Liminal World: Canada (bridging the gap between two cultures before and during Covid-19)
Akiko Ota works as an educational counsellor for Japanese agency in Canada. Her job is initially about helping Japanese students to fulfill their dream of coming and studying English in North America but at the end of every day she does far more than that. She is mentoring them through all kinds of everyday real life situations, obstacles and assets, plans and possibilities which are many times profoundly affecting their lives. I wanted to hear how this change affected her job and lives of youngsters from Japan, and also better understand the challenges they were facing, and decision they were making. For that reason we flew back and forth in time as well as between Canada and Japan.
I found the information so meaningful that I decided not to follow my usual script. Instead of editing our conversation in order to make it faster and juicier for the viewers, I found the perfect flow in the sentences we have exchanged. I haven’t exclude any but rather decide to offer them as parts of the bigger story: about change, Japan, Canada, multiculturalism, locals and newcomers.
Nataša Ċeċez-Sekuliċ 