English name, yes or no?

Do you have English name? Are you stubborn as me still keeping your mother tongue name in Canada?



No matter how you feel satisfied with your original name, having had an English name or not perhaps affects your career future in Canada if you are still a job seeker. According to a recent survey mounted by UBC, they found job applicants with John Smith and Steven Carter are more likely to get interview even job offer. People with names of Mohammad Rajput or Ming Zhang have much less chances to get selected. Or even having a hybrid name with Michelle Li or George Mustafa is gonna have more chances to beat those who has native name, ranked in middle.



Whether you believe or not, there's more or less discrimination among Canadian employers. It looks like to have a proper name in no matter where places are very important. Even we are not willing to see like that. Since we live in Canada, we'd better obey Canadian potential rules. Just sticking to be stubborn, you'll be miserable like me having not got job for about 1 year ( maybe I am too far-fetched). ;P



Anyway, when you in Rome, do Romans' do. That makes sense. I am stimulated by a lately got job lady enough to have an English name in order to put into my resume. I googled almost 1 hour, and my accomplishment is SHEVON. Because it pronounces similar as my Chinese name SI WEN. But the most concern is that it sounds like French name. Or either it sounds fancy. It really reflects me to recall some foreigners who study in China. In order to more fit in Chinese environment, they like to pick some unique Chinese words to be their names. Just like a famous Canadian in China named Da Shan, which mean big mountain. Or some name as Da Niu means big bull. Both of them are supposed to have their Chinese name meaning of huge, but it sounds silly. How about Shevon? Is it really necessary to look for job in English name? Or I am just waiting for my offer day with Si Wen? Sometime I am confused.

Little Fatty Got Sick

Little Fatty was sick 2 weeks before. Just after I picked up her from childminding, she kept crying and insisted telling me her hands were so painful. At first, I just assumed she perhaps was in bad mood or just need me to comfort her. Most parents know, kids are good at those tricky things. But my daughter is different from some sticky children. Only if she does have some problems on her, otherwise she will never complain with none sense. I knew there was something wrong. So after I parked my car, I did my best to hug her in my arms. I tried to feel her forehead. Oh, my gosh, it was so hot, and the temperature was 38.4 C. Once I measured her fever, I was not that panic. I knew this level fever in Canada was a piece of cake. Just a few minutes later, I gave her a dozen of Tylenol, on which it really worked. Only half hour passed, she had her fever gone out of her body, and she became active again.

That day my husband just returned from field trip, and he was back home almost at 10 pm. Meanwhile, I measured her again and her fever peaked to 39.5 C, which shocked me a lot. My husband even could not have dinner then accompanying with me rushed to the hospital. As soon as we entered into North York General Hospital, we were surprised in seeing so many patients waiting in the hall. As for swine flu's explosion, every medical staff wore specific mask that really scared us. We'd been waiting for 3 hours in the registration ward till Little Fatty's checked. The doctor seemed very experienced, he even didn't have blood tested but her urine, and later told us she had urine infection. It needed at least 1 week antibiotic medication.

Little Fatty is so special, because she likes to take medicine, for those which are mostly sweet and syrup. Every medicine time for her is a happy meal. Therefore, sometime I even punish her by not treating her medicine syrup. :[]

1 week later, she almost recovered. But after urine test, the walk-in doctor said still a small trace of white cells came out. He suggested me to let her drink cranberry juice instead of antibiotic medicine treatment. As cranberry juice has abundant of vitamin C, on which could have urine become acidic enough to kill germs. Out of my imagination, Little Fatty loves drinking cranberry juice since the doctor told me most children hate the tremendous sour taste. Big Fatty also doesn't like this flavor juice, 'cause with my tongue it feels like chemical juice.

Tomorrow ( May 29) will be 2nd urine test, I hope everything is gonna fine.

Canadian Li Hong Zhi

The most funny thing I heard from LINC class is this guy, I found him mostly like Falun's master Li Hong Zhi whom can heal people with nothing. Just check how crazy he is!

My Favorite Songs

Joseph asked us to find some children's songs of my kid's favorite. Actually, I really don't make clear which song is my daughter's love. Otherwise, those which reflect me to recall some songs I like even when I was little. Those below are I like, how about you?

Sue Thompson's SAD MOVIE- the 1st song I heard about betrayed love


Patti McGrath's END OF THE WORLD- the song about girl dumped


Nana Mouskouri's OVER & OVER- always women fall in love much more deeply than guys


Elvis Presley's LOVE ME TENDER- now it's guy's turn to express the intangible love


At one time I even could not list all my favorite songs in my memory, those above are some much more favorite English songs. Hope everyone enjoy them! BTW, women are more vulnerable, don't hurt them, no matter how is in mental or physical.

The follow-up of Little Fatty's Dental Treatment

As I mentioned in my first post, the next "torture day" was Apr. 24, 2009. That day I took Little Fatty to the specialist's office at 8:30 in the morning.

I never imagined that there would be so many early birds. I had thought Little Fatty might be the first patient. There were already several kids waiting there and I could clearly hear some kid screaming in the treatment room, which scared me very much.

Soon after I filled out some forms, it was our turn . The dental specialist is a middle-aged and nice-looking lady. When she approached Little Fatty with smile, Little Fatty was happy to lay on the chair with not suspecting anything. The specialist spoke fluent Mandarin, so she can communicate to her every procedure. Even then, only after a few minutes, Little Fatty could not bear it even though the specialist told her it was just a check. After the check, she advised that it was not worth fixing her teeth, because if they were to do the fillings, they would have to have her wrapped on the chair with a bed sheet and have her head fastened in a special clip, which may lead to incredible suffering for her. As for her cavities, they were tiny, which the last treatment had drilled them totally. What I should do in the future is to brush her teeth twice a day, cut out all sweets, floss her teeth after every meal and apply some fluoride on her bad teeth before bedtime.

CUT OUT all the SWEETS? Is that possible? The specialist also added that if I do as she says, Little Fatty's bad teeth will remain in good condition until she gets permanent teeth. Otherwise, it will affect her. I know it's hard on both her and me, but I have no choice. I just imagine that every Halloween Little Fatty is gonna say 'trick or treat salty'.

Little Fatty's first dental treatment

As long as little fatty lives with us, the only gain she gets are weight and teeth cavities. What a bonus for her! What a terrible reward for our parenting!

As long as big fatty keeps brushing little fatty's teeth, the cavity still comes out, which completely depresses big fatty's parenting confidence. It's just like the more big fatty brushes, the more the cavities come out, and the less interest of brushing teeth little fatty has. That's really frustrating!

Being a responsible parent, taking care of little fatty is my life-long duty. Yesterday, big fatty decided to take her to the dentist to fix her teeth. I'd hoped the cavities would be on the front teeth which I thought might be treated more easily. But only after several minutes, I realized that I was totally wrong. Little fatty could not bear the treatment for even one minute. The dentist almost used out her personnels to make her stay on the dental chair with my assistance. Once she laid down on the chair, her eyes reflected a scared look and she only opened her mouth with half way not enough for dental tools. The dentist had to use a special tool to enlarge her mouth and then quickly honed in on her cavities. Just then, she began crying. Oh, wait a minute, actually she began screaming. The tears she manufactured were like a volcano erupting, which turned her face deep red, and made her sweat. Big fatty was very upset and could not look at little fatty's suffering while holding her head still. But it still didn't work. The usual adult treatment is only half an hour or a maximum of 3 quarters, but for little fatty, it took 1 hour to fix only half her mounts. The dentist could not do the fillings, no matter what method she used, such as offering a doll, threated her that big fatty was gonna leave or just remaining few more minutes to go. I was also so sad for her. Finally, for those who were waiting for treatment as scheduled, the dentist quit trying, and instructed receptionist to write a letter of referral for us. Big fatty had no choice but to book another treatment. The next torture date is Apr. 24. They told me they will have little fatty sleep.

No one likes dentists, but everyone needs them.

Co-op Courses in Toronto

Dufferin-Peel Adult Learning Centres

This co-op program located in Mississauga, and has a very high reputation among immigrants, especially on those whom have never been working in Canada before. They have two locations, just check as below:

Malton-St. Gabriel

3750 Brandon Gate

Mississauga, On

L4T 3M8




Lakeshore-Brian J. Fleming

Dr. 870 Queen Street West

Mississauga, On

L5H 4G1

Their function is mostly to help job seekers in Canada, who hope to be offered a professional job in the near future. Because of the pretty long waiting list, it is not that easy to be enrolled in this program. Every applicant has to attain a certain level(approxiamate to ESL 5) to be eligible for that program. You may first make an appointment and take a test of your language level, have your resume prepared, and another $15 registration fee (if you quit that program before it starts, they'll refund the full amount).

I took my co-op program at last summer, and after waiting almost 2 months; you can tell how popular it is among newcomers. I went through 8 weeks in class and 10 weeks in a co-op company. Just from beginning, usually a native-speaker teacher, they call job instructor, will lead a class till the end. He/she instructs all the students in the class and it'll be him/her to coordinate your co-op company by using his/her significant skills. And you'll have another teacher who teaches you English in what they call an ESL (English as Second Language) class. That's imperative, if your language is not that good, how can you beat the competitors or communicate with your boss or your co-workers in the real world?

During class, I had my resume modified to Canadian standard, was taught a bunch of employable skills (most are soft skills; they suppose your hard skills are good enough. Soft skills includes cover letter, thank you letter, information interview, cold calling, how to leave a message, assessment of your professional job situation, potential employer leads, mock interview, employable etiquette, etc.), was introduced to the Canadian labor market, and was also informed about human psychology and relationship philosophy. On most things, the teacher assumes you have a solid concept about how the real Canadian labor market is alike. All those they teach are to comb your original threads and correct any of your misunderstanding and improve your personal skills. At last, almost most of the classmates have got co-op positions in real companies or relevant fields; besides some of them perhaps should wait for more time to fit in or even won't be accepted. It depends on individuals and multiple reasons. At here, I don't want to expand it.

To most of us, the most exciting results we want are in the co-op period. I can feel the anxious desire from other classmates, some eagerest one couldn't even wait to the end then quit the program. For the co-op companies, there are several types. One of those types is from your previous employer. For example, some students used to work in a very large corporations, which have lots of branches in the world; so they prefer working in those companies have branches in Canada to other related companies . The other of those types is the companies you seek from the real world which relates to your personal expertise; they call leads. Different teachers have different demands of leads; some may only order 2; some may order more. But no matter how many leads you got, the purpose is the same, to succeed in being accepted by a co-op company. Most students are this type. Another of those types is due to teacher's personal relationship from his/her database; for those who still cannot find co-op companies. Most of those instructors have been in this adult program for a long time, and most of them are from HR department or used to deal with people for almost all of their career history. So they are pretty familiar with the outside world, just as my instructor told us that some of those companies' head honchos are her best friends. Isn't it wonderful for you?

Every individual has his/her own comments about co-op experience; so my personal co-op period is differ from others, and I don't think it's useful for everyone else. I just want to narrate that during those 10 weeks, you should undergo several steps and you are meant to finish every steps' working logs. The instructor is gonna take those logs for their financial proof, and you may have them for your working experience evidence; of course you also could refresh your memory in the future. During those period, the instructor intends to meet every co-op student every 2 weeks and the meeting spot may not be held at school or some other places you guys prefer. Depending on the individuals' real working situation, the instructor will have at least 2 or more surveys on-site. He/she purposes to make clear what you are really doing in the company, what your boss/ co-worker's comments are about you, and clarifies whether the company intends to hire you before the end of co-op period. He/she will also have your co-op supervisor appraised both at the middle and the end of the co-op period; that's why you could be given much clearer impression about your working performance. Probably at last, you may know by yourself whether to be hired or not indeed. That's for certain; it's impossible for everyone to be hired finally. But you still deserve to have a reference (if is negative, then forget it); some ambitious students may have their references in hard copy and even signed by their bosses. I didn't do so until I was informed after I had already left the company. :(

At the last meeting, the instructor will hand out a graduation certificate to everyone who has successfully fulfilled the whole program. After a month, the school will mail everyone an assessment of your scores.

The so-called co-op program is like above. As for my personal feeling about getting a professional job in Canada is more relying on either your English or your strong field expertise; Without either of them, it's much more difficult to get a satisfy job. So ENGLISH and EXPERTISE are like two legs for walking on the road of the Canadian labor market; Don't ignore one of them, even if you are confident that you are capable to walk by either one of them, you still couldn't walk as fast as normal ones. Please do knuckle down on them, you'll never regret doing so.