Adjusting to Life in Canada

By Julie

The most difficult thing to adjust to was the language. I couldn’t talk and I couldn’t explain anything. I had to take my sister with me to do everything! I felt so uncomfortable.

The landscape was so different. The weather wasn’t too difficult to adapt to, although sometimes I had to stay at home because of all the snow.

The house in Canada was big and not crowded. There were no bright lights or crowded streets at night. It was quiet, and I liked the darkness at night.

Getting food for my family was difficult. In Korea we could easily walk a few minutes to get food, or we could call the grocery store and they would deliver the food to our door. I had brought some food from Korea, but I felt upset when my son cried for some food that we couldn’t get here. Here we had to drive everywhere. Driving was difficult, too. Here you must obey the laws! There were no stop signs in Korea. You can imagine what I did—my sister said, “never do that.” I started to regret that I had left my country. I asked myself, “Why did I come here?”

The people in the streets were polite and soft spoken. They seem to be particularly quiet spoken in public places—which I liked. Canadians were very friendly, but their friendliness made me feel ashamed because I couldn’t talk to them. When they said “hello,” I tried to walk away quickly so that I didn’t have to say anything more than, “Hello.”

When I first came to Canada I made a big mistake. In Korea, it is common to walk quickly and just go straight ahead. People bump into each other all the time because there are so many people in the streets. One time, at the airport, I needed some sugar for my coffee. I brushed a lady when I went to get the coffee. I didn’t notice anything, but my sister said that I made the lady angry. My sister explained that I had to say, “I’m sorry” or “Excuse me.” How people interact in these public situations is different.

In Korea, I would hold my children’s hands in the street or we would walk arm in arm, but here they don’t want to do that. If I speak in public, the children tell me to be quiet because they recognize that I don’t speak English well.