Now of course I am not suffering from culture shock, I have been in Canada since September so any differences in culture I long since got over. However the start of the new semester has seen a few exchange students leave and a few new ones arrive and I started thinking about when I first arrived in Canada.
We were all warned about culture shock when we arrived in both presentations and over dramatic leaflets telling us to look out for symptoms and where to contact councillors if we needed it. Even at the time this seemed ridicules- what culture shock? A first glace Canada is no different to home, it’s developed, and it gets all the same movies, music and TV as the UK and is for the most part white and English speaking. However after living here a little while there are subtle differences.
The first biggest glaring difference has got to be sport. Now that seems like a strange one to start with but Ice Hockey in Canada is like football in the UK it’s not a sport it’s a lifestyle. In Canada you support your city team, which in Ottawa is the Senators and you support them through thick and thin. By student this is either done in the residence bar or by screaming from the ‘nose bleed’ seats at the stadium. ‘Nose bleed’ seats are the cheapest available and offer next to no view of the rink and offer the risk of getting a puck to the face- hence the term ‘nose bleed’. Of course this rings with familiarity as it is pretty much how football is viewed in the UK.
The next most obvious cultural difference is probably language. French is a big deal in Ottawa despite the fact that Ontario is not a bilingual province. Canada however is bilingual and required all its parliament members to speak both French and English. This along with Ottawa’s close proximity to Quebec (whose official language is French) allows for a high number of francophone in the capital. This is not problematic as everybody speaks both French and English, it is however strange to hear so much of a different language in a place where you live. On the same note as this Canada, more specifically so I’m told the big southern cities are very multi-cultural. Canada accepts a huge number of immigrants and has a great deal more of second and third generation residence as well. This large immigrant population along with the vast native population gives Canada a much more rich, interesting and diverse culture than I am accustomed to.
I guess the more accurate description of what I experienced when moving to Canada was not culture ‘shock’ but more culture huh? And I hope that all the new arrivals are finding this too. Canada is just enough like home to be a comfortable, easy place to live but just different enough to create an exciting and varied place to explore. I think the biggest shock when moving to Canada is definitely not the culture but the weather.
