How international are you?

By Cheryl Yu

A while ago, a colleague was telling me about his international student recruitment trip to India. He was telling me that he was treated as such a VIP in India, he felt it because of what he represents, a white British male. He has had similar experiences in many other developing countries where he is deemed as the 'expert' by the locals and as 'international' compared to the locals. Unsurprisingly he does not receive the same treatment in the UK and actually feels invisible in society.

My recent experience and working with my career coach made me think and reflect on how international I am, as a Chinese national living in the UK.

So, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the most international, how would you score:

· A white British man in China?

· A Chinese woman in the UK?

If you are considering a score in your head, then this only reaffirms my concern.

Cartesian dualism views the mind and body are separate and distinctive. It makes us believe that we can judge people based on the mind alone, irrespective of the body; so that equality can exist. However, in my experience, at the receiving end, we associate people with stereotypes; we see, and judge people based on our experience and assumptions; we conform to the social norms. This philosophy states that the mind can exist outside of the body, and the body cannot think. However, when we walk into a room, it is our body who is representing the mind. We cannot ignore that the body embodies and personifies our minds. Here we cannot even try to get into the conversation of symbolism. How our skin colour, accent, religion, and lived experience are part of who we are. There are conscious bias and unconscious bias that we even do not know exists within us.

In a recent confession to my career coach, I said that I suffered from an inferiority complex whilst of living and working in the UK. I think this is linked to my language ability, despite the fact that I speak English, Chinese and some French and Japanese. I also have a wealth of experience and knowledge in the field I work in. So why do I feel this way? I do not experience the same feeling in China. The nationality in context relates to the embedded imperialism and post-colonialism of society. This embodies many fallacies, such as white superiority or that the West is better than the rest. English language represents dominance and supremacy and my native Chinese language ability feels almost irrelevant in the UK.

When there are comparative words of 'less' or 'better', I am comparing myself with others, focusing on the ‘differences’, rather than the ‘sameness’. In my context, it is about being able to communicate effectively, but to communicate the same as colleagues from Surrey, accent, tone, pronunciation, and articulation. I was psychologically 'tramped' by the perceived 'language barrier' or 'language imperialism' or how the ‘class’ is deeply embedded in our representation. This reminded me of a remark made once by a tutor who comes from Manchester. She said she feared 'opening her mouth' here in Surrey. So, is there a hierarchy of accents in using English which makes the 'outsider' feel 'inferior’ or represents the invisible but powerful social class in a society.

Recently, I have worked extensively with colleagues from India, Pakistan, Sir Lanka, UAE, Libya, Malaysia, Singapore and other countries. I never judged their accents or their choice of atypical words or expressions. But on the contrary, I felt their accents or wording are interesting and I have only been impressed with their sophistication of the English language. I realised that I should never have troubled myself with such sentiment as it is only something that we created internally. If we believe its existence, this only creates and reaffirms its presence.

Coming back to my question 'How international are you', we all know that this should not be about physical appearance, but be determined by externals in assessing one's attributes, experience, capability, value and principles. Living in this ever-globalised society, being part of the community is not about race, gender, ethnicity, language, religion or sexual orientation.

This experience my friend had in India is not unique within the sector, but an accepted and even promoted norm, where we choose to conform to this social norm. Often in China, international teachers or tutors are referred to as 'experts' or 'professors'. This accepted practice does not make it right automatically. When one is silent about inequality, this only reinforces and promotes this unequal treatment, becoming the 'enforcer' of unequal behaviour.

Through reflection and conscious investigation, I feel my awareness of cultural bias in myself and society has been enhanced recently. But the Cultural Intelligence (CQ) Strategy requires us to be a master in all four levels, from CQ Drive, CQ Knowledge, CQ Strategy to CQ Action.

So only aware of our bias is far from being sufficient, we need to develop the strategy to put it into test and action. This surely has to be an ongoing process for ourselves as individuals and for continued progression as a sector.