'It was very hard': Learning English a struggle for Syrian refugees, and support not always there

When Hazar Najjar fled Syria for Turkey in 2011, she felt she had to drop out of university to save her life.

The 24-year-old arrived in Toronto in July with her parents and younger sister, dreaming that she could go to school again to study computer science and catch up on the five years of education that she missed.

Despite attending English classes offered by the federal government, she still struggled to find answers to basic questions — how to get a phone connection, open a bank account or register for a course at the University of Toronto.

"It was very hard," she says. "I couldn't understand anything."

Feeling frustrated and scared is just part of what many Syrians describe as the newcomer experience in Canada, according to community groups across the country like the Syrian Refugee Support Group and the Syrian Women's Club in Calgary.

With the next wave of Syrian refugees scheduled to arrive later this month, Najjar and the 25,000 other Syrian newcomers already in the country are struggling to understand Canadian culture and learn English in a short time.