Musing On A Year in Canada

17 March 2015Cathi G ‘17

Cathi G, a German student with us for just one year, played a pivotal role in the success of the Field Hockey program and, as you can see, is becoming a very fine writer in English. Below are her reflections on being an ESL student at Brentwood. Being an ESL student causes a lot of struggle but also a lot of fun. If your mistakes are not so funny for you then at least they are for everyone around you. 😉 The first week I spent at Brentwood I was overwhelmed by so much vocabulary that I did not know. My response to everything was smiling, laughing, and pretending I knew exactly what everybody was talking about. It turns out that my English speaking friends did the same thing to me. After a month, my roommate told me that she could not understand me at all, because of my strong accent but she had wanted to be nice so she pretended to know what I was talking about. Well, she did not stick to that! After we became close, I was literally laughed at every single time I messed up my grammar or pronounced something wrong. Honestly, that motivated me even more to try harder and to be finally able to actually speak to someone about real things and not just about how the weather would be tomorrow. The important thing I learned from that was learning to laugh at myself. As weird as it sounds, it is so much fun and it actually helps you get self-confidence and, even more importantly, the ability to speak in full sentences. Another change in my life was the different culture. Canadians do the whole “Hey, How are you doing? How is your day?” thing even though they don’t actually wait for an answer. Germans think that is a total waste of time. Why don’t they just leave it at “Hello”? I got a bit annoyed when people asked me that at first, but then I caught myself after two months living with Canadians asking people the exact same thing. In addition, the breakfast culture is very different from ours. I used to eat toast or baguette with jam, totally European right? My friends at home freaked out when I told them that Canadians eat potatoes with ketchup and sausages. Once I had a late-night discussion with my housemates trying to convince me that I was totally wrong here. We ended up saying potatoes do have too many calories for a good breakfast, but we could not agree on the ketchup. My new Big Sister told me once that Brentwood is its own world; it is as if we are separated from everything else. We are a family: from Shannon in the school store, who knows literally every student’s name, to the Caf ladies including our wonderful Lisa, who we had to say goodbye to this year, everybody knows about everyone, which is not a surprise, because we live together every day. I also had an amazing experience with the Senior Field Hockey team. I got so close with them over first term, when we went to provincials together and to many tournaments, where we beat strong teams. They are all wonderful girls whom I will never forget. Everyone tried hard and improved so much. It was an awesome season and I am so glad I was a part of that. Honestly, coming to Brentwood was the best decision I made in my life. I had so many life experiences, gained a lot of confidence and independence and I now have friends around the world, whom I hopefully will stay in touch with. They are all wonderful people and taught me so much about life. Thank you to everyone who made my stay at Brentwood wonderful and unforgettable! Cathi G ‘17

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