Experiencing Canada as an Allophone

Image Credit: Freepik Last year around Christmas, I took a day trip with my cousin to the  Blue Mountain , north of the 6ix. The journey took us through a picturesque highway with beautiful landscapes of vast farmlands, forests, and mountains. Given our unfamiliarity with the area and the sparsely populated route, we relied on Google Maps to navigate. For the first time in a very long time, I appreciated that my mobile had network and my service provider had put up their network along a relatively remote tourist destination. For sometime now, I'd been reading about the ongoing discussion about Telecom pricing, and the Government mandating a price reduction. Often a comparison is made between Telecom pricing of US and Canada which is probably not a fair comparison given that the US population is 10 times the size of the Canadian population. Being a marketer, I wondered what could be done to address the pricing concerns. One of the reasons cited is that there is...

Image credit: Freepik When I first moved to Canada, the entire experience was quite taxing, both physically and emotionally. From professional and socio-economic assessments to interaction with customs, I navigated my way through a long process, ready for the grind of a new start. But this experience completely changed when the customs officer broke character and gave a faint smile saying.. ‘Welcome to Canada’ I immediately felt at ease with the simplicity of things to help me get going and my  initial experience  has been extremely positive, especially when it came to dealing with people. Whether it was interacting with Service Canada, opening a bank account, using public transport,  figuring out long term accommodation,  I could get going on my own in a matter of days. Big-box retail, hockey merchandise, unpredictable weather, poutine, etc. were some of the new things I initially discovered. From there on, I slowly started blending in with the multi...