Being a Volunteer: An Interview with Charlie

This Interview was conducted by University of Cincinnnati Intern Lia Cavalaris on the 28th of February 2020 with HT volunteer and ESL teacher Charlie Zax.

Charlie Zax is one of the many volunteers who have shaped Heartfelt Tidbits into the success that it is, he has been with Heartfelt Tidbits since the beginning. He is a part of our ESL and Citizenship program, and currently  he works primarily with Bhutanese students.
If you were to ask anyone involved with Heartfelt Tidbits about Charlie, they’d say the same things. They would have comments about how kind he is, his dedication to helping anyone and everyone, and what an important role he had in assisting with the beginnings of HT. As an intern with Heartfelt Tidbits, I have had the lucky opportunity to meet with Charlie and discuss his life and involvement with HT.

Lia: Can you start by giving a little introduction about yourself and what you do with Heartfelt Tidbits?

Charlie: I am Charlie Zax I am an ESL Teacher and citizenship teacher in Sheryl’s Heartfelt Tidbits program for Bhutanese and Immigrants and Refugees. I have been doing this for, I am not sure how many years, maybe 8 years or more, 8 to 9 years. I’ve really enjoyed doing it! The Bhutanese people are very kind and very friendly. I’ve gotten to know and be friends with a lot of them, it’s really fun, it’s really fun working with everyone. The people in the program are eager to learn, they are good students. A lot of progress has been made and many of them have passed the citizenship test. Most of them were farmers in Bhutan and didn’t have any education over there, but they’re very eager to learn— so it’s easy to teach them and work with them. It’s a lot of fun. You know, I’ve been to Nepal, two short trips, it was a long time ago. I didn’t get to spend much time there at all— but I liked it very much, I want to go again and spend more time over there. I have been studying their language as well trying to learn what I can. I am very happy with everything.

L: That’s great! Can you recall how you began to be a part of Heartfelt Tidbits?

C: They had an Asian food festival and I was helping a group from Thailand. I saw some Bhutanese people were there with their food participating in the festival, and Sheryl was there with her husband, so I met them. I was surprised because I hadn’t known there were any Bhutanese people in Cincinnati at the time.

L: Ah, now there’s a huge population of people from Bhutan in Cincinnati.

C: Right, right it might be 20,000 now but at the time maybe it was like 800 people at that time. But anyhow, it has grown a lot. So that was just like an accident really, I ran into them and they said “oh come on Thursday to the church” where they were having their ESL program, so I did. I knew a few words of Nepalese that I spoke to them, they liked it a lot— and they were really friendly! So, that’s how it got started. We had also been in a couple other churches before this one (Northminster Presbyterian).

L: Do you have any other previous volunteer experiences before you began volunteering with Heartfelt Tidbits?

C: I lived pretty long in Asia and one of the countries I lived in was Thailand. I lived there about 3 years and I stayed with a Thai family and studied the Thai language. People that go to Thailand learn Thai Language, and you also learn about Thai culture. It is (Thai culture) based a lot around Buddhism because it is a Buddhist country. So I became interested in that, and I discovered some Buddhist temples in the United States. Then I started doing volunteer work with those temples and communities. The monks in this country, most of them have driver’s license, but they like to have someone drive for them because they don’t like to drive themselves. So, I’ve done a lot of driving for monks in temples in Chicago, Cincinnati, and Dayton. That is the kind of volunteer work I am doing, with Thai Buddhist and Sri Lankan Buddhist, Tibetan and Vietnamese people.

L: That’s great! You seem very interested in learning about cultures and meeting new people. What is it about learning about different cultures that you are most attracted to?

C: Well it’s the people, it’s the people. I know from living in Asia, I always thought that just was so amazing– meeting all these different people. A lot of them where so kind and friendly, so it’s just that. I like to try to you know to learn— I think it’s better to learn a little than to not know anything, I think, in a different language. Also with Asian countries languages and cultures if you learn a little bit they tend to be quite happy that you did.

L: Yeah, absolutely! That’s the beauty of exchange. That’s the beauty of being here, I think.

C: Definitely, definitely.

L: Speaking of languages, how many do you know or are learning?

C: I lived over 9 years in Asia. So, the countries I lived in were Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Indonesia. I had a chance to go to language school in some of those countries, like in Hong Kong and Taiwan. I had some really good teachers and really good schools. I got to stay with families, so those were all really great opportunities that I had. I was trying to not waste a really good opportunity. So mostly I’ve been working on the languages in those countries.

L: That’s nice! So, you are involved mostly with the advanced classes for citizenship. What does the everyday look like in the classes?

C: Sheryl, Judy, and everyone have organized a curriculum for citizenship. We maybe have about 10 lessons on American history and civics, so we are going through those. They have questions and exercises. Students have 120 questions to prepare them to be able to pass the citizenship test, so they practice those questions and answers. What I do, they are usually with me for about two hours, in the first hour usually I ask them questions about what they’ve been doing lately or about their families. I ask them what questions they might have, then we write down some things that they need to work on. We practice reading those and some words they need help on pronouncing. We work on pronunciation and then I review those words and sentences that they collect from week to week. We review some of those that we did the week before and previous weeks, then maybe some new things will come up, questions they want to have clarified or to work on. We practice writing them pronouncing them and I ask questions on those words. Then we work on the curriculum.

L: Awesome, that’s great! Is there anything from working with Heartfelt Tidbits that has impacted your life outside of working in the program?

C: From working here I think that Bhutanese are a fantastic community of people. From the people I’ve met here, I have been invited into their homes and I met their family members. I have become really close friends with some of them. They just have a wonderful community— like these big extended families. They’ve kept their original tradition of their community, they are living in a different culture and country, but it looks like they’re keeping that exactly the way they had it in Bhutan. They are just amazing— warm and friendly, genuine and kind. They extend that to anyone who wants to participate, so I am really glad that they’ve made me feel very welcome. I’ve shared a lot of great experiences with them.

L: That’s wonderful— it’s Friendship! Making friendships and family.

C: (Laughs) Exactly, exactly.

L: Going back to what we we’re saying about exchange and connections, making connections with people.

C: That is it, that is it right there.

L: Well, thank you so much that was wonderful!

C: Thank you.