About

FAQ:

1) What is Encultura?
Encultura is an organization that aims to help young Asian newcomers get settled in Canada while retaining their Asian culture. Right now, the main focus is on Chinese and Korean culture, although it may expand to others in the future. Although it is not a registered non-profit organization or charity, Encultura does have the dual charitable purpose of education and entertainment. The YouTube videos and blog posts featured are produced/written by Jen Martin (that's me!), founder/director of Encultura.

2) What does Encultura do?
Encultura produces YouTube videos and publishes blog posts on Asian culture in Canada. I (Jen) am also a member of Underground Pulse, a kpop dance cover group, and teach a free kpop dance class through the University of Toronto's Korea Club -- see their facebook page for more details.

3) Why is the story behind Encultura?
I have always been interested in culture, art, music, and dance as well as helping others through education and entertainment. Combine that with me being Asian and voilà, Encultura was born!

4) What does "Encultura" mean?
Encultura is short for enculturation, which means "the process by which people learn the requirements of their surrounding culture and acquire values and behaviours appropriate or necessary in that culture" (Grusec JE, Hastings PD. Handbook of Socialization: Theory and Research. 2007; Guilford Press).

Getting comfortable in a new country and culture is terrific but hopefully it doesn't come at the expense of "losing" part of yourself. Therefore, the aim of Encultura is to help young Asian newcomers get settled in Canada while retaining their Asian culture.

I actually did not come up with the name myself -- one of my friends emigrated to Canada from the Philippines and had wanted to set up an organization called Encultura to help newcomers like herself. She ended up not pursuing the idea and let me use the name and general concept.

5) What equipment and software do you use for your YouTube videos?
I use a Panasonic HDC-SD60 and Canon PowerShot ELPH 300HS for filming, Zoom H1 Handy Recorder for recording audio, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator for designing graphics, and Final Cut Pro for editing.

4) What kind of Asian are you?
I'm a second-generation Chinese-born Canadian. My parents are from Guangdong, China.

5) Why is your last name Martin if you're Chinese?
I'm married. My last name used to be Lem.

6) Do you speak Chinese?
I only speak a little bit of Cantonese ... and I mean a very little bit! I am currently working on improving my Cantonese and learning Mandarin and Korean.

7) I want to be interviewed or have a story idea. How do I get in touch with you?
You can contact Jen at enculturacanada (at) gmail (dot) com.