Culture Clash II

It is time for the long awaited second instalment of Culture Clash! (Don’t worry, I am joking – I know nobody was waiting for it).

In the ‘Culture Clash’ series I am discussing the main cultural differences I have noticed between the UK and Canada. Today I am focusing on the university work load, and also whether that major Canadian stereotype is true: is everybody nice?

Culture Clash Three: The Work Load: The style of university work, and the general work load, is completely different in Canada than in the UK. In England, or at least for me in Birmingham, I would take 11 weeks of classes, and then would submit one 2000/3000 word essay that would account for 100% of my grade for that class. In the whole of semester 1 during my second year of university, I only wrote 4 essays – one for each module I took, with a couple of presentations to keep us occupied along the way. In Canada, it is completely different. We have constant assessment, and by constant I mean literally all the time. I have had an assignment or “paper” due every week since I started.

When trying to keep up with this constant writing, the whole way you approach assignments has to change. In Birmingham, as your essay will count for 100% of your grade, it is easy to spend weeks gruelling over it, trying to find every little imperfection and re-writing multiple drafts to try and make it as good as possible. Over here, there is literally no time to do that. You have roughly one week to choose your topic, research it and write your assignment before you hand it in. There’s no time to re-think and change.

When we first arrived in Canada I found this incredibly stressful. Anyone that knows me knows that I am a bit of a stress-head when it comes to academic work anyway, so I couldn’t cope with the constant assessment. I even made myself ill in the middle of the semester because I was too stressed. I also felt like I was performing all of my work to a lower standard, because I just did not have the time to make it better. But now that we’ve been here a while, and I have settled in, I am actually beginning to like the constant assessment. In England, as you write an essay every 6 months, you only get feedback from your tutors every 6 months, so it could take 2 years before you begin to notice a significant improvement in your work. By having more regular assessment, and more regular feedback, I do actually think my writing style may be improving, purely because I am writing more. Also, I actually know the content a lot better. In the UK, once you’ve chosen the topic you want to write your essay on, it is easy for the other 9 topics you’ve covered to get pushed to the side a bit. When you have to write an assignment on every topic, however, like I do at SFU, this doesn’t happen. So I actually feel I know the subjects a lot better!

Another bonus: the marking is pretty lenient, in my experience at least. Probably because the professors know that you have to churn our paper after paper, rather than focusing all your efforts into one summative essay... A note for those of you that may be studying in North America in the future:  If you are used to a tough standard of marking in the UK, you will fair okay in Canada. I managed to get an A in a paper without using any secondary sources - you wouldn’t even pass in England if you handed in a paper without any critical reading! Another point: you get graded on your ‘Participation’, so it is definitely worth sucking up to Professors. Go to office hours, speak in tutorials, made a good impression; it will help with your actual mark. Plus, the assignments here aren’t anonymous – your name is literally at the top of the paper – so it is worth making a good impression, because it may mean your paper is marked more favourably. And also be prepared for some weird and unusual assignments. Tutors have a lot of freedom with their classes here, which means they can pretty much assess you in any way. One of my tutors announced that he considered analytical essays “conformist”, and he wanted us to push the boundaries and submit something more creative in response to the novel, such as a piece of art or poem. I am the least artistic person in the world, so producing a piece of art wasn’t really up my street (and I opted not to do this), but I think this shows that Professors really can do whatever they want. Be prepared for some unconventional forms of work.

So the work load is very different, but once you have adjusted, this can be a good thing. Obviously, when you are on your year abroad you want to spend a lot of time travelling and exploring, so the constant assessment can be pretty annoying. But it’s not all bad; the marking is fairly lax, and your overall grade comes from numerous assignments, rather than just one, which considerably removes the pressure. It definitely takes the pressure off final exams, and plus, all the exams are over before the Christmas holidays. You will actually be able to enjoy your Christmas for once!

Culture Clash Four: Are the Canadian people really as nice as everyone says they are? The answer is yes, they are! I know this is a huge stereotype – and I hate to buy into stereotypes – but Canadians really are lovely people. Obviously this is a generalisation, and not everyone I have met has been kind, but the vast majority of people really do seem so.

Public transport is the place where you most see the Canadian politeness in action. When Canadians are getting off the bus, they always shout “thank you” to the driver, even if they are disembarking from the back door 15 metres away and the driver has no chance of hearing them. They also always, without fail, queue before getting on public transport. Whenever you are the bus stop, there will be long, very straight and orderly lines of people queuing for the bus. I’ve even seen two men arguing over who should get on the bus first. They were both repeating “No, after you” so extensively that the bus driver actually had to tell them to hurry up because he was going to be late for the next stop.  This is completely different to public transport in Europe, where everyone barges their way on, each man for themselves. Also, without fail, Canadians give up their seat on the bus or train for others. I like to think British people act in the same way, and often they do, but over here people give up their seat no matter what. My friend told me that one time, someone on the bus was simply not paying attention (I think they were listening to music) and failed to notice that there was someone that may need their seat. As a result the bus driver actually stopped the bus and kicked him off. He was literally kicked off the bus for not giving up his seat. If that doesn’t show that kindness is forced upon the population, I don’t know what does.

Pubic transport is probably the most obvious situation in which I experience the stereotypical Canadian politeness, but it arises in other places too. On my first day in Canada I was helped out numerous times along the way by helpful Canadians, even without my asking. When I very first arrived, I couldn’t work out which key I needed to use to get into my flat. I had probably been stood outside for a grand total of two seconds before someone said behind me “do you need help?” and showed me how to open my front door. 20 minutes later, I walked into the dining hall, absolutely starving after a 10 hour journey, and was pretty confused with how the system worked (the kitchen was actually shut, I wasn’t being stupid). Within 5 minutes someone had taken me under their wing, sat and ate dinner with me for 20 minutes, and then walked me to the orientation event which was taking place. It was completely unnecessary for him to do this – he wasn’t even attending the orientation - but the fact that someone was thoughtful enough to eat dinner with me and show me around when I had never met them before was very kind. In terms of arriving in a brand new place in which I literally knew no one, these two acts of kindness really made me feel more settled and comfortable in my environment. They were both from people that I have never seen again, so they were clearly not acting out of personal gain – they were just showing genuine helpfulness.

Obviously, the idea of the ‘kind Canadian’ is a huge stereotype, and not everyone in this country fits the image, but I have witnessed numerous kind acts since being here. I have had people swap seats with me on the bus just so that I could sit my friends, strangers offer to help carry my rubbish to the bins, bus drivers volunteer tactics for climbing the Grouse Grind and people walking past in the street volunteering to help us carry our sofas when we were moving. The environment seems incredibly giving and generous!

So, Culture Class Episode II: the workload in Canada is extremely different to that in the UK, and the people really do seem to be incredibly kind. I am not saying that the people in Britain are unkind, but there just seems to be a greater general atmosphere of helping each other out in Canada. Perhaps this is something we can learn from!

Until next time!