William's Immigration Story
William Arango and his wife, Sandra, immigrated to Vancouver, BC, in 2002 with their four-year-old son when their home country, Colombia 🇨🇴, had become unsafe for their child, and the situation there was difficult. They had done a bit of research on Canada's culture and applied for permanent residency in Canada, and were accepted as they wanted to move there for a better future for the family. Before arriving in Canada, William took English courses in university and believed he knew enough English to get through, but he already began to struggle when they arrived in YVR.
It was a late cold night, and they were emotional when they were already missing their family for being far away from them and missed the unity. They didn't know where to go when they arrived, no address to give to the cab and not knowing where a hotel is. The first meal they had was in McDonald's' when their son was saying he is hungry. While Sandra and their son were grabbing a table, William looked at the menu and got ready to order. With his confidence in the English language, he walked up to the cashier and asked for "2 number 2". William remarks, "the woman would ask me if I would like fries and a soda drink, but I wouldn't understand, but I just kept repeating while pointing at the item, but it took them a while before they understood". This was his first realization that he did not have enough knowledge than he had thought and that the English he had learned wasn't the same.
The first two months were the most difficult out of their journey since they had taken no education there, didn't have a job, no references, and had little money. William would be on the lookout for a job and would have small job gigs from some friends they had made in the neighbourhood who spoke Spanish, but it wasn't enough. When they had to buy food, they had to listen carefully or ask the cashier to repeat if they were speaking too fast and from then would get nervous if anyone would approach them. They didn't understand the maps or routes the bus would take, so they would take one and ride to the end to see where it would take them and would absorb around them what places to visit or keep in mind like stores, libraries, etc., and would ride the bus back. They even doubted if they should get a phone. "It was a great pain when someone would call on our phone, we didn't even want to answer the phone because we were too anxious if we didn't understand what was being said, so I would wait to hear the message and repeat it a few times until I understood it."
They were thankful that Canada was multicultural and luckily sometimes have some people who spoke Spanish to help them in small ways. When I asked if they ever questioned to go back since they were alone, William said, "I didn't have regret moving to Canada because my wife and I were determined to raise a family here and would do whatever it takes to stay here. Even if that meant scrub floors, I would be happy doing it knowing my family and I are safer here than in Colombia with the best job. I felt pleased and prideful that we had made it so far, and we were keeping our hopes up to wait for better things to happen".
After living in Vancouver for over fifteen years, I asked if overcoming the language barrier affected his cultural identity or who he is. William said, "Although we were alone and had no one to relate to, our goals and motivation were high, and I didn't let the language barrier affect my identity and influence who I am. Even when I wouldn't understand and was pushing myself to learn the language, I was still myself and felt more proud of who I was when something would go right. I would get anxious when anyone approached me. Even today, I still struggle with the language, but I don't let it bring me down, and I try to learn from my grammar mistakes. I always keep my cultural side in my family, and I try to share my cultural traditions or side with others since I still represent myself as Colombian. I'm happy that we were able to overcome one of the hardest things I had to endure to find a life for my family and mine in a different country."
Advice: "I don't have shortcuts of how to learn a new language, but some advice I would give is if you just immigrated to a new country with a different language, start immediately to learn the language, the sooner, the better. I know it's a huge challenge to put yourself through all of that, but the benefits you'll have are priceless and having at least a second language is useful."
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