In this project we learned about Canadian identity. I’m from China and I moved to Canada few years ago, so I’m actually not familiar with this project. But, I am really interested in national identity, and I actually never learned and wrote things at school about Canadian. I don’t really feel like I belong in Canada because I haven’t lived here long enough. But I know that a sense of national belonging is very important. Our final goal was to done a human library project.

The definition of national identity that I learned: National identity is people’s sense of belonging to their country or nation, and it is an important part of nationalism. It is the idea of a country as a cohesive whole, and national identity is represented by the country’s unique traditions, culture, language, and politics. It also means that one shares a sense of country with another group whether they are of the same nationality or not.. For example, Koreans in Japan are not Korean citizens, but this does not prevent them from recognizing Korea as their national identity. National identity is used to show “awareness of difference”, and it differentiates “my group” and “other groups”.

     1.The first homework, launch question: answer the question “why does it matter to think about who we are as Canadian?” 

My answer was this:

This work really helps me understand why is having a national identity so important as a Canadian. I used to think that national identity was a spiritual thing that didn’t affect me. But through this thinking, I realized that the sense of identity is actually an important part of people’s happiness. When I first came to Canada, I was often unhappy because I didn’t feel like I belonged.

     2. In order to learn more about how our Canadian identity has been shaped, we got an assignment “Women Questions”: I investigated and thought deeply about Canadian women’’s identity. I asking 20 questions. 

They are:

This homework is actually my favorite one because as a woman, I am always really care about the problems that women are facing or have faced before. So I ask questions about them, and I think about how does they shaped Canadian women.

     3.To study the impact of government on Canadian identity, we studied the Charter Rights, and we got to write why it is important and what rights it protects. 

The Charter is the government of Canada established to protect the freedoms and rights of Canadian 

My works here:

I am truly grateful to the government of Canada for its responsibility to protect the rights and freedoms of Canadian👍. The Chinese government has not done that well, which is one of the biggest reasons my family and me came to Canada.

     4. To prepare for the Human Library, I needed to become an expert in a certain area of Canadian identity (by looking it up online). The topic I choose is Canadian local animals. But before I do that, I need to raise a driving question. Driving question means a question that drives the whole project, and my project was to write a essay.

Here’s my driving question: “How has local Canadian animals shaped Canadian identity” 

Here’s need to know before answering the driving question: The answer to this question is not to list the animals that are found in Canada. It is to write in detail how these animals have shaped Canada, such as the impact of this animal on the environment, history, and economy.

And here is the essay I just said, which called the Independent Inquiry Research in Showbie.

Finely is is the human library, it was really fun and I heard interesting experiences from other people that are really different from my. Unfortunately, I didn’t took any pictures, but I help setting up the library and I made the name card for the books.

Here is my reflection after the human library.