<p>ADad post#180. I will chime in here but first I will say that I am not anti-US by the furthest stretch of the word but I am proud Canadian. It is frustrating for Canadians that we share the longest continuous boarder in the world with the United States and that we are each others biggest trading partners but if you asked the majority in the US to name the 10 Provinces and 3 territories they could not do it but the majority of Canadian could name at least %75 of the US states including their capitals. We study the US and many many other countries in the world in school. I do not blame any US resident for this because I firmly believe it is your education system that focuses all if its efforts on teaching a US focused curriculum whereas the Canadian one is more of the world. Our system is not perfect by a long shot.
We just recently met a couple from a border state Capital city and they asked where we from, we told them and their response was isn’t that where the big waterfalls is. Believe me it took some thinking before I realized they were talking about Niagara Falls, which is only 400 miles away.
My D goes to college in the States and loves it but does finds it frustrating that most US people she has come across (college students) know that Canada is somewhere up there but they aren’t quite sure where there is. I have traveled extensively in the States and have met so many fantastic people. Some of my pet peeves are:
In an American History class my D was the only student to know who was president of the US in 1963, the professor pulled her aside after and told her how embarrassed she was that a Canadian knew the answer when US students didn’t.
Canada is bigger than the US in size (not population) I have had to prove this on more than one occasion. My D has actually shown students that some globes made in the US show Canada as smaller but globes made almost anywhere else don’t.
We do not sleep in Igloos, or use ice for money. lol
Canadian military is known and very well respected around the world for its peacekeeping efforts.
I was floored last summer when some friends of ours from California booked a holiday in Europe and their travel agent told them to say they were Canadians and they would be treated differently. This same friend came to visit us in July 15 years ago and brought heavy sweaters in case it was too cold. She called home home and told her mother that we have colour TV and shopping centers just like them. She IS A TEACHER. I had to show her that the Southern tip of Canada is actually further South than Northern California.
My family can sing all 4 Stanzas of the Canadian National Anthem in French and English (my wife is of German decent) and my D can also sing all 4 Stanzas of the American Anthem. How many of you really know all 4 let alone another countries?
We are not communist just because we have some social policies. </p>
<p>What I am trying to say is that your elementary and secondary education system seems to teach very little about anything outside of your borders.
Reality is that I have close friends from the US that are the nicest people I know but when they come up here to visit it is like somebody gave them a mean pill. They get so angry because we are metric yet only three countries in the world still use the imperial system. I can understand the frustration but is it worth getting angry over then telling us that we are backwards.
Again believe me when I say that I am not Anti-US and love having y’all as neighbours this is not meant as a put down to anyone just a few of what ticks me off just like some things we do tick you off.</p>
<p>What are polar bears really like? Can you clear up the confusion about whether they like Coke or Pepsi better.</p>
<p>Do your companies provide food for your sled dogs in the parking lot or do you have to carry your own?</p>
<p>I’d like to add Canadian to my list of languages. Do I only have to add “eh” to the end of all my sentences to speak Canadian, or is there something else I need to do?</p>
<p>Tongue firmly in cheek on this one, eh. ;-)</p>
<p>I don’t want you to go away without knowing that I totally understand why you wear a karpin. It is an admirable thing. </p>
<p>In researching the karpin, I was heartbroken at the false accusations made against a boy who just earned his karpin. I assume you know the story. What an ordeal he and his family must have gone through. What was to be one of his proudest times became a nightmare, I’m sure.</p>
<p>The problem I have with kids carrying weapons into schools is we are all still human and prone to flaws… as the violence committed by people from all religions in our world proves. It is a very sad thing that some people, on the path to good, loose their way to such evil. Unfortunately, no religion deserves a pass.</p>
<p>Generalizations (and ignorance and rudeness) go both ways though. Out of all of the countries I’ve been to, and it’s many, the hardest time I was ever given, outside of a couple that wanted bribe money (Mexico and Venezuela), was by Canada.</p>
<p>I was on one of my first business trips to Canada and made the mistake of giving the Canadian immigration people at the airport my reason for a visit as ‘work’, which I later learned I should have given as ‘business meeting’ instead. That really set them off. I told them that I’d be in the country for the weekend and that was it. They then hauled me off to a room where they asked me a lot more questions by people with absolutely no affection for Americans. One of the questions was whether I had a criminal record and when I said I did not it was clear that it was hard for him to believe there was actually an American without a criminal record. They then proceeded to tell me they’re sick and tired of all the Americans going up to Canada and taking away all their jobs, and these are supposed to be professionals. This went on for a while but I think I managed to convince them I wasn’t coming to Canada to be employed and take away a Canadian job and then they reluctantly let me go.</p>
<p>Since then I’ve made a lot of other trips to Canada including some vacations so it didn’t turn me off from the country.</p>
<p>To balance this story I once went through an immigration checkpoint in the USA along a freeway with a Japanese friend of mine. This border patrol person could have been trained at the same place as the Canadian one I mentioned above given his manner although he wasn’t rude or unprofessional, but wasn’t very helpful either. My poor Japanese friend didn’t have his work permit on him at the time which is what caused the problem. After a lot of talking I managed to convince him with other documentation that he was in the country legally and he eventually reluctantly let my friend go east instead of sending him back a hundred miles west to retrieve the paper which seemed silly anyway since he still would have been in the country.</p>
<p>Bethievt, you entirely missed my point, I think. I’m sure you are a delightful and wonderful person (and if you were a jerk they might just share their mind even when you are present!), but my point is most Americans have no idea what people really say about Americans when they are not in the room.</p>
<p>In my experience, Canadians (or anyone for that matter), if they know you are American will not tell you what they really think (or feel comfortable saying in a room full of non-Americans). Live in Canada for a decade as a Canadian, travel abroad as a Canadian and you pick up a lot of anti-American sentiment, American jokes etc… </p>
<p>Just today in fact, a british friend wrote “even though I found XX pretty oppressive in an opulent American pseudo-world way”. And she wasn’t referring to a place in the US or Disneyland! </p>
<p>Americans think the world looks up to them, which in a sense is true, but they actually miss how much more complex their image happens to be. It’s a love-hate thing. As a cultural and political super force, Americans/American culture (or some facets of it that are seen to represent the most distinctive features of America to outsiders), also draws attention for comparisons and ridicule (in ways that Americans may not be able to appreciate even if they were to hear it).</p>
<p>percussiondad, thank you for the post. I agree with all you have written and have many similar experiences. </p>
<p>GladGradDad, as someone who has for the past 40+ years crossed the border a couple of times each month, there is absolutely no comparison in the level of obnoxious treatment by Customs and Immigration officials. The U.S. wins hands down. And I’m a U.S. citizen! :)</p>
<p>Starbright’s comments make me smile. I’ve lived here for so long that even many of my friends forget that I’m originally a Yank and so I hear some comments occasionally. I don’t let it bother me. Life’s too short. I do think that we can learn from each other’s experiences, though, and I guess what I too often see is my American friends uninterested in truly learning about Canada. It’s unfortunate because it’s a pretty great country and we do a lot of things well here.</p>
<p>Even though I also share percussiondad’s frustrations, and agree that Canadians get a stronger international viewpoint vis a vis their public education and also in terms of their interest in world news… I will play devil’s advocate here a bit and point out that Canadians can’t be too smug about their knowledge of the US vs American’s ignorance of Canada. There is also at play an issue of scale and also the massive daily yet invisible influence of the internet, American TV news, pop culture (making it far far easier for us in Canada to know of the US than the US to know of Canada). Canadian kids of our generation grew up watching School House Rock…I can swear from dinner party convos that Canadians know more about how bills are created in Washington than they do in Ottawa because of that episode! </p>
<p>To illustrate this effect a bit, ask a native born Canadian to name the president of Mexico or China, or to name a few provinces in either of these countries and you might find they look as lacking in world education as Americans. Despite the fact that China is Canada’s second largest trading partner, and Canadians have shared NAFTA with Mexico for decades and millions of Canadians flock to Mexico for vacation every year. I’m just sayin’. </p>
<p>But having said that, percussiondad and Alwaysamom probably know and enjoy Rick Mercer. Do Americans get to see this show? This is what we are talking about:</p>
<p>percussiondad, in 6th grade, both of my children’s entire Social Studies class was “Canada and South America.” The first half of the year centered around Canada, the second around S.A… And since DD took this course in 5th grade in parochial school,then switched to public school in 6th grade, she wound up taking it twice. That being said, I found the Social Studies curriculum to be very poor, and neither of my kids learned much of anything about other countries OR the US in the younger years. I was always hunting for books /videos/anything to make up for this.</p>
<p>re: post #195
working in the tourism industry , I can relate to your post. everyone who lives in our area has a certain disdain for people with a certain license plate , depsite the fact that most of us earn a living from them
Even when tourists cross the bridge from one town into ours, we have our opinions and stereotypes set in our minds. Most of which is because of their attitudes and demanding tone … lack of manners and also aggressive driving is what makes us cringe</p>
<p>Prejudice is prejudice, whether it is directed at an ethnic group or a geographic group. It really should be beneath us. I think we all know that in our heart of hearts. </p>
<p>Try exchanging the word “American” with “Hispanic”, “Jew”, or “African American.” Would you still be proud of what you wrote in front of your kids?</p>
<p>The only reason this type of mindset continues is it is supported and affirmed by our peers. I’m sure the situation was a similar one back in 1960’s when people thought badly of, and actively demeaned, African Americans. </p>
<p>The Rick Mercer link above is a great example of that. By intentionally misleading (actually lying) to people who have no reason to believe his intention is to ridicule them, Rick Mercer is misusing their faith in their fellow man to affirm to his audience Americans are stupid and deserve being ridiculed. </p>
<p>I wonder how many Canadians would find the EXACT SAME situations funny if Rick were only approaching dark skinned people of African descent. Same exact humor, but it’s not so funny anymore, right? What’s the difference between the two? I personally don’t see any.</p>
<p>Well, I guess I think Americans as a whole have a good sense of humor and can take be poked at by Rick Mercer just like they can take it when Jay Leno does his jaywalking. The main reason Canadians know so much about the US is television. They are bombarded by our shows. It doesn’t go much the other way. Canadians (generalizing here) like to feel superior. When one lives next to the big dog, one wants to poke it with a stick once in a while.</p>
<p>And at our local school, 8th grade spends many weeks learning about Canada. Of course, like many things learned in 8th grade, the knowledge is completely forgotten by high school.</p>
<p>Maikai. I hope you can tell that I am having fun with this now and there is no mean intentions in what I say. I can take any and all Canadian jokes.</p>
<p>Sure if your lucky enough to have an ice cube with a hole in it, it counts for twice as much, a yellow one means you dont pick up after your dog lol:) </p>
<p>We feed lost tourist to our dog sled teams:)</p>
<p>Polar bears actually prefer Dr Pepper but we wont tell pepsie and coke that. :)</p>
<p>To speak Canadian is very easy, you need to learn how to use the proper intonation in the EH!. properly used it can be be an exclamation mark, question mark, a period or almost anything else. The ‘DUH’ we hear from our D’s friends is hard to figure out. You must also learn to throw in a few French swear words that you cant pronounce properly just for added emphasise. OH yes you also need to know when to put a U in some of your words.</p>
<p>On slightly more serious note though I agree that prejudice is prejudice no matter how you dice and slice it. The Rick Mercer clip can be seen as making fun of Americans but if you ever watched the show you would see that each and every week he makes fun of Canadians in one way or another. It is all in the eyes of the beholder as to whether you should be upset or laugh. I prefer to laugh knowing that it was done in fun, it makes the day go by a lot faster and more pleasant.</p>
<p>Onward: I was very proud of my D’s elemtary school in on Sept 11 2001 because they held a full assembly the next day, invited all parents and held a memorial service for ALL that lost their lives, family and friends that horrible day. The opening speach was from a US Marine and we proudly and gladly flew the American Flag at equal heights and in the position of honour right beside ours. </p>
<p>I hope everyone has a great day today, I am feeling terrific, my D turns 21 today, is healthy, happy, a 3.9 GPA student, my wife still loves me and my dog thinks the world revolves around me. Whats not to be happy about.</p>
<p>Pecussiondad, enjoy today! I am enjoying having my grandson visit here. </p>
<p>By the way, I am one of the people who found out they had Canadian citizenship a few years ago. My mother immigrated from Canada in the 40’s and was always sad about the fact that she had to give up her Canadian citizenship when she became a citizen of the US. I wish she had lived long enough to know that she was still a citizen of the land she loved. We always had both flags at our house. I wish I lived closer to my mom’s hometown as I always loved to visit my Canadian relatives, who never made fun of me being an American. :)</p>
<p>The obvious thing that 99% of Americans need to learn from this thread - Europe is NOT one country! It’s definitely not one homogeneous culture either.</p>
<p>percussiondad, I agree about Rick Mercer’s show. I’ve known him for a while and he’s a very sweet man. His poking fun is directed at himself more than at anyone else. It’s unfortunate that Americans may think that his Talking to Americans segments are meant in a mean-spirited way. His show is so entertaining and I always love his political rants that end the show. Happy birthday to your D! Now, I’m off for a walk to Tims to meet a friend for a coffee (Canadians say it that way, a colloquialism, kind of like being in hospital, instead of in the) Our sled dogs are having great difficulty this year because we have had NO snow. So they will lie here in the comfort of my sectional sofa while I walk. :)</p>
<p>Bingo! And, duh! This applies to many countries of the world. When Canada starts dominating mass media, check back with us.</p>
<p>Two Canadian jokes from an American who worked in Canada for years:</p>
<p>The best thing about Canada is the amazing Canadian food.</p>
<p>The worst thing about Canada: too many Canadians.</p>
<p>Finally, keep in mind that Canada is 1/10 the size in population as the US. There is much less to know about what 30 million people do, than what 330 million people do.</p>
This applies to many countries of the world. When Canada starts dominating mass media, check back with us.</p>