Moving to Canada?

[Bwutty]

Hello!

I'm really considering moving to Canada.. as a foreign student!

I've seen plenty of programs (we call them student brigades) where you get to work there for 6 months, being fully on your own.
Which basically means you pay low fee to go there, you get ONE day covered at a hotel then you're out, looking for a job and a place to live!

It sounds a bit extreme but I'm really thinking of trying it next summer so I'd like to hear your opinion on how life in Canada is.
I've seen plenty of guys from there on the forums so I thought who better to ask?

Anything about life expenses/rent/job availability (and basic requirements)/health system/papers/attitude towards non-natives!

[TheGravemind]

As someone who has lived in both Canada and the United States, living in any major Canadian city (Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal being the 4 largest ones) is, culturally, almost exactly like living in a semi-British version Southern California/the greater Los Angeles area without the excessively humid/warm weather, criminal gangs, and Mexican culture.

Crime is also nearly non-existent there. I think cities like Calgary (1.2 million population) had something like 0.9 murders per year.

Canada is also probably the least racist/xenophobic country in the world. The attitude towards non-natives is more than welcoming/tolerant, so, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. As for life expenses, everything in California, other than gas, seems more expensive than it was in Canada. Gas rates would also fluctuate depending on where you were in Canada.

The economy in Canada was not hit as hard as it was in the United States/Europe, so, job availability is not as scarce either, although, I can't elaborate much upon details here.


anyways, have fun

[pateuvasiliu]

Canada is awesome.

I lived in Montreal ( well, Brossard, which is like 3 km away ) for 2 months on a vacation to my aunt and cherished every moment of it.

Didn't really want to leave when it all ended.

[Deleted]

Canada is awesome.

I lived in Montreal ( well, Brossard, which is like 3 km away ) for 2 months on a vacation to my aunt and cherished every moment of it.

Didn't really want to leave when it all ended.

Do you need to speak atleast a bit of French when you want to make a living in or around Montreal? Just curious!

[minteK917]

Do you need to speak atleast a bit of French when you want to make a living in or around Montreal? Just curious!

In most case youll def need to know french. Laws force you to serve people in french first, so anything in services youll need to speak it. Any work for the gouvernment will also require you to know both french and english. After that it would depend on how good of a living you want to make, the better jobs will definitively require french unless you have outstanding references or its a work where not much contact with clients and the employer allows it. Should definitively not bother going to live there without knowing a good amount of french, otherwise youll be really limited to remote communities.

[Deleted]

Life is good from what I've seen. As for jobs, it's most definitely an employees market. Considering you're female, and I don't mean this in a patronising way, you should find work easily in hospitality, especially so since it's a growing industry with severe labour shortages.

[Lumocolor]

The best place to probably find work quickly is id say in the province of alberta. That being said, it is probably the most expensive province to live in.

[afhald]

I'm thinking to move in England next year to can improve my english and then moving in Canada too for a long-term period for career opportunities.

[danturismo]

I was born in Niagara Falls, and have spent most of my time here (or in the city 'next door' to it).

People go on a lot about the health care, but I can attest to it first hand. I was born with a bad heart. In Dec 1980 I had a surgery to help me out, and in Nov 1985 I had major open heart surgery to repair (the best they could back then) the problems. Total cost: just the gas to and from hospital ... and parking.

I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for Canada!

One other thing that I don't believe has been mentioned so far... our outlook on marijuana use.

I would guess that at least a quarter of the people:
-have no negative opinion about it
-are perfectly fine with it (including a lot of cops)
-use it (including a lot of cops)

And the last quarter are traditionalists that have the 'drugs are bad m'kay' attitude.

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I'm thinking to move in England next year to can improve my english and then moving in Canada too for a long-term period for career opportunities.

I know someone who does Skype lessons that could help ya out

(can't send you a PM yet, have to have 10 posts)

[Deleted]

I was born in Niagara Falls, and have spent most of my time here (or in the city 'next door' to it).

People go on a lot about the health care, but I can attest to it first hand. I was born with a bad heart. In Dec 1980 I had a surgery to help me out, and in Nov 1985 I had major open heart surgery to repair (the best they could back then) the problems. Total cost: just the gas to and from hospital ... and parking.

I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for Canada!

One other thing that I don't believe has been mentioned so far... our outlook on marijuana use.

I would guess that at least a quarter of the people:
-have no negative opinion about it
-are perfectly fine with it (including a lot of cops)
-use it (including a lot of cops)

And the last quarter are traditionalists that have the 'drugs are bad m'kay' attitude.

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I know someone who does Skype lessons that could help ya out

(can't send you a PM yet, have to have 10 posts)

If weed laws are a deciding factor in a person's emigration, their priorities are pretty fucked.

[danturismo]

If weed laws are a deciding factor in a person's emigration, their priorities are pretty fucked.

Lol

While that is true, I was just illustrating one aspect of the 'Canadians are tolerant/accepting' point.

Gay marriage, weed, several things that may be considered taboo in other countries are perfectly fine here.

[Heiros]

Do you need to speak atleast a bit of French when you want to make a living in or around Montreal? Just curious!

You could live in Montreal without having to speak french (downtown and West-isle)... but Foreigners who learn to speak (or at least try) to speak french to those of us that speak french are welcome. Also... if you want ot meet some french canadian girls... you need to speak french :P

Among the 4 major cities of Canada... I would suggest Montreal. Its the oldest, it have his old town, a lot of things to discover on your off-nights. All the movie stars that come in Montreal rly like the feeling of the city : I remember Hugh Jackman saying he love Montreal a lot because it feels like a mid-europen/ mid- american city. (most X-men were filmed in Montreal)

gaz is expensive in Montreal, but moving by bus/subway is cheap and brings you to any school you need to. Montral have some famous University like Mcgill (evrything there is in english) http://www.mcgill.ca/ . If you want to find a student job, theres a lot of jobs you could get inside your own college / university for around 15-17 bucks an hour. It's somewhat easy to find a 15$/ hour job if you try as a student (not all of em will require you to speak french, but you hae more opportunity if you learn french). As for rent, you could find a 2 1/2 for 400$ if your lucky. I never saw a 3 1/2 below 500$ a month (You should aim at 650-750 for a good 3 1/2

All in all, Montreal is a great place to live and study

Other cities that have not been suggested that I would suggest: Ottawa and Quebec. Ottawa is maybe 70% english and 30% french, its not mandatory there to speak french. As for Quebec, maybe one of the most beautifull city of North america, its small (maybe 650k ppl) and you need to speak french there (99% french)

[Dirdie]

I'll rent you an apartment in Barrie Ontario, 900 sq ft 2 bedrooms, laundry room, all inclusive. $1000 a month.

[Bwutty]

Thank you for all the replies so far!

One major problem for me might be that I know zero French.. didn't consider that.. would a person with no knowledge of French be able to live there in normal conditions (mostly find a decent paying job) or would that turn out to be the deal breaker for me?

Also, is it hard to get papers there? By that I mean move there permanently and legally? Is it hard to get citizenship and could you (if you know) mention the basic requirements?

<3

[Endus]

Thank you for all the replies so far!

One major problem for me might be that I know zero French.. didn't consider that.. would a person with no knowledge of French be able to live there in normal conditions (mostly find a decent paying job) or would that turn out to be the deal breaker for me?

In Quebec, it could be a deal breaker, since they're primarily French-speaking, and are somewhat zealous about their protective language laws.

In the rest of Canada, French is basically a benefit if you're looking for a position in government, or customer service, but it's pretty much irrelevant otherwise. French is probably less prevalent in Canada than Spanish is in the US, to be honest.

Also, is it hard to get papers there? By that I mean move there permanently and legally? Is it hard to get citizenship and could you (if you know) mention the basic requirements?

<3

I can't speak to the basic requirements, but refugees and the like have a much easier time. If you're emigrating from a relatively developed country, it would be a big help to have a job offer in Canada to begin with. We're generally fairly open to immigration, but we "encourage" immigrants to be self-sufficient, rather than just opening the doors for any who want in.

[Tojara]

Gas is fucking expensive here, and so aren't cigarettes and alcohol if that's your thing.

In rural areas you can own a lot of land for laughably low prices and the cost of living is incredibly low, most people where I live can afford a decent amount of luxuries for the job that they are holding.

We don't have a lot of major cities but the big ones just feel like safer versions of our American counterparts. One of the safest feeling areas I've ever visited in NA is in Orange County California, and pretty much every big city has this feel to it. If you want a particularly unique experience I'd pick Montreal though. There is absolutely no other place like it in North America and culturally it's fucking amazing. You don't need to learn french to live in Montreal, but rest assured you will probably pick it up anyways. There are plenty of shows to see and it's one of the premier places to go if you enjoy standup comedy.

Vancouver is a beautiful city. It has most of the perks of Toronto but with WAY better weather.

My friends love Calgary but absolutely fucking hate the weather, weather which can shift to extremes in days.

Halifax is also nice IMO.

And no you don't need to know French in most of Canada. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia both have pockets of french communities, while Quebec is mostly french. You can get by in Montreal without knowing much French, but you will assuredly pick some up. I had multiple friends who went to get masters degrees in Montreal after they got their undergraduates in Nova Scotia. They worked and lived there for years while getting their masters degrees with absolutely zero knowledge of language, and to my knowledge they still have like no grasp on it what so ever. They did meet some friends who knew both, which always helps!

[smelltheglove]

i like almost everything about canada except 2 things. 1: that segment of obnoxious french speakers that like to act snotty and insist you speak french to them and pretend they dont understand english and mock your french when you try (small group i hear, but they are obnoxious) - not a big deal, assholes are everywhere. 2: the cold. too damned cold for me, dealbreaker

[Themius]

Canada... the only country I have any interest in moving to that I can't just move lol. I am a train ride away from Montreal though.

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Thank you for all the replies so far!

One major problem for me might be that I know zero French.. didn't consider that.. would a person with no knowledge of French be able to live there in normal conditions (mostly find a decent paying job) or would that turn out to be the deal breaker for me?

Also, is it hard to get papers there? By that I mean move there permanently and legally? Is it hard to get citizenship and could you (if you know) mention the basic requirements?

<3

You should probably learn French. From what I've seen of other people it's easy to get over just speaking English, but wouldn't it be nice to actually speak the language of the lang (or rather province) you will be living? French so far, for me hasn't been too terribly hard, it's quite fun and I find it much easier than Japanese (which I spent three years on). As you are learning (if you are learning from a distance) you should just speak and read and listen to Quebec French sources as it is quite different.