Culture Shock!!!!


Have you ever wondered what it is like to live with people whose way of life is totally diferrent from yours? Well, welcome to my world. When I moved to Canada, the first thing that struck me was how polite Canadians are, My God, Canadians are so polite to a fault. A friend told me a story of how he got robbed while working at Tim Hortons and the robber left him a $5 tip, are you kidding me right now? 😅

Before I came here, I was used to anyhow driving – changing lanes and driving so fast as if I was on the set of Fast and Furious. 😊. Anyway, when I got to Canada, I noticed that if a driver is going to turn left in the next 4km or more, he/she will stay on the left lane for ease of navigating. The annoying part for me was that while there may be 12 cars on the left lane by a red traffic light, there will only be 2 cars on the right lane. Whatttttttt!!!!! Who does that? Canadians of course.

The driving rules here are not meant to punish, but rather to prevent accidents and harm to other road users. A pedestrian is crossing? Well, good luck to you if you are in a hurry, because you have to wait till the pedestrian has crossed before you can move the car (except at a traffic light). You shouldn’t even be seen to be harassing the pedestrian by honking, trouble awaits you if you are reported. In fact, you’ve automatically failed your driving test if you don’t stop for a pedestrian.😲

Anyway, guess who is super polite now- yeah you guessed right, moi. Please and Thank you are the magic words at home now. You are not entitled to anything, you need to make a request politely and remember to say thank you too.😏

It is amazing how we see different perspectives to life and we begin to appreciate how vast the universe really is. The essence of life is to learn, unlearn and relearn always.
Too much rambling for a day. What are the things that shocked you when you moved to Canada? Please let us know in the comments. Thank you. 😊


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