Living in Canada
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The only French I've heard spoken in Canada is on the stupid planes.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ Metal Musings - Rex and my new metal blog
Christian Graus wrote:
The only French I've heard spoken in Canada is on the stupid planes.
Yeah, same here :-)
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. Also visit the Ultimate Toolbox blog (New) -
Well, I was m afraid of that. It's just to hope the Canadians are more gently and open than the french people!
/Håkan Nilsson ------------------------------------------------ - Old fashion C programmer since 1988 - Bachelor in systems analysis 1991 - Systems developer at work with C#, SQL Server... - DBA, database design, SQL, admin ------------------------------------------------
Don't worry about it. The main requirement to be bi-lingual is if you want to work in the government, especially the federal government, where you need both languages to progress past a certain level. My experience (as a Brit who worked in Canada for a while) is that you'll do just fine, so long as you don't try to work in Quebec (somebody else also mentioned New Brunswick but I have no knowledge of that state). I worked in Ottawa, the Capital, which has a high proportion of French speakers, but still got along without problems. My experience is that the further West you go, the less French is used. Soccer is huge in Canadian schools, go practically anywhere and your sons will find teams to play in. Winters a very cold (to us Brits) and summers hot. The coasts are more moderate (i.e. lower summer temperatures and higher winter temperatures). Anywhere in land you'll get snow in the Winter. Cross country skiing is popular almost everywhere in Canada, downhill is very popular in Rockies (Calgary was mentioned and that is in easy reach of the Rockies). I know that there is also some slopes in Quebec that the skiers from Ottawa go to a lot. Don't know about the rest of the country. Natural bathing could be awkward. For most Canadians, bathing means lakes (there are a lot of them in Canada), occasionally rivers. These are cold in the mornings or if they are deep. I assume that you mean in summer, because in winter they will be very cold, if not frozen. The Rideau canel in Ottawa becomes a skating rink in the winter. Hope this helps
Graham My signature is not black, just a very, very dark blue
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Canadians out there and the rest of you who knews a lot of Canada, help me! I'm thinking about taking two or three years abroad with my family - wife and three children. Main reasons are: the children will learn proper english and we want to see something more than sweden for a longer time. We have just been traveling in Europe on our vacations, we have never been in the States or Canada, but I think Canada could be just fine. We live in Örebro, Sweden and if you look on the map and follow the latitude you will find yourself in southern Alaska, but we got about 20-30 degrees summertime and minus 5-25 wintertime. Now to the questions: 1) Which town should we head for? Criterias: English as 1:st language, there are soccer teams for my sons to play in (8, 13 years old). Some of us like hot temperatures at summertime and cold sunny > -10 degrees wintertime. We like skiing both downhill and cross country (ok, I like both, rest if the family just downhill :)) There must be good natural bathing with warm water > 18 degrees). We want to travel mostly by bike to school or work. Oh, what a list of demands! :-D 2) Working? How is the market for DBA:s / SQL Server programmers? My wife is occupational therapist, but maybee she could do something different just for fun halftime or so. 3) Get paid? What about the wages for senior developers/DBA:s 4) Administration, papers, permissions, formalia and... and so on. What do we need Anyone? All comments are welcome!
/Håkan Nilsson ------------------------------------------------ - Old fashion C programmer since 1988 - Bachelor in systems analysis 1991 - Systems developer at work with C#, SQL Server... - DBA, database design, SQL, admin ------------------------------------------------
I am a canadian and I might have some insight to what you would be looking for. But feel free to ask other question if you have them. As for your first criteria English as the first language I would not suggest Quebec, or some parts of New Brunswick. The place that would match your description closest would be Vancouver British Columbia. Good skiing is in a few spots Mont Tremblant Quebec, Banff National Park Alberta, Whistler BC, Marble Mountain Newfoundland Eastern Canada might be a little too cold for you in the winter and the wages are lower on that side. Speaking of wages and such you should really have a look at monster.ca to find salaries. They are very different depending on where you will live so to give you a standard salary would be difficult. For information in regards to papers, permission etc have a look at this web site... http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomer/guide/index.html[^] -- modified at 8:10 Tuesday 22nd August, 2006
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I am a canadian and I might have some insight to what you would be looking for. But feel free to ask other question if you have them. As for your first criteria English as the first language I would not suggest Quebec, or some parts of New Brunswick. The place that would match your description closest would be Vancouver British Columbia. Good skiing is in a few spots Mont Tremblant Quebec, Banff National Park Alberta, Whistler BC, Marble Mountain Newfoundland Eastern Canada might be a little too cold for you in the winter and the wages are lower on that side. Speaking of wages and such you should really have a look at monster.ca to find salaries. They are very different depending on where you will live so to give you a standard salary would be difficult. For information in regards to papers, permission etc have a look at this web site... http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomer/guide/index.html[^] -- modified at 8:10 Tuesday 22nd August, 2006
liona wrote:
I am a canadian
How come your profile says Afghanistan then? :rolleyes:
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. Also visit the Ultimate Toolbox blog (New) -
It's a two-language country. Immigration certainly requires a certain proficiency in French.
Asynes yw brassa ages kwilkynyow.
Not true. Perhaps you're thinking of if you want to work in the civil service or government?
Kevin
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Don't worry about it. The main requirement to be bi-lingual is if you want to work in the government, especially the federal government, where you need both languages to progress past a certain level. My experience (as a Brit who worked in Canada for a while) is that you'll do just fine, so long as you don't try to work in Quebec (somebody else also mentioned New Brunswick but I have no knowledge of that state). I worked in Ottawa, the Capital, which has a high proportion of French speakers, but still got along without problems. My experience is that the further West you go, the less French is used. Soccer is huge in Canadian schools, go practically anywhere and your sons will find teams to play in. Winters a very cold (to us Brits) and summers hot. The coasts are more moderate (i.e. lower summer temperatures and higher winter temperatures). Anywhere in land you'll get snow in the Winter. Cross country skiing is popular almost everywhere in Canada, downhill is very popular in Rockies (Calgary was mentioned and that is in easy reach of the Rockies). I know that there is also some slopes in Quebec that the skiers from Ottawa go to a lot. Don't know about the rest of the country. Natural bathing could be awkward. For most Canadians, bathing means lakes (there are a lot of them in Canada), occasionally rivers. These are cold in the mornings or if they are deep. I assume that you mean in summer, because in winter they will be very cold, if not frozen. The Rideau canel in Ottawa becomes a skating rink in the winter. Hope this helps
Graham My signature is not black, just a very, very dark blue
Thanks for the comprehensive answer :) Sounds like the life in Canada is not that different for us at all. We are used to +35 to -25 degrees and I'm glad the nowadays exists a lot of soccer teams. I didn't knew that. In my opinion you should change name of your american football (which mostly is played with the ball with the hands) to "american handball". Soccer should be renamed to football as the rest of the english speaking world use. Quite strange. Yes, bathing for us means summertime, the lakes or sea should hold a temp from 18 degress and up, then we enjoy ourselves!
/Håkan Nilsson ------------------------------------------------ - Old fashion C programmer since 1988 - Bachelor in systems analysis 1991 - Systems developer at work with C#, SQL Server... - DBA, database design, SQL, admin ------------------------------------------------
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I am a canadian and I might have some insight to what you would be looking for. But feel free to ask other question if you have them. As for your first criteria English as the first language I would not suggest Quebec, or some parts of New Brunswick. The place that would match your description closest would be Vancouver British Columbia. Good skiing is in a few spots Mont Tremblant Quebec, Banff National Park Alberta, Whistler BC, Marble Mountain Newfoundland Eastern Canada might be a little too cold for you in the winter and the wages are lower on that side. Speaking of wages and such you should really have a look at monster.ca to find salaries. They are very different depending on where you will live so to give you a standard salary would be difficult. For information in regards to papers, permission etc have a look at this web site... http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomer/guide/index.html[^] -- modified at 8:10 Tuesday 22nd August, 2006
Thanks! I will check your links and ask you som more questions later on.
/Håkan Nilsson ------------------------------------------------ - Old fashion C programmer since 1988 - Bachelor in systems analysis 1991 - Systems developer at work with C#, SQL Server... - DBA, database design, SQL, admin ------------------------------------------------
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liona wrote:
I am a canadian
How come your profile says Afghanistan then? :rolleyes:
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. Also visit the Ultimate Toolbox blog (New) -
liona wrote:
I am a canadian
How come your profile says Afghanistan then? :rolleyes:
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. Also visit the Ultimate Toolbox blog (New)Afghanistan is 2:nd from the bottom of my moving abroad list :-D
/Håkan Nilsson ------------------------------------------------ - Old fashion C programmer since 1988 - Bachelor in systems analysis 1991 - Systems developer at work with C#, SQL Server... - DBA, database design, SQL, admin ------------------------------------------------
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It's a two-language country. Immigration certainly requires a certain proficiency in French.
Asynes yw brassa ages kwilkynyow.
Immigration only requires a minimal level of proficiency in one of the two official languages.
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VAIO Blue wrote:
IMO, the best place in Canada is Vancouver.
Shucks - haven't been there. But everyone says it's the most beautiful city in Canada.
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. Also visit the Ultimate Toolbox blog (New)Nishant Sivakumar wrote:
But everyone says it's the most beautiful city in Canada.
Naw, that would be Montreal.
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Håkan Nilsson wrote:
English as 1:st language,
I think you'll also need a certain level of French to get into Canada for an extended period.
Asynes yw brassa ages kwilkynyow.
Steve_Harris wrote:
I think you'll also need a certain level of French to get into Canada for an extended period.
No.
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What's going on in Calgary? Except hockey of course!
/Håkan Nilsson ------------------------------------------------ - Old fashion C programmer since 1988 - Bachelor in systems analysis 1991 - Systems developer at work with C#, SQL Server... - DBA, database design, SQL, admin ------------------------------------------------
Stay away from Calgary. They have massive swings in weather. Can go from -20C one day to +12 the next. I don't recommend it. If you like the seasonal weather, etc... then I would suggest Toronto or just outside of Toronto in one of the suburbs so you avoid the hassle of life in the big city but can benefit from being close to it. Furthermore, there is decent skiing north of Toronto as well as abundant nature and lakes, outdoor activities, mountain biking, etc... no more than 2 hours away. You also have the benefit of multiculturalism. I've been living outside of Canada for about 3 years now, so I don't know if there are any new immigration rules, but at one time they were placing immigrants in cities that needed them the most, so I am not sure if you are entirely free to pick and choose where you want to live...I may be wrong, so it is best to check with customs and immigration Canada.
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It's a two-language country. Immigration certainly requires a certain proficiency in French.
Asynes yw brassa ages kwilkynyow.
Steve_Harris wrote:
It's a two-language country. Immigration certainly requires a certain proficiency in French.
No, actually. Capability in one official language is sufficient.
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The only French I've heard spoken in Canada is on the stupid planes.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ Metal Musings - Rex and my new metal blog
Christian Graus wrote:
The only French I've heard spoken in Canada is on the stupid planes.
Go to Sudbury. Actually, don't go to Sudbury...nevermind that. Lots of French in Quebec and on the east coast. In the Greater Toronto Area where I grew up, none.
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Afghanistan is 2:nd from the bottom of my moving abroad list :-D
/Håkan Nilsson ------------------------------------------------ - Old fashion C programmer since 1988 - Bachelor in systems analysis 1991 - Systems developer at work with C#, SQL Server... - DBA, database design, SQL, admin ------------------------------------------------
Håkan Nilsson wrote:
Afghanistan is 2:nd from the bottom of my moving abroad list
:-D
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. Also visit the Ultimate Toolbox blog (New) -
liona wrote:
LOL I didn't realize that it did
Nice, now that youve fixed it :-)
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. Also visit the Ultimate Toolbox blog (New) -
Nishant Sivakumar wrote:
But everyone says it's the most beautiful city in Canada.
Naw, that would be Montreal.
thealj wrote:
Naw, that would be Montreal.
Never heard anyone say that before. Between Montreal and Quebec city, which'd be a better place to visit?
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. Also visit the Ultimate Toolbox blog (New) -
What's going on in Calgary? Except hockey of course!
/Håkan Nilsson ------------------------------------------------ - Old fashion C programmer since 1988 - Bachelor in systems analysis 1991 - Systems developer at work with C#, SQL Server... - DBA, database design, SQL, admin ------------------------------------------------
> What's going on in Calgary? oil. No provincial sales tax in Calgary, they even mail checks back because they have surpluses. but expect to spend a lot of $ on housing. for IT in Canada, the city where there is more demand are Toronto, Montreal and Calgary. In my opinion, Quebec City is the most beautiful city, for it's old europe style, but it does not impress european as much as north american for obvious reason. does not meet your first criteria either (french first). And not as hot as rest of Canada. > Except hockey of course! oh -- you really had to bring this up haven't you ?. congrat for the gold medal anyway. -- modified at 9:00 Tuesday 22nd August, 2006
Denevers
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thealj wrote:
Naw, that would be Montreal.
Never heard anyone say that before. Between Montreal and Quebec city, which'd be a better place to visit?
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. Also visit the Ultimate Toolbox blog (New)Montreal hands down. I was thrown out of a place in Quebec city for speaking English some years ago! Ah, the good ole days... I prefer Montreal because it is more cosmopolitan, the restaruants are much, much better and there are more things to see and do (*exception, see below). The probability of receiving hostile treatment for being and English speaker (even though I speak French) is much lower as well. I just preferred Montreal - more jazz clubs, better food, nice places to walk...beautiful city. Almost moved there but ended up in Switzerland instead. Long story... HOWEVER, if you prefer historic things, then Quebec is the place to go. The "old city" is quite nice to explore and there are many more historical sites.