The Great Canadian Ignorance

“Canadian ignorance”: Rooted from being cut-off from the rest of the world by the colossal Atlantic and Pacific, gives birth to several expectations from new immigrants. They have to have ‘Canadian experience’ even before landing here, to begin with. You may be a qualified doctor, having saved thousands of lives before coming here to explore international opportunities, but you have to have “North American Experience”.

You may be an engineer and have constructed several building and bridges all over the world, but you do not have “North American Experience”.

This demand actually stems from a giant insecurity. Also from the fact that Canada does not understand that there is a civilized, awfully advanced world on the other sides of the banks of Atlantic and Pacific. Most Canadians think the world comprises of Canada and America. It’s difficult for them to believe that such serious Universities and Academic faculties, and serious industries actually exist anywhere else. They are blissfully ignorant and chant this ignorance everyday.
The Great Canadian Ignorance, as I like would to call it, is extended so far and wide, that they are stuck with 27 words interspersed with ‘like’s and ‘you know’s and they are not only happy about their knowledge, they are also proud about it.
So when you say ‘dispersal’ they’ll mix it up with ‘disposal’. :O
Or when you say ‘Hindi’ they will think you are talking about the religion ‘Hindu’.
You have to be very specific about the word you can use when you are talking to customer service. You’ll have to know the right ‘North American’ term. You cannot use a synonym. No one will understand. My friend was looking for a plastic disposal bag in Walmart and could not remember the right word (‘Garbage Bag’). She repeatedly asked for “Rubbish bag? Disposal bag? Dustbin bag?” She only faced several blanks, and sometimes, shocked faces of salespeople before someone came to her rescue.
Very highly positioned people write the words ‘Christian’ and ‘Muslim’ as ‘christian’ and ‘muslim’, and some call the past tense of ‘bring’ as ‘brang’. ‘Quiet’ and ‘quite’ are very justifiably confused. So are ‘to’ and ‘too’.
When I used the word ‘dearth’ at an interview, the Canadian interviewer actually asked me, “What was that word?”
So along with brushing up my several skills, everyday I am also brushing up my skills to be dumb. I am learning ways to restrict word-usage to cope with “North American ignorance”. Better for me, since it’s here I plan to live for quite some time. I better learn to become ignorant.
Its a tough battle, but like all other exams in knowledge, I’ll succeed in this exam too to become ignorant (Or is it ‘to too…’ scratch.. scratch..)
I remember when I was setting my sail to leave India and come to an English-speaking continent like America, my boss in Hindustan Times (Indian national largest selling newspaper), who was forever unhappy with me since he thought I had a lack of English vocabulary, had rebuked in jest: “You’ll need to buy a Thesaurus to go there.”
I sometimes scratch my head these days and think: How many Canadians would know the word ‘Thesaurus’?

(I may have sounded bit condescending in this article. But this Great Canadian Ignorance is taking a serious toll on new-immigrant job-seekers’ career health. So much that many experienced and highly-educated professionals are going back frustrated or opting for menial jobs. It’s a loss for both the countries, the country they come from and Canada. This is the last conscience-bell for the Canadian government. Requested not to take this lightly. Pardon this unpardonable arrogance.)
PS: Here is a list of words that you can get genuinely confused with. Thanks to my Facebook friend, Jennifer Kumar, for this. I am sure, some of the ignorance from both ends will now clear up.