Items

• Bridging Community & Culture: Mosaic Cultural Identity
  Syarifah Nur Fathima is a Japanese International student of Malaysian descent who was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. She came to Canada 2 years ago (September 2017) and has since been volunteering at the London Japanese School and acting as a TA for Professor Mitsume Fukui here at Western. In Japan, she studied Japanese Literature and Culture at Musashino University. For her graduate at Western, she completed an English Teaching program for International students in order to further develop her English-speaking skills. She just recently graduated and hopes to find work in London before returning to Malaysia. There she hopes to secure a career teaching Japanese while utilizing her polylingual skills.
• Negotiating a Bi-cultural Identity: An Interview with Andy Fuchigami
  The video features an interview with Andy Fuchigami, a Canadian-born member of the Japanese community in London. He grew up in a North American cultural environment, which resulted in him negotiating between two very different cultural identities. The video focuses on his feelings and experiences as a minority at school, leading to his struggle in accepting his Japanese identity. He explains how he avoided making Japanese friends, speaking in Japanese, and even trying to hide his Japanese name. However, Andy’s views have now totally shifted, and he has completely embraced his Japanese cultural identity, owing to some life experiences he has had. He went from having only Caucasian friends to making more Japanese friends, and he now actively participates in Japanese cultural activities in London.
• I Am Not Just "The Girl From Bolivia": An International Student’s Experiences of Community in Bolivia and London
  This portrait delves into Maya Fernandez's story of being known as “the girl from Bolivia." The portrait illustrates Maya’s feelings towards this phrase and how her experiences “as an outsider” have impacted her experiences in the London community. Maya is a second year MIT international student at Western University who explores the certain interactions that she has faced. She then compares how relationships are developed in both Bolivia and London. She explains the social inequalities that she has observed, the stereotypes of being from another country, and what it’s like to be “an outsider" in London, Ontario. Overall, this portrait thoroughly describes Maya for the complex and unique being that she is, rather than just as “the girl from Bolivia.”
• Exploring Multiculturalism as a way of life
  This portrait follows the story of Marwa Ali, a German teacher in London, Ontario. She was born in Egypt, where she spent her childhood, and had the opportunity to attend a German school. In this video she talks about what her experience has been coming to Canada and how growing up with the Egyptian and German cultures has affected her mindset. After a break, she is now living again in Canada and will explain how her multiculturalism has been an asset and how open-mindedness is important in our modern life.
• Fostering a Sense of Community: An Immigration Story
  An Immigration Story
• Exploring Connection and Disconnection to self with Dual Cultural Identities: Canadian and Italian
  The video is focused on the story of John and Marie Meren who are the children of Italian immigrants. John with both of his parents being from Sardinia and Marie being half Canadian. It Starts with brief overview of John’s parent’s immigration story, highlighting where they were from and their motivation to move to Canada (work opportunities). Next the video moves on to focus on John and Marie’s experiences, and how they negotiated their identities in relation to their Canadian and Italian mix. John discusses the languages he was raised with (Italian, Sardinian and English) and Marie explains why she always felt more Canadian and the reasons why she never learnt Italian. They explain how world events like WW2 led to their disconnection from their being Italian at some points. John connects his job as a lawyer and to his Italian heritage. Finally, they talk about the trip they took to Italy and how it impacted them and helped to define their connection with being Italian