Thank you to the participants (UBC 20 ESL students (intermediate level)/1 ESL teacher/ 1 undergrad student/ 1 grad student/ 2 staff and 3 participants from outside of UBC) for joining the workshop!!  I did not expect that many participants could join.  I enjoyed to listen to the participants’ own experiences and think about how I could do better job as a facilitator.

Sustainability Harmonist Workshop – Oct 15, 2018 – PowerPoint is used.

We had two group discussions:

1. about their own Ikigai (five groups)
2. how to make harmonized community/ies (four groups by the sustainability related topics chosen by participants, 1.Waste management, 2. Loneliness, 3. Food security (production), and 4. Social justice).

It seemed it was difficult to find own Ikigai in 10 minutes as well as the answer of how to make harmonized community/ies.

Sustainability and Ikigai themselves have vague and broad meanings.  I could have mentioned and explained the connection among sustainability, ikigai, individual psychology, and community clearly in the beginning and with examples for some concepts.  It might be helpful for the participants in their group discussion.  At the same time, it might limit the freedom for participants to think about the concepts by their way?  As a facilitator I am not sure how much control I should have.

As you see the participants’ list and photo above, the participants had variety of background even though majority was ESL students.  I think I got used to talk about sustainability with people who already have experience in the field and community, it was fresh to talk with people who have just started to think about the topic.  Some of the ESL students are staying Vancouver for short-term.  One of them told me he did not feel lonely here because he has been here too short to feel lonely.  I could ask him the questions 1)how strong he feels connection to the community here and 2)if he cares about the community here or not.

I wish this workshop (the concepts) helps or makes sense especially, when people have hard time to sustain who they are.

I would like to improve the workshop/my facilitator skill with feedback from the participants.  I had definitely different kind of experience in the workshop as a facilitator compared with the workshop in the classroom of our grad program whom I  regularly meet and share the knowledge about sustainability.  I hope I can do more workshops like this to different groups in different places.