Omar Aldhmad and Nawwar Aldhmad

Ayman Aldhmad: Syrian refugees who came to Canada last December, Hanan Alawwad, second left, and her husband Samer Aldhmad stand with their children Nour Aldhmad, 4, from left to right, Omar Aldhmad, 1, Ayman Aldhmad, 7, and Nawwar Aldhmad, 3, while attending an announcement at a building under construction that will house and aid refugees when it opens in April 2016, in Vancouver on Sept. 10, 2015. "Not knowing the language has created obstacles in everyday life," she says, also speaking through a translator. "For example, I'm not able to communicate with my children teachers in school, according to Huffington Post Canada. They try to talk to me and I can't understand what they're saying." As CBC reported earlier this year, wait lists can be one to 16 months for federally-funded language courses for newcomers to Canada. His neighbour Abeer Louaihaq says she and her family "feel like strangers" because they haven't had an opportunity to learn English. Louaihaq and Alradi say they understand that settlement workers are busy, and emphasize they're grateful to the Government of Canada and Canadians for welcoming them. "The main reason that we're in such a rush is because we don't want to feel like the government is paying for all our bills," Alradi says. "We want to depend on ourselves. ISSofBC director Chris Friesen says they're expecting an "arrival surge" of 1,100 government-assisted Syrian refugees in the next 10 days — more than the agency typically serves in a year — destined for communities across B.C. Since Nov. 4, 2015, more than 1,770 Syrian refugees have arrived in B.C., 1,411 of them government-assisted. We want to have jobs, we want to blend in." 1,100 more Syrians on their way to B.C. Settlement agencies will become even more stretched in the coming days. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.