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| The Chen Family |
The Chen family - Jiubin, Ina, and Isabelle - first arrived in Peterborough from France in January 2009 after living in Paris for five years. Both Jiubin and Ina are university-educated. Jiubin has a Ph.D. from the University of Paris in chemistry. He held a research appointment for two years at Trent University. |
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| Ayako's story |
| Wednesday, 12 January 2011 16:39 |
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Ayako was led to Canada through her desire to learn English, leaving her native Japan in 2005. She decided that coming to Canada was a good option because of the quality education, the representation of a safe country and the positive image of Canada. She studied in Western Canada for two years and felt that she had learned English and accomplished what she had come for. During this time, she met her husband. After spending the rest of her university funds on travelling with her husband, they settled in Peterborough in August 2010. Her husband chose Trent for a Masters program. Ayako speaks of the difficulties she faced upon arriving in Canada, the main one being the language and pronunciation. Here she shares one of her first experiences in Canada: “... I arrived in Vancouver and I had to take a Greyhound to Lethbridge, Alberta, and I needed to change my bus at Calgary, but I didn’t know which bus to take, so I asked a driver - I want to go to Lethbridge. [The] driver didn’t understand my pronunciation and so I kept asking, where is Lethbridge? Finally he told me that there was no such place, “go away” and I was worried I would miss my bus so I pulled out my ticket to show the driver and he said “oh Lethbridge” (emphasizing the pronunciation)”. She explains that these pronunciation errors made her feel really foreign, like no one understood her.Other challenges Ayako experienced included culture differences. She explains how in Peterborough, she cannot access the food she wants to eat. Another difficulty is social interactions. She compares the quiet and humble social interactions of Japan, which are considered respectful, with the more outgoing and assertive interactions in Canada. For her, it was very difficult to change that when it came to meeting with professors or in interview settings. For Ayako, she considers getting a job a major accomplishment. She is working as a Day Program Instructor and feels like she has stepped up a level from her employment in Manitoba. Looking ahead, when the time comes for children, she is eager to teach her language because she says “... losing language is losing culture ...” and she would like her children to be raised with both cultures and ideally moving back and forth between Japan and Canada. Ayako’s advice to other newcomers:
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