The gift

A woman considers that living in the multicultural Canadian society was an important and invaluable experience.

AN.: Look, because I used to teach, as I told you, Greek to adults, I met a great many people who were attending my class for their own different reasons. I made many friendships with individuals who had come to my class from various ethnicities and we didn’t have any problem. Also, I probably feel lucky that I grew up as I grew up, my parents taught me to respect different religions, different traditions, ethnicities, languages, because each person, just as I love mine, they love theirs too. Hence, if I respect the individual, I also respect what he carries with him. As long as that person respects mine too. That is, one shouldn’t try to proselytize me to his religion or to various other habits. And due to the fact that I was not a person who would copy or follow someone in order to be in the company, since I was a child, I had my own opinion and my own views and my own beliefs. Therefore, I respected and I expected respect. I enjoyed and valued people and I still do, for whatever they offer me in terms of knowledge. Because everybody, be that the young or the old, or the poor, or the rich, or the uneducated, or the educated, I think they have something to offer. Therefore, the Canadian society or the different society was a gift for me.