Chuanmei Lin
Continuing to document my lived experiences (https://bild-lida.ca/educationalsociolinguistics/fall-2022/linguistic-experiences-in-montreal/#comments), October my second month in Montreal is chaos. I’ve been coughing from time to time since I arrived; I start coughing especially when I am anxious about schoolwork . Then I decided to go see a doctor. Before seeing the doctor, I knew my cough is pharyngitis. I had that in China and brought some traditional Chinese medicine and antibiotics with me this time. It’s just that I finished them, and then bought some other traditional Chinese medicine in China town but they didn’t work. The cough is still there when I feel anxious. I decided to try to see if the doctors at the university clinic have some western treatment for it. It’s such a long process to see doctors in Quebec! I’ve heard before that doctors are very few and patients are always more in Canada. Still, it’s so much harder to get some medication here than my past experiences in Calgary. It was difficult to book an appointment because no one was answering my phone calls. Then I went in person and almost got into a quarrel with the student volunteer but I managed to get a number to see a doctor that day. The first doctor gave me medication for my stomach, as if I eat too much and have heartburn, but I don’t have those symptoms. I don’t have much of an appetite and have lost some weight since I arrived. Still, I got the medication from the pharmacy and googled it, because it was necessary to have some medication to treat my cough. But one pharmacist asked if my symptoms matched the medication, and I didn’t dare to try it in the end. Recommended by my classmate, I booked an appointment with an Access Advisor and then saw a second doctor. Luckily the medication this time feels correct. I am trying it and then wait to have an X-ray . . . hopefully when my cough gets better, my sleep will be better and won’t affect my study and life anymore.
My question is how many difficulties and anxieties are caused by my linguistic and cultural barriers in Quebec? Is it just a “negotiation phase” in the culture shock model? Is it because of different medical systems between Quebec, Alberta, and China? To what extent do the three factors mentioned above contributing to this?
