Wesa Chau has always been a supporter of international students and migrants, as she is an immigrant herself, moved to Australia when she was 7. She became the founder of the Australian Federation of International Students, a non-profit organisation that is for international students, by international students when she was doing her bachelors. After that, Wesa became a senior manager at community organisations, board member at various organisations and Foundations, and ministerial appointments at Ministerial Councils. Currently, she is the Director of Cultural Intelligence. Along the way, she has won many outstanding awards, including the Australian Leadership Award 2013, and the Young Victorian of the Year in 2010.
Recently, I got the chance to interview her in one webinar that I’ve hosted for our students. I think her inspirational story along with her tips on career, study, making friends, and cross-cultural communication will benefit you if you are an international student, or Asian student, in particular.
Career: Be open and try out
Find her path
“When I started my Uni, I didn’t know what I want to do either. That’s ok.”
“The reason I did Engineering is IT was a big thing back then.”
Hearing that I was a bit surprised, as I didn’t expect Wesa was like many of us too.
So how did she find her way in the end?
By exploration.
“Through doing work for international students, I got a job in a non-profit organisation after graduation. I’ve never thought of working in this type of organisations before. So be open to all sorts of opportunities, and it’s interesting to see what can happen. Eventually, I discovered my love for Cultural Intelligence. It’s really fun, intellectually interesting and practically challenging.”
She added:
“One thing I wish I knew back at the uni is to be more individualistic: thinking about doing something that really interests me because when you do anything that interests you and you have a passion to do it. And therefore, you probably do very well, and get a job easier in the end.”
“At the same time, I do understand, as an Asian myself, you can’t ignore your parents’ suggestions. So do something that you love, but also do something that will satisfy your parents as well just to keep the harmony and balance within the family.”
What if you don’t know what you like now?
“Notice what lights you up. For example, which subject interests you.”
Advantages as an international student
Many of you worried about the language and cultural barriers that you have instead of noticing your advantages, that is:
“Insights into your country origins.”
Wesa continued: to keep an eye on what happens in your home countries, especially trends of the industry that you are interested in. Then you can talk about the potential of helping to expand the business to your home country during an interview. Many companies want to make global trade, but they just don’t know where to start.
Also, Cultural Intelligence is a good work space for you to consider, as many people who are working in this area right now don't have lived experiences as you do.
Awards
Wesa’s work has been recognised widely by the Australian society, so what’s her secret of winning these outstanding awards?
“Solid work. I just put myself out there, trying and doing something.”
Not be afraid to fail
“With anything in life, sometimes you feel you failed, that’s quite ok. Just go back to improve and continue to improve.”
Study
If you are from Asian countries, you may find your study very challenging, especially at the beginning due to all these differences. In China, for instance, rote learning is still very common while Critical Thinking, critique analysis and debating are big things here. “I remember in year seven, we had to do debating.”
So Wesa’s advice for many of you is:
To know the Australian education system is the first step
knowing what you can do and cannot do, for example, copy and paste is not acceptable here.
To develop a good relationship with your lecturers
Understand where they come from and what they are looking for. Depending on where they were raised, cultural bias exists. Try to meet them halfway.
But how to know your lecturers better?
First class is essential. You will know how this subject fits into the whole course and what this lecturer wants in your assignments.
Ask questions in class or after class, they can even be some random questions. Just to test out, so you can get to know your lecturers better and vice versa.
Be a culturally responsive online learner
Studying online adds more challenges for many of you. There will be some lecturers who don’t understand cultural diversity, so you need to understand their perspectives.
2 tips from Wesa for becoming a culturally responsive online learner:
To be able to talk more explicitly about your assumptions.
You might need to say: Previously you can assume things, but now you have to make everything explicitly, especially when you are working with people across cultures online.
Give your lecturers feedback, remember it’s their first time to do online lessons too.
Making friends
This is another challenging area.
It’s common to notice international students hang out together, so do local students. It’s natural, as you want to find people who understand you, and you can freely just communicate without really having to adapt.
Also, meeting venue. In Australia, people do spend quite a bit of time in the pub to socialise and make friends, such as Friday afternoon drinks. This adds extra difficulties if you are from certain religious backgrounds or you may feel unsafe there. Even for Wesa who was raised up here, she still doesn’t really enjoy it.
Therefore, if you want to develop friendship cross culturally, you need to be open, go out and try:
Go to new places with a couple of friends if that makes you feel safer.
Join student events and clubs that you are unfamiliar with.
Cultural intelligence
“Cultural Diversity is really about flexibility, adaptability and understanding one another."
"As international students, it’s crucial to understand Australian culture. For Australian students, they should understand international students as well. It’s an exchange.”
So how to get better in dealing with people from different cultures?
By observation. Observe how people interact and then adapt to its culture. When Wesa was in India, she noticed that Indian people did a lot of headshaking, so she started to follow that too.
“If you accidentally offend someone, apologise and not do that again. Also, communicate with them and try to understand where they come from.”
“Meanwhile, we should be open to others who make mistakes too. Do not assume they come from a bad place. They might just not know or understand.”
I always believe challenges are an excellent opportunity for our growth. So be open to try, to fail, to improve, and remember to recognise your special traits and enjoy this journey.