April 8, 2009 - Reinventing yourself means giving up old ideas

"Kathy, come and try our new cheesecake bomb," called Jose.

I was walking past a local chocolate shop recently when Jose called me inside.

Jose is a former student of mine, once an engineer in South America, and now a small franchise owner.

While I sampled his handmade chocolates, he and his wife chatted about how they'd set up this new business and were already starting to reap some financial rewards after giving up searching for regular, salaried employment.

I asked if he regretted sacrificing years of university education to do this kind of work here in Canada, and he laughed.

"We realized that coming to Canada gave us a rare chance at a new start. How many people are truly happy with their lives and have this second chance to fulfill a dream?"

Having the courage to reinvent yourself is one key to success when moving to another country. But as anyone's life can take expected or unexpected changes in direction, it is a good idea for all of us to contemplate some self-reinvention from time to time.

This theme runs deeply through the course I teach at Douglas College: English for foreign trained professionals.

I developed this course to give highly educated immigrant professionals a chance to learn and practise the cultural and communication skills needed to be successful in similar careers here in Canada.

What I didn't expect was how much I would learn about the courage it takes to start fresh, to accept profound change and then move forward in a completely new direction. For many of my students, change has involved a loss of respect and status.

As a nation, we have come a long way in avoiding labelling others with references to gender, race or disability, and yet look how easy it is to label oneself. Most of my students are brilliant, well educated immigrants who possess amazing technical, financial and medical skills, skills that could be transferred to other fields or even private businesses.

"Yes, but I'm a dentist," they might say, or "I can't do that, I'm an engineer."

And then they continue to make do, often severely underemployed in a community that needs more professionals. It might be easy to judge that attitude, but stop and think.

How often do the rest of us "yes, but" ourselves into a rut? Yes, but I'm a ________." Pick out a role you play in life and fill in the blank.

The label you pick might reflect a level of social status or power -- "teacher," for example -- but at the same time, is it holding you back? Would you have the courage to step out of the box it represents and follow a dream or new opportunity?

Another former student, an engineer from Romania, e-mailed me recently to tell me that his new career is going well. He had once been afraid to "sell his skills," something we talk about in the course, but once he overcame that fear he had three job interviews within a week.

He wrote that "many immigrants believe that only perfect language makes a difference, but I think it is more important to have the courage to speak ... from here starts the journey to achieve that trust to go forward."

Kathy Bell is an English-as-a-second-language instructor at Douglas College.