8. What advices could you give to some immigrants who are interested in continuing studies ?

A: Try to empty oneself. Your past experience of education probably would be dwarfed in the presence and in front of what McGill could offer you.

Try to feel the atmosphere of freedom, independence, self-respect and mutual respect that’s prevalent everywhere. Try to appreciate the principles of equality, fairness, justice, and conscientiousness imbedded in all of the above. Taste them, feel them, dwell on them, and then immerse in them so that they gradually become part of you. Metamorphosis is done this way.

Then, the knowledge that you know will start to fall into places and make sense as having a purpose within a broader perspective, i.e. the Canadian systems, values, and ways of society.

The textbooks convey not only knowledge (many of them I already knew), but also different ways of thinking, different angles of looking at things (lots of them I did not know), and, above all, different choices of values (did I say philosophy?).

Different choices of values represent different kinds of society that people pursue. In my observation, no matter how different these values are, the common value of freedom, independence, self-respect and mutual respect generally still hold ground in Canada. This actually means civilization.

Try to let go of your experiences of the past. Chances are that they are irrelevant here in Canada. Canada is a very different, for the better, society. If one sticks to his experiences of the past, he would be confined to some outdated rules of games and wouldn’t be able to perceive a whole new set of rules that have different definitions on many things that we think we already understand.

When one leaves his comfort zone, he feels a strong sense of loss. To balance oneself, one tends to keep thinking of the past; consciously or unconsciously wanting to go back to his old ways of doing things; longing to pick up the good old days of glory; trying to repeat his past successes using the same time-tested methods.

Sorry, but that probably won’t work. To immigrate to a new country is like sailing through unchartered waters, you don’t know what’s out there until you get to there. Your parents, your friends, …, those people back at home won’t be able to advise you on this.

Three years ago, I started my study at the program of “Diploma in Accounting” at McGill’s Continuing Education full of confidence. After all, I had been an accountant for many years, passed AICPA exams with good grades. I thought that I know accounting well and that I had seen it all.

Three years after, I am near the end of the program and am a more humble person full of awe and respect toward the society around me. I have experienced many eye-opening, mind-wakening episodes, and have done much soul-searching. I now realize how little I knew three years ago. I have seen the palace.

However, it’s really a dilemma that I am talking about. It goes like the following:

• One needs to forgo parts of his past and to embrace a brand new world in order to assimilate to the Canadian society.

• Forgoing a part of the past makes one feel at loss and imbalanced,

• Embracing an unknown new world makes one feel anxious and imbalanced.

• One dose of imbalance is already too much. Two could prove to be unbearable.

• Then why would one want to forgo his past and run after something totally unknown in the first place?

In my opinion, new immigrants to Canada need to understand four things:

1. What lies ahead is a beautiful world, a preeminent society. (Implication: Don’t worry. Be hopeful. It’s a beautiful world out there.)

2. However, this new society is very different in many ways from the one they came from. In many cases, even the fundamental definition of concepts or ideas is different. (Implication: Don’t feel at loss when forgoing the past because one’s past is probably irrelevant in Canada anyways.)

3. Therefore, they need to find a way through which they (1) find out how this society functions, (2) try to empty themselves, and (3) try to learn to “do as the Romans do”. (Implication: Don’t cling to your past. Learn new tricks)

4. Lastly, this is doable and the sooner one learns to “do as the Romans do” the better. (Implication: There is light at the end of the tunnel)

I came to Canada knowing nothing about its society. To me, it’s all unknowns. I was bewildered, full of anxiety, and lost. I had only a vague idea of where I wanted to go to but knew little about how to get to there. It’s only natural that I clung, tightly, to my past experiences, stories of glory, and ways of thinking and doing things.

Fortunately, I then went to McGill’s Continuing Education, where I get to see ideas, minds, perspectives, values, exemplary, concepts, laws and regulations that were new to me. Further, the level of knowledge that I get to learn here is higher, the view wider, and the understanding deeper. Thus, I now see the Canadian society more as opportunities than as unknowns that I once did when I first came to Canada.

One might ask: What are the different ideas, minds, perspectives, values, exemplary, concepts, and levels of understanding that you get to observe at McGill?

I can only say that people in Canada in general think in ways different from those in other countries. These different ways of thinking reflect the deeper and more fundamental differences in the values and philosophies that people cherish. To me, it’s the differences, no tiny ones, in values and philosophies that make the Canadian society as a whole more stable and preeminent.

As to what these differences are, it’s really up to each person to find out. After all, we are all blind men feeling an elephant. We all have to feel it ourselves. But at least I have sketched a road map for you.