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I'm not Canadian, but I can tell you that Americans like to give Canadians a hard time. Canadian's a wussies, Canadian's are stupid, Canadians are boring. Don't worry about Canada, they never affect the world much anyway.
No hard feelings, Canadians, but these are the things people in America say about Canadians.
Come on. Where do you hear stuff like that? I've never in my life heard that sort of anti-Canadian sentiment. A few jokes about hockey and maple leaves and "Eh," sure, but Americans do not say "Canadians are wusses" or "Canadians are stupid."Quote:
Originally Posted by OliveOil_Med
Really, there's not a lot I find. The way that we talk might be really the only difference between us and the rest of th world.Quote:
So I was wondering if anybody could give me the lowdown of any major cultural differences I should be aware of?
Eh? Yes, we do say it. Only not after everything like some people think. Here's an example about how we would use it: "It's pretty cold out, eh?" See?It's easy. Eh pretty much means 'right?' or 'you know?' It turns a normal sentence into a question.
Now, if you story takes place in Canada and your character (magical or non-magical) goes to a coffee shop, it wouldn't be just a normal coffee shop, it would be Tim Horton's. I dunno what it is but us Canadians have some sort of addiction to Timmy's coffee. :p
But yeah, really there isn't a lot of differences.
-Gen :)
Gen is right, there aren't many differences. But Canadians are definitely more like Americans than Brits, so try not to have too much British culture in there.
I don't know too many people who eat British foods. For example, something very common in Britain like Yorkshire pudding, no body ever has where I'm from in Canada. We have what most people think is non-cultural foods like hot dogs and mac and cheese!
And listen to Gen about Timmy's! It's a Canadian jewel and we all are proud of our Tim's coffee!
I'm Canadian and I have never heard any of the above, even though I have lived in the USA for the last 24 years. I have heard "Canadians are so nice!" Yeah, some are, some aren't. I have heard "Canada is so beautiful!" Some parts are, some aren't.Quote:
Originally Posted by OliveOil_Med
But here are a few differences between American and Canadian vocabulary
Napkin -> Serviette
Rubber band -> Elastic
Seventh Grade -> Grade Seven
College - > University (College is generally Community College, which is trade school, or a College that is part of a University, like St Andrews College is part of University of Manitoba).
Freshman, Junior, Sophomore, Senior -> Grade 9, Grade 10, Grade 11 and Grade 12, or (for University) First Year, Second Year etc.
College of Agriculture -> Faculty of Agriculture (which is confusing, I know, since the Faculty is also the staff that teaches at the University)
sofa -> chesterfield
And there are more things too... but they are not huge - the culture is similar to the culture of the States along the Canadian/US boarder. Not so much with the South.
And I happen to LOVE Yorkshire pudding mmmm.... and mince and tatties too.
There has been a great deal of talk about wizarding geography, and I have begun making a great deal of thinking about north America, incluing Canada. I have long thought that America would be considered more of a loose confederation of states, rather than a unified nation the way we see in Britain.
Do you think Canada would be a unified nation or may of a loose confederation? Would there be defined states as recognized by wizards within Canada?
Canada is a huge territory with a sparse population even for Muggles; wizards would be even more sparsely distributed, so I doubt there'd be much need for a separate Canadian wizarding government.
If we assume that most European wizards came to America from Britain along with the Muggles, it makes sense that America has its own government (there's an ocean between them), but not so much sense that American and Canadian wizards would recognize the same border that Muggles do. It's likely that you'd either wind up with one loose government covering most of the continent, or many very small governments, more like tiny wizarding communities who might loosely affiliate with one another but would not recognize any central authority. (Why should they? Why would wizards living hundreds of miles from the nearest wizarding community care about some distant "Minister of Magic"?)
Canada could be a united nation, but it could be a bit touchy. Not necessarily because of the vast territory, but mainly because of the French Canadian portion of the country. The province of Quebec has wanted to separate from the rest of Canada for a long time now (the first sign of that issue was in 1980 during the referendum: Quebecers had to decide if they wanted to form their own country). I'm not saying Quebecers wouldn't want to be part of the wizarding government, but the sovereignty fervents would certainly complain and manifest for their rights (classes in French in wizarding schools, stuff like that).
What about native Americans? Would they want to be ruled by only one government too? Not so sure...
For the other provinces, I'm not quite sure how it would be. I've never heard of another province wanting to separate from Canada, but you never know...
Quote:
But here are a few differences between American and Canadian vocabulary
Napkin -> Serviette
Rubber band -> Elastic
Seventh Grade -> Grade Seven
College - > University (College is generally Community College, which is trade school, or a College that is part of a University, like St Andrews College is part of University of Manitoba).
Freshman, Junior, Sophomore, Senior -> Grade 9, Grade 10, Grade 11 and Grade 12, or (for University) First Year, Second Year etc.
College of Agriculture -> Faculty of Agriculture (which is confusing, I know, since the Faculty is also the staff that teaches at the University)
sofa -> chesterfield
This may because I live not incredibly far from the US border, but...
I'd like to note that, though Grade Seven, Grade ONe, Grade Three and such are far more common in Canada than Seventh Grade, First Grade and Third Grade, the latter is not unheard of, and as far as sofa/chesterfield goes, I would actually say that couch is the most common word, followed by sofa. Actually, the only people I've ever heard say chesterfield are my grandparents. And you do also hear rubber band up here, rubber band and elastic/elastic band are somewhat interchangeable. Napkin is also a lot more common, as far as my experience goes, than serviette. And one more I'd like to add...
Though soda is said in Canada, pop is another word for soda up here.
Just thought I'd mention that! :)
Also, maybe I'm wrong in this, but don't Canadians use milk bags? Instead of jugs, those bags that they put in some sort of container and somehow they don't fall out?