23

The Canadian Blend

Used with permission from Mallika Yelandur – Sumedh Nene

Since moving to Canada just under a year ago, I must have received at least two dozen inquiries about the country: what I feel about it, why I chose this country, and the cultural differences I see between India and Canada – primarily on the work front. I was also quizzed by many on what I did to blend in and settle down here. So here are my thoughts on what I feel are important factors in not only feeling at home in a new environment, but also helping the localities embrace you and feel at ease with you.
With close to 250,000 immigrants landing here every year, Canada is huge on immigration. The demographics here are changing rapidly. A recent report by Statistics Canada (Canada’s national statistics agency) shows that by 2031, 25-28% of the total population is likely to be foreign-born. Population growth from immigration is estimated to be nearly 10% of the population, or 3.3 million people. It is also expected that by 2031, 63% of people living in Toronto (or Torontonians as they referred to locally) will be visible minorities – some immigrants, some local born.

Many immigrants that land here are skilled professionals – very highly educated with several years of experience. However, most are greeted with a number of barriers to employment and settlement. The lack of “Canadian Experience” is a newcomer’s Achilles’ heel[1]. This is apparently a huge gap, as regardless of where you worked or designations held, you have to pretty much start from scratch here. The other big frustration is probably that many foreign degrees are not recognized at-par by Canada. This renders the Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees earned overseas worthless, forcing the newcomer to continue schooling from local colleges.
Another significant factor is getting comfortable with the local colloquialisms – let’s call it “CanSpeak”, shall we? While the first two factors may be out of our control – this is something we can deal with, so here is where I’d like to linger on for a while. After several years of working in the Silicon Valley, California, I somehow expected Canada to be a spitting image[2] of the US. I mean, how different could it be? Well, I couldn’t have been further from the truth! In over 15 years of my career spanning 5 countries, I had never heard of Marketing Letters, JobConnect, Cold Calling, Networking, Co-ops, CareerBridge, Volunteering, Job Search Workshops, Mentoring and Credential Evaluations… all in the context of – YES – searching for a job! Long and tedious as the process may seem, they taught me a lot about the way of life, people and culture, the Canadian ethics and of course very local and often funny Canadian idioms and phrases.

I remember with amusement when as I started my house-hunt in Toronto not too long ago and my realtor suggested getting a home inspection done to ensure there were no skeletons in the closet. You missed the dreaded look on Archana’s face (my better half) when she heard that. We soon found out to our relief that he was just suggesting that we look at the history of the home for past damages, major repairs, and other issues. And I still laugh out loud when I remember the courier driver checking the package he was picking up from me and asked me to put my John Hancock on it. As I blankly stared at him, he quickly said “Your autograph, Sir”.
The importance of learning the local language for anyone cannot be stressed enough, because without it, communicating effectively becomes difficult. But as is obvious from the above examples, language isn’t just about vocabulary and grammar. Success in a corporate environment often depends on how your language evolves beyond the basics to understand local phrases, slang and business jargon.

Image obtained from http://www.timhortons.com/ and is a property of Tim Hortons and their owners, and their rights are acknowledged.

Canada is no exception to having its own, unique language. On no other corner of the world can double-double mean what it does here. Tim Hortons’, a local coffee chain – the Starbucks equivalent of Canada managed to get the word meaning 2 cream, 2 sugar added to the Canadian Oxford Dictionary in 2004. Pune has the famous “chaila”, The Hessisch (residents of state of Hessen in Germany) like to say “gel”, Singapore has it’s “yah lah” and here, most spoken sentences get punctuated with an “eh”! (usage: when it’s around -32 degrees C, one might say “Not exactly warm today, eh?”). Sound knowledge of such phrases can help you read between the lines. Now imagine, at my new office someone told me that the head of her department was a big mucky muck. “Well, fine. If you say so, but what could it mean”, I wondered. At the first opportunity I looked it up. Turns out that this was an old word borrowed from “Muckamuck”, meaning plenty to eat, which has since evolved to mean a person of great importance.
I’m not sure I’ll ever address anybody like that, but I am making an effort to adapt my colonial-style English to the Canadian environment, in an attempt to blend in. It not only allows me to harmonize with my new friends a little, but puts them at ease as well.
And the journey continues…

Footnotes:

[1] A phrase originating from Greek myth, Troy. The all-powerful warrior Achilles had one weak spot, his heel. When an arrow hit Achilles in his heel, he died from it. Today, it means a fatal weakness that a person has, regardless of how powerful he or she is.

[2] A spitting image of your mom or dad means that you look like that parent.


About the author:
Sumedh is a full time technical writer and a visiting faculty on Technical Communications at the George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. He is the owner of CrackerJack WordSmiths and can be reached at sumedh.techwriter@gmail.com.

About the illustration:

The image is used with permission from Mallika Yelandur.

All product names, logos, and any trademarks used in the illustrations and elsewhere in this article are for identification purpose only, are the property of their owners, and their rights are acknowledged.

23 Comments

  1. Nice article, Sumedh. Well-written, precise, and crisp. Gives a good overview of Canada from an immigrant’s perspective. Looking forward to more articles on the Canadian life.

    • Hi Samir,

      Thanks very much for your comments and kind words. I hope to contribute more 🙂

      Sumedh
      Mississauga, Canada

  2. Hey Sumedh,

    Well said…Fabulous article!! Looking forward to more articles from you. It looks like; you are a writer from heart 🙂

    How about an article regarding jobs in Canada? It would be interesting to know from you as you have two jobs.

    Would you able to give us some tips to manage this stressful journey?

  3. Hi Archana,

    Thanks for the comment. I hope to write and share more of Canada.

    If people have specific things that I can address, please drop me a line.

    Regards,
    Sumedh

  4. Short, sweet and to the point. You said it all in one page, eh!!!

  5. Very apt and well composed article brother..looks like the literary genes in our family haven’t stopped at the previous generation..:):)..me want more !!!

    lov

    Ilena

  6. Good job Sumedh. Enjoyed reading this article even though I have no intention of moving an inch from Pune. Keep up the good work! 🙂

    Warm regards,
    Swapnil

  7. Its interesting to note the travel and life experiences of a fellow-countryman … My journey’s been along similar lines … although I was fortunate to enter Canada on a Work Permit (Employment Authorization) primarily due to being in a profession that was in demand then … Sumedh, I’d like to commend you on such a well-written article.

    Congratulations and keep up the good work !

  8. Excellent article. A very enjoyable read!

    • Hi Mark, many thanks for the comment. Appreciate it.

      Don;t think we’ve “met”… where are you and what do you do? Perhaps we could stay in touch over e-mail?

      Regards,
      Sumedh

  9. Hello Sumedh

    Entertaining article for sure. Your effective use of humour certainly reflects your contextual understanding of ‘Canadian’ culture. It was a pleasure reading your thoughts and I look forward to more from your pen (keyboard).

  10. Well said ,in perfect words and good for local authorities to know difficulties given to new comer before they settling down in new environment-in new country.
    Please send copy to Mr Harper –for their knowledge.
    Keep it up–gheuntak.

    Nimesh

  11. an extremely well written article…..
    i teach english as a second language(ESL)and my own experience with my students from around the world and india made this a rather interesting read…..

  12. Very well written and engaging. It’s real, clever and humorous. I look forward to the next articles Sumedh.

    Best regards,

    Miguel

  13. Hi Sumedh, it is too good, I will pass it on to my friends who have a lot of queries of Canada & you have made it easy for me. Regards,suleka

  14. Hey Sumedh..Awesome read!

    Nice to know abt Canada and you both. Here is some Canadian connection for us. Looking forward to have more articles from you..eh!! 😉

    Thanks,
    Sulekha

  15. Interesting…good to know about your experience.

    Sumedh, looking forward to the next episode:)

    Thanks!

  16. Hey Sumedh,

    Very nicely written article. I am in London for a short project and went through similar circumstances.

    Keep writing such articles to motivate me 🙂

    Thanks,
    Anshul

  17. Gud one Sumedh,

    I would say that the immigration does ensure there are no skeletons in our cases, but once you are in the country – all are treated ‘ROYALLY’. I am glad that you are actually becoming a ‘mucky muck’ yourself :). Future is positive if one thinks and acts positive, such obstacles are found every where, depends how you take them.

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