“Levei um tempo para me sentir canadense,” writes Gael Melville in a recent Globo & Mail ensaio, descrevendo a sua experiência como um expat que se mudou para Toronto a partir de sua Escócia natal.

She bemoans the difficulty of wading through the bureaucratic issues:

“What’s a Cartão SIN?” “What’s OHIP?” “Why does the bank charge us for taking our own money out of our account?” …”Why can’t I register to vote?” “Why is my credit card limit a measly $250 when I have the proceeds of the sale of my apartment in my bank account?” “Why can’t I use my professional accounting designation in Canada?”

Mas “what proved significantly more difficult to fix,” ela escreve, “was the yawning gap in my cultural knowledge.”

“Quem são os Grupo dos Sete?” “Who are Margaret Atwood e Leonard Cohen?” Canadians indulged my lack of knowledge of the arts with patient explanations and visits to cultural sites, but pop-culture references were omnipresent and perplexing. “What is the humidex?” “What is a two-four?”

E quanto a você? What were your bureaucratic challenges when you first came to Canada? E quais foram as falhas na sua cultural knowledge?

Post a comment and let us know.

Foto por odolphie (Flickr)