I’ve been in Canada since July on a Working Holiday Visa.

In our media, Canada is always portrayed as a dream country. Yes of course, it’s beautiful here (Rockies, nature) but it also has a lot of downsides.

The quality of food is incomparable to my home country and the food prices are even higher here.

I thought rent prices back home were high, but here (except for small towns on the prairie), you have to share an apartment with 3 people and still pay the same amount as getting a 2-bedroom apartment alone back home.

Then 5 weeks of paid vacation + 11 paid holidays (weekends are generally free, there is no business open at Sundays), when you’re sick, you’re sick, but you still get paid.

Canadians are polite that is true, but what I’ve noticed is that people often make false promises just to be nice.

Making friends here as a foreigner is challenging and perhaps I’m homesick being on the other side of the world.

I’m considering abandoning everything and flying back home. While at first it was really nice here (especially the traveling in the summer), the drawbacks are becoming apparent.

Additionally, my education isn’t recognized here and honestly I don’t want to work at Tim Hortons or Walmart just to „survive“ and with much lower QOL than in Europe.

But on the other hand, I’m afraid of missing out if I fly back home now.

Idk what i should do :(

Any suggestions?

  • Ok_Giraffe_1488@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    While I do think that most of what you said is true - the education is not exactly.

    I’m from Canada but now live in Europe. Yes my degree is recognized here , great but it’s super difficult finding work because I don’t speak the local language and my BSc was super general in Canada, I wanted to specialize a bit more before leaving Canada but couldn’t , and now here in Europe I find it a lot more difficult to make my education fit the mold of the European one. If I want to study here, part time isn’t an option at all, and school is even more expensive than what schooling cost in Canada as an international. Canada might not accredit your degree, sure but you can still go to school part time and get that sorted. People also won’t look at you weird if you graduate when you’re 30+, which is something I feel like it’s looked down upon in Europe. There are also a ton of college programs which are cheaper, shorter and will still help you land good jobs.

    The rest of your comments is why I too left Canada but the education is the one thing I very much miss about Canada. How flexible everything is, I definitely miss that.

    • cornflakes34@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I noticed this when looking at the Netherlands for school, I have a Dutch passport and ideal situation would be to study part time but there are no part time masters programs there. But I really shouldn’t be complaining because I would only need to pay €2500 vs going to UofT or UBC for $45K.