Testing, 1 2 3...

After getting my buckle at Outdoor Innovations, I met with my mentor at the VPL. Richard kindly listened to my phase 3 presentation and gave me lots of valuable feedback and supported me for my position on my argument for some questions that have been brought up, mainly the issue about sticking with the English-only versionfor my resource guide as a starting point.

He shared with me his experience and the rationale behind sticking to the English-only service for the Skilled Immigrants InfoCentre. Two main reasons for the service to be English only are:

1. For immigrants to work, they need to be open to intergrate themselves into the official language they will be working in. Of course, there are information on helping the immigrants to get help and be trained with professional English classes.
2. The reality of funding and the budget is limited. In order to accommodate the various cultural groups, it is hard to get all the information translated into all possible languages for immigrants coming from different parts of the world.

Along with these rationale behind the Skilled Immigrant InfoCentre, my ultimate goal for this project is to encourage the immigrants to get out of their comfort zone and be introduced to other cultures and local activities.

The last thing I want to do is feed the immigrants information in their own language and keep them in their own cultural bubble. As long as the language and word choice on the guide is concise and clear, it would do the job.

I got to test my new prototype at 100% scale to a few immigrants who are in my targeted demographic. I quickly approched them after an info session was conducted on the 4th floor at the VPL in the afternoon (I know, Richard told me not to because the security might not be happy, but I took a chance anyways...and it was fine).

The immigrants who I spoke to were quite excited about the idea, and my argument for sticking to the English-only content is approved! They're able to read the English I've edited on the cards and they also really like the idea of being able to read some fun facts about other cultures on the back of the cards.

One thing Magnes, a pharmicist from Iran (on of the people I tested my prototype on) said that she actually likes the fact that this information is provided in simple and straigh-forward English because she gains a sense of accomplishment to be able to read something in her second language and feels like she's learning but not overwhelmed. That was really nice and reassuring to hear.

Having said that, I will intergrate translations for more content-heavy materials to be distributed later on in various cultural centres or public immigrant service facilities.

Happy-Go-Lucky!

I discovered this new British film called "Happy-Go-Lucky" and decided to see it last Thursday after school and sushi with Hana. It was a spur of the moment kind of decision... Definitely something great to see after a long day. A great film with some great insights. Anyone who's stressed, go see this film.

It recharged me to have more energy to go back to my project and worked more efficiently (Please see my next blog). It helped.

Progress this week

A very considerate e-mail from my mentor.
And yes, I'm still meeting with him tomorrow.

A tally of the fun facts from different cultures I've received.

A test for my organization skills of the
directory information I've gathered for my project.
What would anyone do without Post-Its?!

Daiso, a design student's heaven. I can never walk out of that store...
Different plastic sheets I thought would be

good for the casing of my box.

The kind of buckle I'm looking for.

My messy, messy desk...

Where Vancouver is a magazine which is targeted at tourists around
the age of 45-55, the same age group for my project.
So I looked at the type size they use as
a standard for the type size I base mine on.
Heading at 9 pt, text at 7.5pt.
A lot smaller than I imagined for that age group.

Some things I got done this week.

1. Presented my phase 3 presentation to people at work on Monday and got some constructive design feedback and support. Some of them are immigrants from Britain and find that this project would be useful to them and answers some problems they've faced when they landed. Hearing that definitely made this all worthwhile! They gave me a bit more push to go further.

• Test my prototype at 100% scale for immigrants (going to VPL and ask random immigrants to get objective feedback)
• Naming ( "Colours" is a good metaphoric word to sum it up, but maybe something like a "Survival Kit" is more straight-forward)
• Cut down on the amount of information (need more spacing)
• Include an event calendar for local events in Greater Vancouver (to go along my position of pushing the immigrants to get more involved in the community as opposed to staying in their own cultural bubble)
  
• And more...
  

1. Finalizing on all micro elements (ie. typesetting, colours, leading, information hierarchy, etc...)
2. Typing down information, stripping down the information I've collective and SIMPLIFY. (this guide should be a guide to peak the immigrants' interests and acts as an introduction for the immigrants and encourage them to explore on their own)
3. Make a 100% scaled prototype to see the type size, box size, folder size, etc...
4. Call print shops to find matte laminating services
   
5. I'm meeting with my mentor tomorrow and get more pointers on the practicality of the cards (specifically on the kind of info provided). Since he's met a lot of new immigrants I'll be able to get some valuable input from him about the things they need. My mentor has been really helpful and understanding. He voluntarily checks my blog periodically to make sure I'm on the right track and see how I'm doing. He's always prepared on our meetings, I don't need to go over what I've already updated on my blog because he's been reading. I really appreciate it. :o)
6. Tracking down a buckle for a secure closure...I've been going around and asked almost anyone I saw on Thursday about where I can find this particular buckled they've used on existing accordion folders. (Answer from ID students: MEC, Outdoor Innovations) Going tomorrow... Please! Let me find them!!
7. Went to Daiso and looked for buckles, no luck! So much for the long drive to Richmond...But I got stocked up on cleaning supplies from Daiso and had the BEST creme puff from Beard Papa's...YUM! :-)
   

That's pretty much it for this week. More to come later... I might be concentrating on the production and will have less postings for the following few weeks....I'll try my best. Bye for now.

Progress Tonight

I just wanted to crash and sleep right went I got home with the lack of sleep from last night... But having a mental image of Marie's slide on how little time we have left. I got off my lazy bum and just did some brainless work for my project.

YEAH! Some brainless printing. I printed out those Fun Facts I've been given and highlight the ones I can make innovative and strong graphics out of. Also, printing out this "New Comer's Guide" issued by the BC government for new immigrants and highlight some of the primary information I want to cover. Not completely finished with the process of highlighting, but getting there.

Seriously, it's bed time.

Great Feedback!

Great suggestions and feedback today. Thanks to Don + everyone!

I think I can definitely improve my presenting skills (more relax and not be rushing through or repeat myself) after seeing many great presenters today... Work on getting over my nerves before my final presentation would be a challenge I set for myself. Practice. Practice. Practice. I'll just practice and talk to people about it until I'm numb. Also, my mouth was dry as hell. Gotta remember to have water nearby for my final presentation.

For my final presentaion:
BREATHE + DRINK (H2O) + BE COMPOSED

Anyways, here are the things I've taken away from my critique:

1. Macro: Address immigrants' ESL problems (new immigrants with zero English)?! Valid problem Don pointed out. I need take a hard look at this even though that every immigrant (or the main applicant for the Cdn PR status) needs to pass a language exam in order to obtain a Permanent Residence status. Most new immigrants in the age group will have the fundamental English skills (Richard from VPL). But the level of their English skills would vary from one another. So, I'm taking Don's advice and address this issue. I've thought about a potential solution of making the bilingual cards a spread with a perforated spine (so there's the option for people to tear it after they don't need the card in one language or the other).
2. Closure of my box (I will be going to Daiso and Dressew to look at closure device)... Anyone else know a good place for me to find a locking device used on accordion folders?
3. Incorporate a legend on the back of the lid (for people to read it while navigating through the folders)
4. Revisit some of the similar tints of colours (even though the colours on the projected screen today was quite off, I'll still do test prints to see if the colours are in fact too close after being printed)
5. TABS=HIGHLY VISIBLE: need to be easily pulled out. (Connie: maybe cut the dividers corresconding to the tabs? Craig: cut a slit at the fold of the folder so it doesn't get caught in the box.)
   
6. My box need to be bigger in order for the people to pull out the folders with ease and essetntially make room for growth. (thank god for the prototype)
7. Work on logo more. YES! for the idea illustrating diffrent culture and customs.
   
8. Micro: Typography and layout on cards. I will be settling down with the finalized typeface decision tomorrow and get to work on the layout and structure. There are the things I need to consider:

• Amount of info on the card (a system of listing contact info throughout)
  
• Typeface combinations
  
• Visual cues for each section (ie. Pricing metre)
  
• Simplified Content

Ok, now that I've flushed these out of my brian, it's time to finally sleep...

Too Busy to Post

Alright. This week was crunch time again. Having a shortened time frame for Phase 3 wasn't easy. But, I've got some things I wanted to get done finished. I'm happy with where I am with the project finally. It was really helpful to work with Hana outside of class and really indulge on boucing ideas off of each other. I just haven't been having the time to post anything up here lately due to the short amount of time.

Designing!

After struggling with gathering the materials (still in progress), I get to finally start on the fun part. This is what I've been looking forward to, the designing part of the project. After some research on binding, I've found some alternative ways to put my resource guide together....

Here are some options:

1. Binder (Yikes! The ones I can found out there are hideous.) I did spot one that I like, the menu from Milestones is done in the binder format. I did more research on the production behind that binder, but it's way too expensive to custom made just one...so I quickly brainstormed for other ideas...
2. Chicago screws (yeah! I can do this) Gives me more freedom and room to change my design around. There's one problem though... I want to make my guide in the vertical format for portability, but in the size I'm looking at (5"x8") it's going to be hard to flip the pages.
   
3. Use two posts and make the guide like a calendar! (fun! I'm trying this out and going to track down the posts) *see photos
4. No binding at all! One of the feature of this guide is the versatility of adding the pages and customizing it. Maybe they're organized in an accordion folder-type thing...
   

I'm just getting started. Looking at format and typefaces. Got some tests done for combining typefaces to convey the friendliness of this "book."

My talk with my friend form UCLA

After two weeks of madly conducting my survey and sending out e-mails...I needed some down time for my Thursday night. I started iChatting with my friend who's studying Media Arts as a master student at UCLA. After catching up with each other, I told her about my grad project and we both got excited. It stimulated a whole other conversation.

Ideas sparked. She introduced me to lots of great websites regarding info graphics and her professors' work. I was impressed and kept on writing in my sketchbook on notes and different levels of my grad project. We kept on peeling the project layer by layer and it was fun. I got a different perspective and saw other opportunities I can do for my project. I kept on thanking her for helping me out dissecting the project with me and giving me resources she's got from her end. She was happy to help because she's writing her thesis and it helps her come up with other idea by talking about my project. We both got really nerdy and couldn't stop talking until 4:40am...

It was time well spent though. Here are some sites she's given me. Thought I'd share. Enjoy.

Information Aesthetics
Williem Henri Lucas
UCLA Desig/Media Arts Faculty Gallery

Blog Survey. Please participate!

As what's been said in my previous post, I need to get a variety of fun facts from different cultures. If you haven't received my e-mail with the survey, could you kindly comment on this post and share some fun facts about a culture (or cultures) you're familiar with?

Here are some examples and prompts...
1. Trivial facts about the culture you're familiar with. (ie. Government: The turnout rate for this year's federal election is ____%)
2. Secret places/stores where you can find great stuff! (ie. Food: You can get some exceptionally good cloves to make Chai tea in the store called __________ on Granville Island's Public Market)
3. Etiquette (Culture: ie. In Korean culture, you need to find out the age of the person when you first meet in order to address them appropriately)
4. Informal speech/slang/ common use of words. (ie. Language: "Elevators" in Canada are "Lifts" in England)
5. Shortcut/alternative (ie. Government: For PR Card Applications, you can speed up the process time for renewal if you can provide a flight ticket.)

Here are the Categories
1. Government
2. Career
3. Culture
4. Food/Groceries
5. Transportation
6. Living/Accomodation
7. Medical
8. Language
9. Education

Here's what you do...
List the fun facts you know and write it as a comment of this post. It'd be great if you can categorize it. (ie. 8. Language: Sa Wa Di Ka is hello in Thai.) If you're not sure what category it would fall under, please list it anyways I can then figure it out... :-)

Please e-mail me at chloelan@shaw.ca if you have any quesitons.
Thanks so much for your kind contribution in advance!

Epiphany!

After talking to Don, I was relieved because I now can focus and have a good foundation to work with. I've decided to focus my energy on developing a collective resource guide to help the new immigrants adapt to the new environment. And, essentially use this guide as a tool to create a indirect/less-intimidating communication and interactions between the new immigrants and Canadian locals.

The resource guide will cover 9 categories on daily essentials that new immigrants are likely to face:

1. Government
2. Career
3. Culture
4. Food/Groceries
5. Transportation
6. Living/Accomodation
7. Medical
8. Language
9. Education

And, I want to include fun facts about different cultures that belongs to each of these categories to make it fun and different. The main objective for this is to acknowledge and celebrate the cultural diversity of Greater Vancouver.

I never knew conducting an effective survey is such a huge undertaking. I just finished sending 70+ surveys out to people via e-mail since I know it might generate a greater return rate than just the blog. I'm trying to get as many people involved as possible as a test to see if this idea would fly.

Please see my next post for a blog survey...and kindly participate if you haven't already. :o)

Flags of the World by Color Usage

I found this by accident and thought would be a great resource for me to look at for visual exploration...These are pie charts on colours that are used on national flags.

Lots of great things about colours on this site. I love it!

From Chip Kidd at Cooper Hewitt

You get one life to design. Strive to design with care, with kindness, with compassion, intelligence, honesty, and love.–Chip Kidd

I thought I'd share.

Presentation Feedback.

The generous comments and suggestions after my already over-timed presentation are all really helpful for me to go into the next steps.

After given some thoughts to the reality of pulling new immigrants out of their comfort zone, I've decided to focus my direction on the Cultural Meet-up Event.

Here's why...

1. People interactions encourage positive learning. New information tends to be easier to absorb and more memorable especially for new immigrants between the age of 45 to 55.

• I remember when my dad enrolled in adult school 6 years ago, he had a hard time learning all the high school materials in English (except for Math). It's been more than four years since he has graduated now, and he still can't stop talking about (and I stress, talk about) how he learned the secret of making mash potato from his Canadian teacher...

• Theresa Wong at 4:49pm September 24 (Research from Facebook)
  Hi Chloe, I don't know if a kit is what immigrants need when they arrive. My brother was a volunteer immigrant buddy at a local community center when he was younger. "Recent arrivals who make a positive connection with their peers often adjust to their new community more readily." Human interaction is important to getting adjusted in a new life... Perhaps you could look into immigrant buddy programs. There are immigrant buddy programs for all ages.

2. Avoid the awkward blind date anxiety/experience for new immigrants by using the Events to introduce Canadian local volunteers to new immigrants.

• Use the events to bring more awareness to the program as not enough people (both the immigrants and Canadian locals). The new immigrants tends to jump right to the little circle of friends and relatives not knowing about this program... (yes, we're back into discussing the "comfort zone" topic. Don't worry, I'm not ignoring the issue. But I'm thinking this event can be something that compliments the "comfort zone." Like what Don said about how the Neighbourhood Houses becomes this one connection between the diverse age, gender, ethnic groups and bring them together...)

• Customized Buddy Program: use the event as an opportunity to get people who share similar interests together. Allowing people who speak different languages to be connected (help each other to share their resources) with something that they have common with (ie. music, crafts, food, profession, movies, etc...). This could be the fuel to help immigrants adapt better and quicker by already having something in common with the Canadian local. Similarly, the Canadian locals would gain more knowledge at an international level about what they're interested in–so helping doesn't become a task and time out of their schedule because they're likely to gain something back as well through this cultural exchange...

Like what Don and Tak mentioned, my role in project is a designer. Before I get started and get myself overwhelmed with the actual execution of the event, I need to keep in mind that my role is a designer, not a PR representative. So the focus should be devoted to developing the visuals pieces to promote this event and the visual components that will go into the event.

This week, I will be developing a moodboard for visuals. The look and feel of this project will be locked down this week.

Stay tuned... Thanks again for everyone's feedback yesterday. It helpe a lot.

Dear ANHGV,

I'm writing to the Association of Neighbouhood Houses of Greater Vancouver to introduce my project and to book a meeting with them next Friday. I'm hoping to take this project into the real world and see how it works with the help of an organization. Hopefuly, they can be my base (or, better yet, a sponsor) in order for me to take the project to its next level?! I've attached my proposal and link to my blog for them to find out more about me and how the project was born....

Oh, here's a bit about them if you're interested.

Mission

• We are a volunteer driven, community service agency.
• Our mission is to make neighbourhoods better places to live.
• Our goal is to enable people to embrace their lives and strengthen their communities.
• Our challenge is to work with communities to develop innovative programs and services that meet the changing needs of a diverse population.

Statement of Diversity

• We are children, youth, adults and seniors of all races, all religions, all cultures, all abilities and all economic levels.
• We speak many languages.
• We are men and women of all sexual orientations.
• We value diversity.
• We endeavour to reflect the diversity of our neighbourhoods in our membership, our Boards of Management, our volunteers and our staff.
• We respect all neighbours.
• We expect that all who come to our Houses, all those who provide or receive services, will extend the same respect to all those they meet here.
• Therefore, we will act to promote the inclusion of all in our Association and in our community.

I think their mission is very fitting to the theme/concept of my project. I hope it works out. Crossing my fingers...

Meeting with Richard

My meeting with Richard today went really well. Being a knowledgeable and resourceful librarian as Richard is, he was able to give me some constructive feedback and suggestions about my project. After loosely running though my presentation through him and bounce off ideas from one another. I've gotten more constructive directions and resources that I can research from Richard which will help me get supports and data.

CommunityWebPages is one of them. In there, I can find data on languages that are spoken in different communities in the City of Vancouver.

With an ambition of proposing my grad project into the real world, Richard suggested me to talk to The Association of Neighbourhood Houses of Greater Vancouver. It's a non-profit organization that "work with communities to develop innovative programs and services that meet the changing needs of a diverse population."

Tomorrow is the presentation! AHHH....my teeth itches...

Anxiety is getting to me...

UGH... this is probably the toughest presentation I've ever tried to prepare for. After watching the presenters from TED, it gets tougher to structure a presentation expecting it to be as thorough, engaging, and humourous as theirs... I need to just shake it all off and try my best. I need to cover the basics first, then work on building on top of it. I'm taking a deeeep breath.

Good luck, everyone!

Questionnaires...

Questionnaires

I've collected questionnaires from immigrants from different countries. I've gotten Turkish, Russian, Taiwanese, British. People have been really helpful in being willing to answer my questions. I've done some telephone interviews too. It's really interesting to talk to people!! It not only gets my mind to switch modes, it freshens my thoughts on the project by looking at it through others' POV.

I'm off to have my first chat with Richard Matiachuk tomorrow. He's a really nice librarian who's been very helpful and resourceful for my project. He's one of the key organizers for the Skilled Immigrant InfoCentre at the VPL right now. I can't wait to speak to him and find out more!

Meeting with Don

After talking to Don, I needed to talk to other people about my project and flush out some of my ideas. I've been locking my self at home and stew in the project for way too long. Craig, Connie, and Nina helped me out a lot by allowing me to bounce off ideas from them. It's like ripping off a BandAid and expose the wound. Some key problems I've missed all surfaced after talking to them... Problem vs. Solution

1. This project shouldn't "victimize" the new immigrants and make them feel like they're receiving charity from the Canadians. Instead of making a system where it's a one way street (Canadians helping out the new immigrants), it should be about and exchange of cultures. We should take advantage of the cultural diversity in British Columbia and have the new immigrants share their culture with the Canadians while receiving practical help to adapt in British Columbia.
   
2. Audience should be narrowed down even more (originally my target audience for this project are new immigrants from age 45 and up). It is now narrowed down to new immigrants who came to Canada with their child(ren) from age 45 to 55.
3. Simply produce something to boost awareness isn't going to help. I need to make people to actually DO something to help within that awareness campaign to make it effective. Pair the awareness campaign with a prompt for people to follow up and participate in the program.

After talking and writing notes like crazy, I decided to help out Bonne to set up for the Alcuin Awards since I'm going to the talk and knew I was going to work some more on my grad project after. I thought the break would help clear my mind a bit, and it did!

Skilled Immigrant InfoCentre Official Site

I got in contact with Richard Matiachuk, the chief organizer for the Skilled Immigrant Info Centre and got some background on the project they're running.

"As a bit more background to the InfoCentre - The Skilled Immigrant InfoCentre is a pilot project, funded by the Canadian government and their financial support comes to us through the BC Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development. The pilot project runs until November 30, 2008 but we anticipate the program will be extended until the end of March
2009."

I've looked through the site and found out that it's not only extremely helpful for new skilled immigrants, but also for people like me who is preparing to get into the work field and find out more facts about different industries. You should take a look.

Best of all of this, Richard agreed to help me out on my project!

New Discovery at the VPL

Thursday night, I went to the VPL originally planning taking a book out for my project. After arriving to the Social Sciences floor and getting help from the librarians, I was directed to the 4th floor to check out the new section on helping new skilled immigrants find jobs in BC. I was impressed with the amount of work that's put into this project. I talked to Alexis Greenwood, a very nice and enthusiastic librarian who talked to me about her experiences in regards to the project since its lauch in May this year. I explained my grad project to her and mentioned my intention to help and my ambition to push what exists further. She then kindly passed on the card of a librarian who's in charge of the Skilled Immigrant Info Centre for me to contact. Just sent over an e-mail, hopefully I'll hear back soon. Cross my fingers!

Here are some photos of the pamphlets I've got.

Oh, and the VPL librarians rock!

My first one-on-one

Getting the constructive feedback from Tak on my proposal helps guiding me to the next steps and prepare for my presentation. Knowing that I'm behind from everyone else on research and ideation due to my absence, I quickly brainstormed and tried to come up with as many concepts as possible without judging.

SOME THINGS FROM MY SKETCHBOOK–SOME MAY CROSS CATEGORIES

Visual Communications

1. Awareness campaign materials: introducing the concept in education systems
2. Public awareness: true stories, interviews, and current issues
3. Poster, pamphlets, direct mails
   
4. Yellow pages: search engine for new comers (jobs, social networks)
5. Visual cues for new immigrants to easily recognize volunteers (ie. Lance Armstrong's "Live Strong bracelet idea) http://www.livestrong.org/site/c.khLXK1PxHmF/b.4510391/apps/ka/ct/contactus.asp?c=khLXK1PxHmF&b=4510391&en=7pKHKOPmE3JELNNoE7KFKYOAIfKTLZOyEeJRL6OME
   
6. Case studies on true stories and interviews on current new immigrants
   
7. Flash cards on learning Canadian culture and deal with real problems (ie. IDEO method cards)

Interactive Activities (online)

1. Online yellow (or "multi-colour") pages: search engine for new comers (jobs, social networks, meetups)
2. Online forums in different languages
3. Online forums in easy English (to encourage new comers to learn)
   
4. Games
5. Guerilla campaign: games in malls and public places that encourage interactions between the new comers and the Canadian locals
6. Q & A online forum in easy English: talk about solving realistic problems such as filling out medical forms, car insurance, deal with car accidents, legal help, language schooling, school credential recognitions, job search, etc...

Interactive Activities (in person)

1. Buddy program (peers)
2. Exchange program. volunteers exchange cultures/language with new immigrants
   
3. Telephone booth: get people to call a retail store in a foreign country using the second language to order a shirt and describe it. (for Canadian locals to understand what new immigrants are going through in a real situation)
4. Movie booth: playing foreign movies without subtitles (same idea and goals as the above)
   
5. Easily accessible in person Q&A
6. Free cultural classes for new comers to adapt in British Columbia(highly-recommended in Holland when you become an immigrant)

My observation in Shanghai

One thing I forgot to mention in my blog and the meeting was that I got to talk to quite a few new immigrants to Shanghai (Americans, Canadians, Japanese, and so on) and observe how they are treated when I was there. I got a validation of how foreigners/new comers are more welcomed in Asia than vice versa (language and attitude-wise).

If you look Caucasian and walk into a restaurant in Shanghai, you'd be greeted with English and be treated equally as the Chinese if not more friendly. Even though menus with English translation usually don't make much sense and filled with typos most of the time, it's nice to know that they make an effort to welcome the foreigners who don't understand the language. Even cabs in Shanghai have an automated recording greeting in English for foreigners to feel like home and ease them into the new environment. Annoucements in the Metro system is also broadcasted in English following the Chinese.

I'm aware of the fact that Canada is made of verious ethnic groups and it's hard to introduce an official second languge in the public system to help the new comers. The general attitude though towards new immigrants is just quite the opposite from what I usually realize in Asia countries I've been to and grew up in (Taiwan)...

What are your thoughts? Have you come across similar experiences?

Problems and Solutions

Sorry that I haven't been able to participate in class. After submitting my proposal, I've been trying to follow up by reading people's blog entries. It's tough to understand Looks like we're breaking down our ideation into stating problems and possible solutions. Here's mine...

Problems:

1. Not enough in depth understanding of current immigrants' problems
   
2. Inevitable barrier between the Canadian locals and new immigrants due to the out-dated stories about the railway workers, issues with Head Tax and so on...
3. Misunderstanding/miscommunication between Canadian locals and new immigrants (language)
4. Awkward language learning environment for new immigrants (adults)
5. Immigrant problems is being taken too seriously which results the non-immigrants further themselves from the problem

Possible solutions:

Stay tuned...

New Blog Discovery

http://www.discovervancouver.com/forum/Prejudice-East-Indians-t93297.html&st=30&start=30.html

I'm sitting in my room and can't get over jet-lag...I might as well do some work when it's quiet. I found some interesting debates on this online forum talking about prejudice against East Indians, even this East Indian girl who's lived in NY and CA is starting to be irritated by her own race. Got some interesting notes down.

By the way, does anyone know the code for making that URL a direct link instead of asking people to cut and paste? Thanks!

First day of grad workshop

Today was the first day talking about my grad project in class. I was excited to see what everyone's interested about and the problems that everyone wants to solve. Lots of interesting topics. I'm new to blogging and am totally excited to be able to get feedback online from everyone.

In a nutshell, the problem I want to explore (and try to solve) for my grad project is to bridge the disconnect between immigrants and the locals. Canada is known for its diverse cultural background. But, having gone through the immigration experience from Taiwan to Canada in my teenage life brought me to question the real connection between immigrants and locals. Yes, cultural diversity is celebrated in Canada through different festivals, but what happens after you eat that moon cake for the Mid-Autumn festival? We get to be introduced to the culture briefly, but do we really get to know the people (the immigrants who come from such culture) and help them out on an individual basis? I still have lots to narrow down, I'll be flushing out my ideas and clean it up into my proposal for next week.

I'm just going to leave this as a short post since I'm running a bit behind on prepping for leaving for Shanghai for my sister's wedding. Sorry for not going to be able to participate in person for the following 2 weeks, but I'll keep you all posted through the magic of blogging!

I'm totally open to any ideas, suggestions, and criticisms regarding my project. Much appreciated!