intheLIFESTYLE
intheLIFESTYLE
A Man
of Culture
In his years with the British Council, Roland Davies has
become a man of culture. He has lived in places such as
Brazil, Japan, Korea and Istanbul, and is currently the
Country Director of British Council Singapore. We spoke
with Roland to find out more about the collaborative
spirit of the British Council, the challenges and delights
of working in a foreign country, as well as his life here
in Singapore.
Q: Take us through your path that led to your current position as
Country Director of British Council Singapore.
A: I’ve worked in the British Council for quite a long time. I started out
working as an English teacher, and gradually went through Junior
Management positions before I managed a small office in Japan. After
that I spent some time back in the UK in the Headquarters, and then
came out to Singapore in 2005 where I was Deputy Director for 4 years. I
went to Seoul where I was Director there, and I came back to Singapore
as Director.
Q: Having worked all over Asia, what are some of the culture
shocks you faced from the different countries?
A: I think the most culture shock I’ve had was spending 13 years overseas
and then going back to the UK. Partly because you don’t expect it.
The first place in Asia I lived in was Japan. It wasn’t a culture shock in
a sense, because you expect everything to be different, and it was! So
that was fine. To me that was the point of going overseas; to see things.
Your assumptions, your expectations and perhaps your prejudices are
challenged by what you see.
Q: What did you do before joining the British Council?
A: When I left University, I went to Istanbul, Turkey. I was there for about
a year and a half, with what you might call a kind of “Cowboy English
school”. That was great fun. I think the most memorable thing about
living in Istanbul was that for some 6 months, I lived in Asia but I worked
in Europe. I travelled back and forth every day via a 20 minute boat ride.
You wake up in one continent, and you go to work in another.
Q: What about your working relationships with people from those
countries?
A: It was a very interesting dynamic because we were British people
working in a Japanese context, but we also had our own corporate
culture and values as well. So it wasn’t just a 2 way mix, it was kind of a 3
way mix somehow. I think our Japanese colleagues would be adjusting
their style to suit their British colleagues, and their British colleagues
would be trying to adjust as well. And all will be trying to adjust to our
corporate culture. Most of the time that works quite well. You learn, in
Japan for example, people may not be very forth coming all of the time
in public situations. But I think it’s a mistake to think that they don’t have
opinions. Japanese people are perfectly capable of being forth coming.
I think you just have to sometimes find the right channel or the right
forum.
Q: What would you say is the British Council’s main role in the
countries it is based in?
A: At the very top level, our organisation is all about building trust.
We talk about building trust between people of the UK, and people
of other countries. And by people, we mean people. So it is not about
Government to Government relationships, or Institutional relationships.
We work within 3 distinct areas; that is the ‘English Language’, ‘Arts’, and
something called ‘Education and Society’. I think a strong drive for our
work is what we call cultural relations.
Let me take a moment to explain what that means. We’re not about
projecting Britain into the world. We’re not trying to promote British
culture. What we talk about is building relationships through culture.
And what distinguishes cultural relations from cultural promotion is
the idea of mutuality. When we run our projects, programs or activities,
we’re always looking for something that has benefit to the UK, and also
to the people with whom we are working with.
Weekendin 74
Zoo, Bird Park, Zoo, because of their short term memories. But we can’t
do that now, they’re much smarter.
Q: Any favourite Singaporean dish?
A: I’m going through a little bit of a roti prata phase at the moment.
Q: What would your ideal holiday destination be?
A: I like mountains. I like going to place like the Alps in summer time.
Lots of fresh air, beer, sausages. So places like Germany, Austria and
Switzerland . They’re quite empty, and there aren’t many people around.
Good to get away.
Q: If you could spend the day with anyone at all, dead/alive/fictional,
who would it be and why?
A: There’s an Argentinian writer, he died a few decades ago and his
name is Jorge Luis Borges. He’s the writer I most admire. He’s incredibly
interesting; an erudite, learned, wise, clever man. He’s also very playful
with his language and his images. And fantastically influential on people
like Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He was blind but he had this amazing life of a
mind; a kind of playfulness as well. I would love to spend a day just talking
to him. No, not talking to him… listening to him.
Q: What about working in Singapore?
A: Well I think it’s again a different cultural dynamic. I find my
Singaporean colleagues very forth coming and they are confident, and
not scared of giving me their opinions.
Q: What do you like to do to unwind when you’re not working?
A: I’ve got 2 small-ish children, 8 and 10, so I spend time with them.
They’re good fun to be with. We’ve only been back a few weeks, so we
haven’t had the time to re