Learning a second language is only one challenge when moving to a new country. Many Tri-City newcomers also struggle with the social conventions such as weddings, birthday parties and gifts, or the rules around voting, garbage set-out times and bears.
But a series of seminars being held at local libraries and sponsored by the Tri-Cities Literacy Committee is promising to demystify some of these Canadian traditions and cultural expectations, according to outreach co-ordinator Ann Johannes.
"Literacy isn't just learning to read and write. It's learning what happens in a community and cultural sensitivity — it's important when learning about other cultures, " Johannes said. "We live in such a multicultural society and we embrace that."
Over the past few weeks since the Canadian Culture and You series started at libraries in Coquitlam, Port Moody and Port Coquitlam, there has been a great deal of interest, with dozens of people turning out to learn about Canadian cultural norms.
Among the more well-attended was one on civic responsibility, where participants learned about the rules for voting and who qualifies to cast a ballot. Johannes said people were curious about the upcoming provincial election.
Other popular panels included a discussion on weddings, funerals, birthday parties and gifts, and one on food, during which a local dietitian and a restaurant owner talked about Canadiana food traditions, food labels, healthy eating, restaurants and food allergies.
Johannes said the idea for the series came out of discussions among members of the Tri-Cities Literacy Committee representing local libraries, Douglas College, School District 43 and immigrant and refugee agencies.
Although the presentations are in English, Johannes said the topics are geared to the language abilities of the newcomers and so far there has been a lot of lively discussion.
"For the social events [discussion], we had to cut off the speakers because people kept asking questions," she said.
Upcoming workshops are free and run from 7 to 8:30 p.m.; topics and dates are as follows:
• Civic responsibility: Thursday, Feb. 23, Coquitlam Public Library, City Centre branch; and Tuesday, March 14, Terry Fox Library, PoCo.
• Bears, bikes and backcountry: Monday, March 27, Port Moody Public Library; Tuesday, April 11, Terry Fox Library; and Thursday, April 27, Coquitlam City Centre branch.
• Food: Monday, Feb. 20, Port Moody library; and Thursday, March 23, Coquitlam City Centre branch.
• Social events and gift-giving: Monday, April 24, Port Moody library.
People who plan to attend should RSVP by emailing t[email protected].
