There’s no likelihood that the Ukrainian-Canadian priest and his family will move to our area. They have a whole community there, and here there’s no community. Plus, they have very little English and no Anglo friends. I have absolutely no idea how one can swing that in 30 years of living in Canada but it’s a normal thing in Russophone immigrant communities. People emigrate physically but in no other way. If they didn’t manage to integrate into an Anglo culture in their twenties, what are the chances they’ll do so in their late forties?
The priest’s wife told me how she had a whole conversation with one Anglophone Canadian. It must be a rare occurrence if it’s so memorable. And she’s not unusual. Everybody in the community is like that. I emigrated because I wanted to be an Anglo among Anglos, so it’s hard for me to understand why people would emigrate at all if they are so into their own language and culture. It must be psychologically very onerous to be so at odds with the culture in which you live.
Clarissa's Blog 
My parents immigrated to Canada from Germany in the early 1950’s and met over here. They were given a lot of grief from the extended family and German community where we lived because none of us kids spoke German. Their answer to this was simply put as the following mantra: “Language exists to allow you to be understood; we’re in Canada and the language here is English, so we speak English.” My parents and us kids had a much easier time fitting in and functioning in Canadian society because of their refusal to hang onto “the old ways” after moving to a new country. I’ve never considered myself to be a hyphenated Canadian because I don’t believe in such a thing; it’s not that I’m not proud of my family tree, it’s just that I am proud to be Canadian…at least up to the election of the village idiot to PM in 2015!
LikeLiked by 1 person