveling like my family did, and there wasn’t much exposure to non-English language.

My parents both grew up on farms, and were from extremely humble beginnings. There’s a picture of my Dad from the late 40’s where he and his sister are wearing overalls, straw hats, and no shoes; they weren’t in costume, that’s just how little money my grandparents had at the time. My Dad was a staunch conservative; he dropped out of college twice, and then went to Vietnam, and he returned to the US one of the most liberal people I’ve ever met, much to the chagrin of some of his former students. He served his last two years of military service in Bavaria, and made lots of friends that we ended up visiting.

My mom was the first in her family to go to college; her language skills still amaze me. So you have the rural grandparents, the ivory-tower parents, and then Sandusky, where I spent 18 years, was a relatively gritty, urban, rust-belt type of town, only an hour away from Cleveland, right on Lake Erie.

So before I even got to college, I was juggling 3 different cultures: I had to learn to be un-nerdy to avoid getting beaten up at school, to speak at home in a manner that was acceptable to my parents, and to show interest in church to make my Grandparents happy.

If you’re familiar with the DMIS model of Intercultural Sensitivity, I’ve had to be in the “Adaptation” stage for quite some time. (Knowing when to audit and alter my own speech and behavior in particular cultural context.)

How much of your cross-cultural experience is related to your professional experience? Is there a story behind your interest in international business?

Sean Oliver: When I worked for Countrywide, I remember being shocked at first by the diversity of the people I worked with. You would think that a financial services company wouldn’t be that diverse, in general, but even in the suburban offices I worked in before we moved to downtown Chicago, there were people of Chinese, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Guatemalan, Brazilian, Polish, Irish, Croatian, Filipino, African-American, German, Greek and Thai backgrounds. I was a processor, which meant I had to work on deals with all of the different salespeople.

I had a leg up on other processors, as I knew a little bit about the various cultures, and was able to work out the best ways to work with everyone as individuals. Some people needed very direct communication, some very indirect. Some people wanted to form relationships as a pretext for working together, some people just wanted to “get down to business.”

My Anthropology degree and personal background were a great jumping off point for working in such a multicultural environment. I actually kind of fell into business as a career. I got hired because I was smart and had great references, and then found I really enjoyed it.

Nobody in my family, or the people I grew up around expected me to go that route. It’s always exciting and fast-paced, and as it’s not what most of my training was in, there’s always new skills to learn. I love learning new things.

Can you tell us about your online presence?

Sean Oliver: So… I don’t have a blog. I used to use MySpace, but I think it’s been 6 months since I even looked at it. After all the work that went into the MySpace page, I haven’t had the desire to develop another profile on Facebook. And honestly, as far as a blog goes, my interests are varied to the point where I don’t think I could write about 1, or even 2 or 3 topics without getting bored with it.

I tend to get hyper-focused on one thing for a week or two, and then it’s onto the next thing. I’ve played the guitar since I was 12, I’m an avid bicyclist (although Chicago Winter is too much for me, though lots of people ride year-round), I love sports (especially American football), reading, cooking, politics, particle physics, zoology, silly video games, barbecuing, cooking, playing darts and pool, going out … I’m all over the place. I don’t think there’s a blog audience for people who want to hear about the evolution of offensive strategy in football, and then talk about gender roles across cultures. I could be wrong, I suppose.

I like Twitter because, to me anyways, it’s all about the content. I like that there’s really no profile, unlike Facebook/MySpace: you are what you post. That’s all. People that tweet nothing but ambiguous “inspirational” quotes, or the minutia of their daily lives, or constant self-promotion get un-followed pretty quickly.

I was reading the article, “How to Connect Globally with Social Media” that you collaborated on, and I definitely fall into that American archetype of being content-focused. Content, content, content. It’s such a neat tool to get on the same page as other professionals; I went to a roundtable discussion for language service providers and translators the other day, and we had all read the same articles. Guess how we connected to them all? Twitter.

I started my personal Twitter profile in August, and I started Language & Culture’s in October. I’m proud of the fact that I’ve pretty much grown them both organically, although there’s definitely plenty of room for growth and improvement.

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?

Sean Oliver: Is “all of them” a good answer?

Unfortunately, we need archetypes as people. There simply isn’t time to get to know everyone we interact with as individuals. Especially in a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic city like Chicago, and in international business, having some idea about how people will likely prefer to communicate, and about what to expect people to value gives you a huge advantage in negotiations and forming relationships.

However, letting those archetypes become ingrained in our heads as concrete stereotypes is hugely counter-productive. People, as individuals, can vary widely from the cultural “norms” of their particular society, and we should never make assumptions about people, only educated guesses.

Also, knowing something about people’s history, language, and material culture always provides a jump-off point for conversation. Particularly in the United States where a lot of people really don’t know anything about the world outside the US borders, and their attitudes tend to be stereotype-heavy, actually knowing something about different cultures can surprise and delight people you’re dealing with from those cultures.

I’m always saddened by the enduring stereotypes about African-Americans, Latinos, and gay people in the United States, particularly from members of other cultural minorities. I could list a few examples, but they’re really too numerous to mention.

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

Sean Oliver: I would recommend: “Crash”, “Black Robe”, “Men with Guns”, ”The Mission”, “Mr. Baseball”, “Dances with Wolves”, “Lost in Translation”, and “Remember the Titans”.

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

Sean Oliver: “Culture Matters” The Peace Corps Cross-Cultural workbook, is excellent. If you’re a newbie to the whole cross-cultural field, or a long-time trainer or consultant, it’s a fantastic resource. Language & Culture’s founding partners, Randall Stieghorst and Monica Marcel met while they were Peace Corps volunteers in Latvia. It’s how they got the idea to start the cross-cultural training part piece of the business.

It’s slightly unrelated, but “In Search of Respect” by Philippe Bourgois, all about life in Spanish Harlem in the 1990s, written by an anthropologist living there, is a fantastic read, and really explores race and class in American in a way that’s not often dealt with honestly.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

Sean Oliver: I’d like to get better at Spanish, of course. I don’t really have the aptitude for language like my Mom, or like my boss Randy, who speaks 5 languages. I’m always jealous of that skill!

I suppose I’d like to start with the continents I haven’t been to: Asia and Africa. I’d kind of like to see Vietnam with my Dad, I think that would be incredible. It’s kind of a pipe-dream though. I’d love to get to South Africa for the World Cup this summer, but it’s probably too late to plan that.

Africa is definitely the continent I’m the least knowledgeable about. I think by and large, Americans have this stereotype of Africa as mono-cultural, but it’s really as varied and diverse as any other place on the planet, both culturally and ethnically. I’d like to see that for myself. I’ve been following a woman on Twitter ( @gaylepescud ) who is a volunteer in Ghana, and her experiences are a great window into that culture.

Sean, this was very insightful. Thank you for sharing so many tips in this portion of the interview already. I’m looking forward to hearing your answers to the 10 Cross-Cultural Questions on Twitter with you later today.

Sean Oliver- 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

• Martin Lindeskog – @lyceum
• 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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