The Canadian university I attended was a post-graduate business course. In other words, it was a place where people with university degrees or above gathered. 99% of the class were international students, and there were very few local students or permanent residents. Many of them had the same purpose and came as a stepping stone to immigrate to Canada.
The classes were small
Only 35 students, and the focus was on country wise email marketing list group work, project-based work, and practical content using business cases. It was completely different from the one-sided “teaching” style in Japan. At first, I was confused by the style of “think for yourself” and “speak for yourself,” but I was inspired by it.
The majority of my classmates were from India, followed by Colombia and Brazil from South America, and Nigeria from Africa. The majority of students from Asia were from the Philippines, and although one Korean classmate told me that he had lived in Japan, I didn’t meet a single Japanese person there.
Among them, I hit it off with two friends
One from Mauritius and the other create a new google business profile from Colombia. Both of them are kind, considerate and smart. We kept in touch even after graduating from university, and we still keep in touch today. These friends I met in foreign countries are my greatest treasure.
To be honest, before I decided to emigrate to Canada for education, I never imagined that I would go to university again. However, I always had regrets about not studying abroad. I wondered if I would have had a different career if I had studied abroad when I was younger. With this thought in mind, I was a little excited about this challenge.
Especially the barrier of English ability
For students in India and the Philippines, school lessons are taught in English to begin with. For them, taking classes in English is an shops 9177 everyday occurrence. On the other hand, as a returnee, I had some listening ability and pronunciation, but I often felt that my vocabulary and ability to express myself were overwhelmingly lacking.
But this environment was stimulating to me. I was moved by the sight of mothers from the Philippines and Nigeria taking their children to a foreign land, studying, working, and raising their children. They all seek a better life than they have in their home countries, and live while forming communities. Their drive, which may seem “natural,” was still fresh to me, and I was a little envious.
