Immigrants and Language Instructor

: Read more: Refugees in B.C. Experts say adapting to a new culture is one of the hardest aspects of settling in a new country, according to CBC. Working on that often means learning a new language — something refugees are more motivated than some immigrants to do, according to Azim Bhimji, an instructor at Vancouver Community College. "Sometimes the refugees are my best students because they have a real commitment to Canada. But one English as a Second Language instructor says many refugees actually do better in his classes than immigrants. They have severed ties with their own country so they are forced to adapt very quickly whereas some of my other immigrants ... it a longer process." Strength from hardship Azim Bhimji has been teaching English for 25 years in Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada classes, a program that is funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. But that wasn't the case in 1989, when he first started teaching. "There were refugees from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Iran, Vietnam. Students in his class come from all over the world, but usually there are only two or three refugees in the class, he said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.