Toronto the Good, Part 4: Diversity
I love Toronto for its cultural diversity. There are over 100 languages spoken here. Half of Torontonians are immigrants and another 22% are second-generation immigrants with at least one parent born outside of Canada. *I want Cakes to appreciate that she lives in a big world with many different people and many different beliefs and attitudes. I want her to have an open mind.
I want her to speak more than one language. In this city, she will be exposed to many. I love the fact that we sing Twinkle-Twinkle in Mandarin at our local drop-in.
I want my daughter to be colour blind. There are several children on our street and she is the only white one; where I grew up, I could count on one hand the number of non-white kids I went to school with.
Cultural diversity has many other benefits, a huge one being food. We’re so lucky to have so much fabulous and authentic food to enjoy, from dim sum in Chinatown, to curries in Little India.
Here in Toronto, she’ll have access to cultural festivals, foreign films at the Toronto Film Fest, and music and dance from around the globe.
She’ll have a taste of the world; I hope it will whet her appetite to see it for herself.
*Source: Immigrants in Canada's Census Metropolitan Areas - Grant Schellenberg, Statistics Canada.
Labels: Toronto the Good
posted by metro mama @ 11:21 AM
14 Comments:
i can access your blog just fine, wonder why youare having probs.
Ya, its a rich and diverse and exciting city we live in. we are very lucky.
the food is the best part. what shall it be tonight? I have thai, greek, indian, italian and chinese within walking distance.
Finally allowed into your blog! Holy frustrating!
I love TO for the diversity as well. I think that living in a city like this is how one truly does become colour blind. I grew up with a lot of Asian kids and to this day, when I walk down the street in Vancouver with an 'out-of-towner' (they always comment on just how Asian the population is there) I'm surprised by their observation. It just looks like Vancouver to me.
A city like TO is so wonderful for the same reason: so many cultures, it just looks like Toronto.
This is the main reason I love Toronto. I've written before about my son's take on diversity and I think his healthy attitude is partly because he is from a biracial family but also because of the great city we live in.
And - ya - the "one hand to coun"t comment about who we went to school with - so sad and so true. My husband still feels uncomfortable when I take him to the city we grew up in. Its gross.
Yep. I love this city for the same reason.
I think it is so important to grow up with a sense of the world outside. We have a chance here to expose our children to so much. As long as we take advantage of it I think they will grow up with an open mind.
Does Niagra Falls, the Canadian side count? Hubs and I are taking my son there next week (long story, but the trip is a "gift" so not to be looked at like an horse, and all that)
I adore Toronto, and don't get there often enough. sigh....
I love Toronto. I lived in Rochester most of my life and we went to visit you all quite a bit.
Oddly, my girl will be exposed to more diversity here in the rural midwest than in our urban environment back east. Our neighborhood here is very diverse and I'm glad for it.
Toronto sounds like a great place to live. I would love to visit Canada someday and now that I know there are SO many awesome women concentrated in Toronto, that will have to be a city we visit.
I love living in California for the diversity as well. It's nice to be exposed to so many different types of people.
P.S. This is totally off topic, but how did you get those categories on your sidebar. Did you do that manually?
100 languages! yikes?!
MOTR: yep, I did it manually. It was a pain in the ass but I need to be organized.
I love toronto for all the same reasons,
ESPECIALLY the food!
oh and how cool...twinkle twinkle in mandarin...
lucky cakes.
I love that too. When I grew up in Riverdale there was still a lot of the old greek and chinese and newfie families in the nieghbourhood. My husband grew up in the VERY white bread suburbs of North York, and is suffering major culture shock as he starts work in a more varied neighbourhood's school now. I think it's too bad he never had the chance to eat chicken's feet at Dim Sum like I did.
Great photo! Did you make it? I love the food and the galleries when I visit TO.
I know it's been over two weeks, but I just found this post, and I had to comment :-)
I absolutely love Toronto (and GTA) for this very reason. I'm raising a mixed kid (Russian, Indian, and many other little parts). And this is one of the very few places in the world where it is normal. Because people here are accepting of differences, and not just "tolerating" them.
And we have people from probably every place in the world. Where else is it possible?
Toronto=best city in the world :-)
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