Section 2.
Business.
Chapter 13.
My story.
Embrace the struggle and let it make you stronger.
It won't last forever.
Tony Gaskins.
In 2008,
I moved to Quebec.
As mentioned earlier,
I had unexpectedly lost my job at an eco-lodge in Northwest Territories.
And so,
I traveled around Canada,
Finding my next adventure.
By the time I arrived in Quebec,
I had already backpacked Central and South America alone,
East Africa with my family,
New Zealand,
And throughout Canada.
I was used to adapting,
Meeting new people,
Being resourceful,
And having confidence in myself.
That all changed once I moved to La Belle Province,
As Quebec is known.
I came with the belief that the Quebecois don't like English speakers because they had tried to separate from Canada and almost succeeded in doing so in the 1995 Quebec referendum.
I couldn't speak one word in French,
Didn't have any friends,
My boyfriend at the time had a job doing rotation work,
So I didn't see him very often,
My family was far away,
And my boyfriend's mom was a separatist.
That meant she would yell if I spoke English in her home when we went over for dinner.
I quickly felt isolated and depressed for the first time in my life.
I had never experienced this level of depression before and literally felt my immune system weakening.
I felt lost,
Irritable,
Sad,
And angry most of the time.
I also had a big ego at the time and wanted to make my decision to move across the country work.
I soon realized how different the culture really was between French Canadians and English Canadians.
One isn't better or worse,
Just different.
Very different.
I am from Saskatchewan,
A province known for its wheat fields,
Farmers,
Hospitality,
And slow lifestyle.
The cashiers at the grocery store start conversations with you,
Cars always stop for jaywalkers,
Even in a busy road,
Strangers still open the door for each other,
And everyone gets to know one another at a local pub or lounge.
In Regina,
The capital of Saskatchewan,
Where I am from,
Rush hour is often caused by Canadian geese crossing a busy road very slowly,
Knowing they won't be hit.
When I say rush hour,
That means a total of 10 extra minutes,
Which seems so funny to me now.
I grew up in a small community just east of Regina,
With a population of 1,
500 at the time.
We would walk or bike to see any of our friends,
And we knew each other's parents very well.
This sense of community was very strong,
And that was all I knew.
When I moved to Yellowknife,
The capital of Northwest Territories,
With a population of 20,
000 at the time,
You would walk almost anywhere by foot.
In the middle of winter,
At minus 40 degrees Celsius sometimes,
Yes,
That is not a typo,
I would walk 40 minutes to work,
All bundled up in my winter outfit.
Only my frosty eyelashes were exposed to the cold,
Yet I could recognize people just by their eyes.
This was all I had known most of my life.
Smaller cities,
Slow lifestyle,
A sense of community and connection.
Then I experienced a total culture shock when I moved to Quebec.
Quebec's population is eight times bigger than Saskatchewan.
Traffic is sometimes two hours,
Not 10 minutes,
And people are too busy to stop for any jaywalker or to open the door for others.
Cashiers have never started a conversation with me.
When I started commuting to downtown Montreal for my French courses,
I would pass hundreds of people as I walked to school,
And no one ever looked up to look at me,
To really look into my eyes.
It was such a weird feeling for me to be surrounded by more people in my life than ever before,
Yet to feel so invisible.
I tried to explain to others that I missed the sense of community,
But that concept was unknown to them.
When I opened the doors for either men or women,
The men would stop and refuse to walk through the door.
My action came as such a surprise to them.
Maybe in that short moment they remembered that they had lost some chivalry during the years.
Instead of feeling proud that I was from Saskatchewan,
I was so ashamed that I couldn't speak French and that I was from the western part of Canada.
Instead of approaching people,
I would cross the street to avoid them.
I didn't initiate conversations on the bus to school and soon stopped making eye contact or opening any doors for others on my walk to class.
Then something interesting happened.
When I was in the grocery store with my boyfriend one day,
A friend of his saw us and stopped to ask if I could help her to practice English.
What?
I thought to myself.
I asked her,
Yes,
Yes,
Was her enthusiastic reply.
She had a dream job she wanted and her proficiency level in English was not strong enough.
A couple of weeks later,
I went to her home and started talking to her in English.
To me,
She was super advanced and didn't need any English courses.
She assured me she did and told me that during her last interview in English,
She didn't get the job.
So,
I decided to practice a mock interview to help her be more prepared when the next opportunity came.
When I switched the conversation from curious questions to more interrogating interview questions,
Her demeanor instantly changed.
She went from confidently communicating to stumbling for her words,
Unable to form complete sentences.
In that moment,
I realized it wasn't a language issue but rather a confidence issue.
I also realized in that moment that I was in a position to help people just by being my natural authentic self.
When I came home from the English classes,
I was so full of energy,
Enthusiasm,
Pride,
Confidence,
And happiness.
These were all welcome emotions compared to the depression I was often feeling at the time.
The first week after I moved to a community on the south shore of Montreal,
My boyfriend's best friend told the local language school about me.
I had a job interview the very next week and was offered a full-time job teaching English to business professionals.
They already had the material and contracts ready.
They were just looking for English speakers.
I tried explaining that the fact that I am a native English speaker didn't mean I knew how to actually teach English.
I barely knew the difference between verbs,
Nouns,
Adverbs,
And adjectives.
I also didn't know the grammar conjugations and sentence structures in English because I was taught that as a young child.
The language came naturally to me,
But I didn't know how to dissect English language to teach it in simple steps.
I had zero confidence and told them in the job interview that my priority was to learn French.
And even though I had been offered more money than ever before in my life,
I turned down the job.
I was soon accepted into a French immersion course with a group of 16 to 20 other foreigners.
For them,
It was a fun learning vacation paid for by their families.
But for me,
It was for survival.
I needed to know the language so I could interact with my neighbors,
Be able to ask for directions,
And understand the grocery store clerk.
For six months,
Learning French was my full-time job.
The only problem was that I was too shy to actually speak,
Especially in front of such a big class.
After class time,
I would listen to the local radio station on the bus ride home,
But didn't understand anything.
In class,
I had learned Parisian French,
Which I quickly learned is quite different from the local Quebecois French.
When I completed their entire program,
They gave me a certificate saying my level was advanced.
Yet,
I couldn't complete a full sentence in French.
I vowed to myself,
There must be a better way to learn a language,
And I had to find it.
I learned how to teach from watching my French teachers teach for those six months.
I learned what I liked and didn't like,
What helped me the most,
And what needed improvement to ensure a conducive learning environment.
I decided to complete a specialized certification called TESOL,
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.
I chose a specific course because they required a practicum for actual hands-on experience.
I went to a private language school in another town and taught all levels.
I received such positive feedback and felt very encouraged to continue teaching.
I shadowed one of the most popular teachers at that language school,
But cringed when she taught grammar rules that native English speakers would never say.
Her first language was French,
Like a lot of English teachers in Quebec.
This experience inspired me to offer my courses from my standpoint as a native English speaker.
I was equipped with the required certification,
Experience,
And upbringing to now confidently offer courses.
After extensive market research,
I discovered that the language market was saturated in Montreal and the South Shore,
With so many language schools.
Yet,
There was no competition up north.
So,
I decided to start my private language school north of Montreal.
And that's what I did.
