Syrian sisters overcome language barriers to get into McMaster
Arriving in Canada with their family last year, sisters Raghad and Shaza made learning English job one
“They were trying to save our lives. Everything around us (in Damascus) was exploding.” SHAZA MAHAYNI On her family’s departure from war-torn Syria
TWO
VERY DETERMINED sisters from war-torn Syria have made it into McMaster University despite landing in Canada last year without speaking much English.
Raghad and Shaza Mahayni were taught English grammar in school in Damascus, but not conversational skills. They didn’t know about pronunciation and context.
The few English words they did know, would not easily leave their lips.
“Honestly, we were afraid to speak English,” says Raghad, 22.
They feared mixing up words and, being in a new and foreign country, they were also shy at first to try it.
But the sisters, driven by their goals and ambitions, learned quickly.
“I had so much motivation to do it,” says Shaza, 19.
“My parents came here and lost everything.”
“Everything” includes their home, their father Mohammad Mahayni’s furniture and agricultural businesses, and their mother Nariman Alkhouli’s job as a school teacher.
“There was a lot of dangerous things going on around us. They were trying to save our lives,” says Shaza about their parents. “Everything around us (in Damascus) was exploding.
“They sacrificed for us so we should do something for them and us.”
The family — including younger brother Anas, now in Grade 10 at St. Mary’s High School — immigrated to Canada on May 11, 2017, and came to Hamilton. They were sponsored by an aunt in Dundas, who arrived in 2014, and a local church.
Very soon after arriving, the sisters took on part-time jobs as cashiers at a Pioneer gas station on Main Street West, primarily to learn to speak the language. Shaza went on to work part-time at the Dundas library and Raghad at the Marshalls store in Ancaster.
They also volunteered at various places.
A month after arriving in Hamilton, Raghad, who studied dentistry in Syria, visited a nearby Shoppers Drug Mart.
“I told them I am new and want to learn English. They offered me volunteer work, four hours, one day a week,” she says. “I spoke English with the customers and the pharmacist. It improved very well.”
Then she volunteered in a dental clinic in Dundas, again to improve her language. And she tried everything else she could think of.
“I spent my whole day (when home) Googling, watching TV shows, watching Netflix and YouTube, anything that would improve my language skills.
“I spent a lot of hours on my laptop just learning and learning. My sister as well.”
And while Shaza took ESL classes and then went into Grade 12 at St. Mary’s High School, Raghad attended the LINC program (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada) at Mohawk College for three months.
Not only did the sisters succeed in learning English and getting into McMaster this September, but they were also accepted into science courses with heavy workloads. Raghad is enrolled in the medical radiation sciences program while Shaza is in the integrated biomedical engineering and health sciences course. Raghad’s dream is to become a dentist; Shaza’s is to become a doctor.
They applied to McMaster with help from the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) because, “We’ve heard from a lot of people that McMaster is a lovely university ... it is one of the top 10 (in Canada),” says Raghad.
They are thrilled to be attending.
“It’s so exciting ... it’s so cool,” says Shaza, even though she still has to use her dictionary to translate some words in her biology classes. “I am very happy to be going this year.”