Cracking the Code in English and Mandarin
Based on an episode with Diandre Ottley 🇰🇳 🇸🇽
Welcome to Latinx in Power, a podcast aiming to help to demystify tech, the way we do that is by interviewing Latinx and Caribbean leaders all over the world to hear their perspective and insights.
We talked with Diandre Ottley (he/him), an IT Manager, Software Engineer, and Data Scientist. He’s known for his expertise in applying data-driven insights to improve business processes, as well as his out-of-box approach to problem-solving. He also has a passion for sports and sustainable development.
In this podcast episode, we discussed Diandre’s Caribbean identity, his Taiwan study journey, the influence of teaching experiences on his tech career, returning home, overcoming immigrant challenges, the lasting impact of his time in Taiwan, and how his passion for sports complements his tech career.
Subscribe to Latinx in Power!
Apple | Google | Spotify | TuneIn | Stitcher | Deezer | PocketCasts
What does it mean to be Caribbean for you?
I’ve thought about this for quite a while, and I haven’t come to a consensus on it. The Caribbean is incredibly rich in culture, a true melting pot.
Various people from around the world have made this region their home, whether from Asia, Europe, Africa — resulting in a blend of diverse cultures. Identifying as Caribbean feels unique, a distinct identity shaped by the harmonious coexistence of these influences. This interaction is evident in our daily lives, especially in something as essential as our food, a vital component of our identity.
I believe this is true not only for the Caribbean but also for Latin America; the shared love for flavorful cuisine unites us. Our culinary practices, marked by well-seasoned dishes bursting with spices, play a crucial role in defining the Caribbean identity. On a more serious note, resilience is another key aspect. Caribbean people are remarkably resilient, facing numerous challenges yet consistently overcoming them. This resilience, I believe, is an integral part of our Caribbean identity.
Can you start telling us a bit more about your background and how you end up studying in Taiwan?
It’s an intriguing story. My background involves attending school here on the island of Nevis, though I was born on the island of Saint Martin, where my parents first met.
I’m the youngest of six siblings, and we moved to this island. Growing up, I led a relatively normal life, but my early interest in computers set me apart.
I distinctly remember playing around with a computer, accidentally breaking it, and successfully fixing it. This experience boosted my confidence, shaping the rest of my journey. I believed that if I could tackle such a challenge, I could overcome anything. That’s how my formative years unfolded, involving various experiences, including playing pranks in school — revealed only recently, as I was known for being a quiet kid.
My passion for computers persisted, leading me to pursue associate studies and more. How did I end up studying in Taiwan? Our country’s diplomatic ties with Taiwan opened doors to scholarship opportunities. My academic performance secured me the ICDF scholarship, allowing me to first study Mandarin Chinese and then pursue a computer science and information engineering program in Chinese.
Streamlining the narrative, the application process had its complexities, requiring various steps and documentation. Despite the challenges, the opportunities were abundant and continue to be so. I am grateful for the chance to take advantage of them.
How was your favorite part during this process?
My favorite aspect of this process, I believe, is truly about connecting with friends, meeting people from all over the world. This, I consider, is significant because you never know about others’ backgrounds or their perspectives.
However, what became evident to me through this experience is that, fundamentally, human beings share many similarities and desires. It was a revelation for me.
During this journey, I had the chance to interact with individuals from fascinating places. Opportunities like these don’t come around often, and I found it incredibly cool. Engaging with new people, having conversations, learning snippets of their culture, and exchanging experiences, including cooking for each other, was a great part of the experience. Although it might not be directly related to school, I believe it was just as important.
Can you tell us about your experience teaching and what did you teach? Why did you decide to teach and how has it influenced your career?
The whole teaching thing, especially if you’re from an English-speaking country like I am, if you’re in Taiwan, you’re probably going to end up teaching at some point, especially as a student. It’s one of the more lucrative jobs, I would say. So, you end up doing it.
At first, just trying to make a little extra cash or whatever. But one thing I actually did enjoy doing was tutoring here at home before I left for university, and I think I just carried it over, especially after learning Mandarin. I said, I can really teach people some grammar structures, how to write, and I think that’s where it started.
And then over time, you start to get more into it. It gave me an extra love for linguistics, and that really ties into computer science itself. So, it gave me an extra love for those things.
Just seeing the ways that different people process language because somebody might be thinking about something in their native tongue and they’re trying to say it in English, but it sounds kind of weird. So, you’re trying to translate that properly. So now just learning a little bit more about their thinking processes and so on, really helped me when I was translating.
I think there are a couple of ways these initial processes influenced my teaching career. So initially it was just English first, and then eventually I taught in middle school. I taught the sciences, which was a really, really cool experience, I would say. I enjoyed just getting these children into STEM, which I found was so important.
I had them experiment, and they really blew me away with their experiments. My word, they really went all out doing their experiments. And so, from there, that really tied more into my tech career because there were two things that it really assisted me with.
At my last job in Taiwan, besides doing software engineering, I was the point person for translations for our projects from Mandarin to English. I just happened to be that person, say, yeah, we need something translated, “Oh, just call Diandre. Yes, he’s going to do it.” So that’s one way.
I think even more importantly, what teaching does, it teaches you a lot of patience, especially when you’re dealing with children. Well, it started with children, but especially if you’re a manager of some sort, you have to deal with people on all different levels.
Or for my current job, sometimes I have to sort out something, I have to explain something to one of the workers, and I have to really break it down. So, it helps me to break it down, break it into small chunks, into a way that they can understand it as well. I really felt it helped me express myself a bit better to also express myself at different levels. It’s not just that I’m speaking like an academic all the time. I think it taught me to express myself just as a layman more often.
At least in tech, when it comes to learning a programming language, I think it also gives you a blueprint for doing that as well. So, you kind of know how to process things in a certain way because programming languages have a syntax that you need to follow. There are certain rules, and if you actively learn another language, I think you would be more aware of these things. I think that’s where your advantage lies. Of course, if you could learn two or three or four, I guess when you’re going around in the tech space, just meeting new people as well, that would also give you a different sort of advantage.
How was this experience transitioning and integrating to your home culture after so many years abroad?
It’s been about seven months now since I’ve been back home. I would say it was definitely an adjustment at first, especially the first couple of months, coming back home and transitioning into a new job.
Integrating into that world was a challenge. Of course, returning to a small island paradise, the temptation to enjoy the beach was strong. For me, the real challenge now has been managing my time because I spend so much time at work, church, and home. This cycle leaves me with hardly any time for other activities. That, I think, has been the biggest challenge, along with facing other cultural challenges.
Here in the Caribbean, what should I say? We have some people who are a bit more traditional, I’ll put it that way, wanting to stick to the way things have always been done. Not so open to change just yet, but I believe the tide is changing. A few months ago, I attended a conference where we launched an Internet exchange point. It was an exciting event, a significant day for the country as we strengthened our network infrastructure to keep everything local.
I consider this a crucial step, and now politicians are becoming involved in the development, which I see as a positive turn. I would say this wouldn’t have happened 10 years ago. I recall having a conversation with a certain politician back then, and nothing was happening. I’m glad to see things are changing, and my hope is to contribute to my little nation to influence more of that change.
As an immigrant, what challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
There are so many different challenges. Where do I start? So, the first one, I think, especially when you go to a different country that has a completely different language, a different style of writing, it’s not even the Roman alphabet. You’re talking about Chinese characters. So, the first thing I felt was very illiterate. I was like, “Wow, I cannot read.”
For the first time in so many years, I cannot read. I panicked for a little bit during my first few months there. Of course, now I gained a little confidence after taking some Chinese classes, you start to speak a little bit, you start to gain a bit more confidence. But really, it’s not like the Google translate that we have now, even though it wasn’t as sophisticated as it is now. So that was a big challenge at first. So that’s number one, the language barrier.
Number two is the cultural barrier. The cultures are extremely different. In learning these things, you try to do things that do not offend these people in their own countries, and then the way they perceive language as well. Sometimes you might be speaking to your friend, and you’re speaking in a language that’s not Chinese, but to them, they perceive it as being louder because it might be noise to them if they don’t speak the language. And so, a few times, we weren’t even speaking out loud, and the police were called to tell us to pipe down. And even though we weren’t speaking that loud and we’re hearing other people around, at least how we perceive it, speaking very loud. So that’s challenge number two. Just dealing with these little cultural differences, whether it’s that or relationships or just the way how you contact and so on, those things can be different.
Then the other one, at least for — I think this is specific to Taiwan and maybe other countries in Asia, really integrating into the society in terms of permanent residency and citizenship, it’s very different. So, after we graduate, we do have a little right to work. The way they issue work permits for us is a bit different, but we are very limited in our scope of where we can work. So, it’s not like, “Oh, if you spend a couple of five years as a student that counts,” or anything, that’s not the case with us. So, it’s a bit challenging to get those statuses and freely work where you want to work. The funny thing is, as a student, that work permit is open. You can work for any company, but as soon as you graduate, you’re basically locked down to one employer. So, I think that’s challenge number three, work permit struggles and the way how they consider you even though you may have integrated into the society, got your degree there. I think that would have been another challenge.
If I can add another one, I’ll just throw in one more. Again, another one specific to Taiwan. I happen to be living on the east side of Taiwan, and I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that meme where this building was falling on and there’s some scaffolding on the side holding it up. That happened in the city where I lived.
The funny thing is, I wasn’t in the city. I was in another city that very day, and I got so many calls asking me if I was okay. And the thing is, I was just out in another city for dinner, and I got all these calls. I’m like, “What happened?” A huge earthquake hit. Oh, my word. So, yeah, challenge number four. I would definitely say earthquakes, they’re not normal. I know you must experience them quite a bit in California. And we do experience some of them in the Caribbean too, but that was another level.
How did your time in Taiwan influence your career path, and what did you learn from that experience that you still apply today?
I think there are a few things. I really love the infrastructure in Taiwan. They have TSMC, which is the world leader in the most advanced microchips, right over there in Hsinchu city. So, the whole place is very technologically minded, and the way they integrate things, you know they try to integrate fast, but they also take precautions. That’s what I like about that. So just being able to see things being implemented.
For example, like during the pandemic, they were just thinking, “Okay, we need a system to set up. Okay, so what do we do?” All right, so we have this tech system that’s collaborated with all the telecommunications providers, and it was a very seamless operation. It’s not like they fought over it, but they all worked together to get the system implemented for public health. That’s one. Another thing I’ve seen happen recently in New York, they started allowing for contactless payments. That was always a thing in Taiwan for, like, almost 15 years. So, I’m glad to see the rest of the world catching up.
So really, all in all, just being able to see things and how they’re implemented and picking and choosing. Okay, maybe I could take some of these ideas and propose them and try to implement some of them, if I can do them on my own here in my home country. I think that’s influencing, not just has influenced, that’s influencing my tech career along with the relationships I’ve made along the way. They’re very important in the tech community. Still being able to just reach out and send a message. Even the other day, I was speaking to a vendor, and I got a more positive response because I spoke to him in Mandarin. So just those little things have influenced and are still influencing my tech career today.
Can you share more on how your love for sports has completed, complemented your career in technology or any other aspects of your life?
I’m going to say this is more nerding out than just technology. The sports I mostly play are basketball, football, soccer, and cricket. Those are the sports I mostly play. What I like about all of them, for some reason, ever since I was little, even playing video games, I always just love reading the stats.
So, for example, if I’m playing a game of FIFA, I would always check to see, “Okay, I had 50% of possession in this game, can I hold the ball for like 80%? How can I hold the ball longer?” And then I take those things in those simulation games, and I speak to my team and say, “Guys, let’s try to implement some of these things.” And it influences the way you play some of these games in real life. So you play it in the video games, and then, “Oh, let’s implement some of these things in some of these strategies.” So that’s one part, and the other part of the stats, man, I just love speaking to people about it. I just love it. And where I want to go, hopefully soon, I want to do more data analytics on these things.
There’s an exciting subreddit actually called data is beautiful. And I remember they published a few things on the NBA. There’s one that’s very interesting, but I don’t think I want to say it on this podcast, but it’s an interesting topic. I’ll tell you afterwards. So just little things like that kind of influence, just seeing how different factors of life influence sports and how all sports influence different factors of life. I just thought it was so intriguing.
I think some of those things will carry me forward in my tech career, but just other things I think I get out of sports that would always help. I think anybody in almost any career, but especially in tech, because in tech you have to learn to work as a team. So, I think sports would really teach anybody some of those principles, how to work with people who are not so agreeable. That’s very important. Building camaraderie, having a shared vision. I think those things are essential. And especially in my position as a manager in my own right. How do you lead something? How do you lead off on something? How do you take initiative? And I think people who play sports, from my observation, tend to take more initiative.
Which resource helped you in your journey that you want to share with us?
I think I’ll just share a couple. I could have probably thought about a few more, but these are kind of recent. These are just some recent podcasts I’ve listened to. I’ll add something to this list. I have three of them.
- The Waveform podcast by MKBHD. I really love it. They’re fun and they speak about current events happening in tech.
- Another one that I really got into recently is called Scam Goddess by Laci Mosley. That presentation is really good. They go around tracking different scams, different things in the zeitgeist. So, you’re always aware of how people are trying to scam other people. I really like that.
- And the other one is actually on YouTube. It’s not really a podcast. Coffeezilla. And what he does, he does quite a bit of investigative journalism. He looks at, especially people in the crypto space and how they’re trying to use the technology, even though the technology is really good. But there are some people, some bad actors trying to use the technology to scam people who are really, most people who are just trying to make it.
So those are the three, I think. I really, really like those three resources, but I think I’ll add one more. And this happens to be my favorite movie. I’ve only watched it once because I think watching it a second time will ruin the experience for me. And that movie is Inception.
The reason I love that movie so much is because it deals with dreams and how you deal with dreams, and how you deal with just life in general and sorting out fiction from reality. I guess you can say that, especially in this time of the ever-evolving artificial intelligence. I guess maybe that’s an important skill, but I think those are some resources that inspire me. I could have thought about so many more, including some books, but I don’t think anything I would want to do would be that useful at this time.
Where can people find you?
I just want to encourage anyone, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, just keep pushing through. Sometimes things may look bleak, you may have different challenges that you may go through. I’ve been through many. I didn’t speak about every single one of them, but I’ve been through many.
You have to just keep the faith, keep pushing through. And where can you find me? I think the best place to find me is on LinkedIn. You can find my name, Diandre Ottley. I’m kind of pulling away from social media, so I think by the time this episode comes out, I’ll be off my other social media, but I’ll be okay.
I hope you enjoyed the podcast. We will have more interviews with amazing Latinx leaders the first Tuesday of every month. Check out our website Latinx In Power to hear more. Don’t forget to share comments and feedback, always with kindness. See you soon.
✨Exciting news! Latinx In Power is now part of the HubSpot Podcast Network, the go-to audio hub for business professionals. Headsup: We receive a commission when you purchase. To learn more, click here: https://lnkd.in/grRP-WNP
📩 Hey you, join the Latinx In Power email list!
We send emails no more than twice a month. Click here to subscribe!
