“How I Met Your Mother” taught me that Canadians are very kind.

(By the way, I already experienced this situation, but without donuts.)

In general, they are indeed very gentle and respectful, but there are some exceptions…

This story and its moral came up after meeting three particular people.

1: The lady that has a different idea about English.
When we finally found an apartment that fitted our budget, the arrangement with the rental company was mainly by phone, talking to a woman that caused me some stomach cramps. Our communication was having a lot of problems because of my poor knowledge about rental requirements, my untrained listening, my imperfect speaking, and her strong Hindu accent; at some point, she got mad and told me “Do you speak English?… Because you are going to study here!”… Clearly, she had never listened how terrible her pronunciation was.

2: The “prankish feet” repairman.
After dealing with the rude lady, it was the time of the “Internet hiring” adventure. It seemed that it was going to be a super easy process until I met the young man that came to install it. The apartment doesn’t have any internet node on the wall, but this guy wanted to find one no matter how; that’s why he moved everything and even he dared to stand up on the kitchen countertop; I still can’t understand why he thought that the jack could be above the fridge.

3: The woman that loves to hit back… harder.
I was on the bus. A Latin lady sat next to me was in the middle of a video call (by the way, she was speaking really loud), she was talking about a “crazy and rude” woman of her office that constantly bothers her; but this lady was very proud of herself because she was strong and “intelligent” enough to hit her back harder. She swore that this was a “professional” attitude.

I add these three experiences to what I’ve read on blogs and newspapers, and to what folks over here say. Usually, people from abroad think that it’s easy to find a job in Canada, but it’s not. Most of the job offerings ask for previous Canadian experience to consider you a candidate. If you are a newcomer to this country, experts recommend you to ask for an opportunity in a cafeteria or a store; and after a while, start applying for a vacancy related to your profession.

This situation causes a huge frustration to immigrants that come with bachelor degrees from their hometown Universities; some of them even consider it a racist attitude, but if we flip the coin, we can also notice that it’s pretty logical that Canada protects Canadian people before solving other people’s lives, who by the way received many facilities to come.

Therefore, my conclusion is that it doesn’t matter how many requirements or obstacles are around you; what determines how far will you get is the way you are. Your nationality, your talent, the people you know or the University where you studied, don’t define you; what resounds above everything and sooner or later opens or closes any door, once again, is the way you are. Unfortunately, my beloved 1, 2 and 3 won’t have a promising future if they continue being like that.

A beautiful lesson that teaches us to be aware of the message that we are constantly sending to the people.