Nine months after reaching a population of 40 million, Canada has cracked a new threshold.
As of Wednesday morning, it’s estimated 41 million people now call the country home, according to Statistics Canada’s live population tracker.
The speed at which Canada’s population is growing was also reflected in new data released Wednesday by the federal agency: between Jan. 1 2023 and Jan. 1 2024, Canada added 1,271,872 inhabitants, a 3.2 per cent growth rate — the highest since 1957.
Most of Canada’s 3.2 per cent population growth rate stemmed from temporary immigration. Without it, Canada’s population growth would have been 1.2 per cent, Statistics Canada said.
As an English only speaker, how would I do in Spain? Certainly, I can learn a little, but I’ve always been terrible with learning languages.
Really easily - English is common as a business language and almost all services are available in English (and you can hire someone if you need to navigate something difficult like a real estate purchase or police report). I lived in Barcelona for three months and I am now menu fluent but even before that I didn’t have many issues.
What is “menu fluent?” Like you know enough to order from a menu?
You comprehend ingredients and have enough of a grip on pronunciation rules to form basic statements you need on a day to day “en tarjeta” means (literally) “on card” and is a common way to ask to pay with a credit card “auga” is water and “sin gas” or “con gas” specifies flat or bubbly… “necesito un bolsa” - I need a bag… “Para aqui”/“Para llevar” are for here or to go… “Cuanto Cuesta X” - How much does X cost… “Donde son los aesos” - where are the bathrooms. “Queiro un cafe con leche de avena y dos fartóns” - I’d like a latte with oat milk and two fartóns (a light sweet pastry). That “ll” is pronounced like a “y” unless it’s catalan and you have a break dot like “paral•lel”. “Buena dia”/“Bon dia” - Good day. “Peligro” - danger.
That sort of basic shit - you’ll pick it up quickly. You won’t be able to talk about news and shit but you can do your daily shit.
Not my experience. I had a job offer in Spain for engineering and they told me it’s in Spanish and I should enroll in language courses before coming to improve my Spanish. Ended up turning down more because the low pay