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本帖最后由 峰梓 于 2011-4-5 17:56 编辑 ; s: w" M5 f3 @4 j
( T9 a3 }" S1 W( f! p/ J8 e$ Q& q4 h4 AMy friends came to Canada about six months earlier than us. They rented a small two-bedroom on the second floor of a low rise apartment. Apart from the street signs, the most obvious difference between the English Toronto and the French Montreal is the residential buildings. In Montreal, most low apartments’ stairs were constructed outside, looked like up crawling ivies. So in winter, people living above the ground floor had to resist the coldness in and out of their home in exchange for extra living spaces. No such design could be found in Toronto. My friend’s home still looked messy. They picked up most of their furniture from the streets and seemed busy looking for work or attending school. They simply had no time to care about their physical comforts. It was usual for people immigrated to a complete new country to experience a period of shambles in their life, both physically and psychologically. This period could last from several months to several years, depending on specific situations.8 z* x" t+ v( k4 d9 _
7 t6 e a- z' X4 T4 F+ N GOut of politeness, my friend and his wife invited us to stay with them that night. My family and I were somewhat pickier about life essentials and felt it horrible for six people to cram into two beds. The embarrassment could be seen on my friend’s face when we insisted on living in a hotel. Actually, it was the first time for us to live in a motel. It was located at one end, I could not recall south or north, of the bridge that spanned over the St. Lawrence River, which goes right through Montreal. In winter, it freezes into an ice thoroughfare mingled with the city environment, like a crystal belt around a demure lady’s waist. Our room had two queen size beds; relatively clean except smelt a little smoky. Most people of the motel spoke French and weird English. They sounded like foreigners in terms of usual Canadian English accent. Most time, they had trouble clearly communicating with those English speakers. However, I did not experience the often heard rudeness that they would refuse to serve or slack when faced with none-French speakers.
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' b# R* w; g& yNext morning, I got up early and attempted to talk with some locals. I asked them about places for fun and shopping. It felt really funny for a guy whose first language was oriental and those whose was a none-English Indo-European. Each side tried their best to understand and get understood by the other side using a third language. Gestures, hand signs, pens and maps had all become their aids. Human beings are strange animals, on the one hand, it seems the more they understand the less they like each other; on the other hand, they seem capable of achieving greater content if they do not comprehend their counterparts very much but manage to do so. In the efforts of communicating, they experience the piquancy by verifying that no matter how different they appear or language they speak as toddlers, one fact remains that both sides can to some degree probe what is happening in the other’s mind. Montreal women smoked somewhat more heavily than their counterparts in Toronto as I observed. In this regard, I am not absolutely sure.(to be continued) |
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发表于 2011-4-5 16:31
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