Vancouver Forum: Difference between Canadians and Americans - Vancouver Forum

Incidentally a Vancouverite I used to work with described Canadians as being a bit like an extension of a gradiation within America. i.e. in the south of America there is a certain type of person, generically speaking, i.e. such as those in Texas, and as you move Northwards through the US their characteristic traits diminish and are replaced with others, and Canada could be thought of as a continuation of this gradiation process.Would calling Canadians 'diluted Americans' be seen as offensive to both parties? ;-)

Whoooohooo this is going to be a LONG THREAD!I'll be brief: Culture & food is very similar. Canadians are overly polite and totally insecure about their national identity. Americans are brainwashed patriots who have very limited knowledge and interest about anyone outside their borders, and always looking for an evil enemy to validate their massive arms industry. Not all Americans, just 95%. The other 5% are better educated decent people who are genuinely interested in making the world a better place.

Gradiation, yeah I'd agree with that on on culture. Obviously someone in Michigan will have more in common than someone in Toronto than in, say New Mexico. Although there's also the East-West axis, where people in the mid-west (Dakota; Manitoba) have more similarities than, say West Coast (BC; Washington). Sadly this doesn not strictly apply to the East Coast (except maybe Maine;Nova Scotia).However, the differences evaporate whenyou bring politics into the equation, especially international politics. Canada has a much different place in the world than the US, and that will never change.

Giorgio - where are you from? you have an attitude. its not a typically Candian one as shown in this comment: "Canadians are overly polite and totally insecure about their national identity." while this is harsh (i dare not say true) - its also a very NOT Canadian thing to say/do about any culture, and i don't mean to back you up, although i can see your point. Is there anything wrong with being overly polite? Does it annoy you? I ask coz it really (can i swear?) pis**d me off when i got here and i found it kinda plastic! however - there are always people like you and I around to be bitter and twisted and bring variety. (i like to think we people are around to stir some stuff up and add a bit of excitement! however, i am not a devils advocate in person. much too afraid of people arguing and me loosing!) I digress. er, mr or ms '.' sorry - irrelevant to your question. i would agree with the gradiation thing too (although i am neither canadian or american.) Americans often have a worse/loud/in your face rep, but canadians have the 'sit on the fence' rep. But generally i agree with bad boy Giorgio!

gasp! thank you for your nice, very polite reply. I am from Canada, but have lived in Britain for a number of years, so now I have picked up a cynical streak !! what is wrong with being polite, nothing, I think it is very important amongst civilised beings. but sometimes politeness can get in the way of communication (constantly surpressing views and opinions for fear of annoying someone) and just limits the range of expression. I'm not saying everyone in Canada is polite (thankfully) but there is an awful lot of docile people out there.at least americans will speak their mind and are not afraid to step on any toes.

Well said Giorgio, you have hit the nail on the head.On a completely different subject, you seemed to have developed a DV Giorgio fan club, in our office. The ladies (and a couple of guys [:)] here would like to know if you are of Italian descent and if not then where is your parentage from? We've got a sweepstake going and we would like to close it before 5:00pm today, so please let us know by then (If you are Italian, you're welcome to a third of my winnings and numbers of a few Personal Assistants)....If not, never mind, just keep the forum lively and entertaining [:D]

Damn it!!...Just saw your last post when sending my last one....Oh well, you still have your fan club, so all is not lost...

I am British! :o) Cynicism is the new black.

Yes, I do find that most canadians are too polite. Some would agree with you but then they'll talk behind your back. Not a very nice thing to do. Sort of like "two-faced." Americans will just tell you to your face! (as I heard) I suppose some canadians are sensitive and/or "touchy." I haven't been down to the states to really feel the atmosphere of how those people are like. I've only heard about them. But for me, being canadian, I will be polite when convenient and "get-to-the-point" kinda' attitude when necessary. I believe in being diplomatic.

A fan base, wow! I would like to give all the ladies and the boyz a big kiss. Parentage is mixed European, I can't give it away as it is classified by her Majesty's Secret Service. Good looking, hell yeah, and as I look fairly Italian I believe you deserve all the winnings ! :) :) :)

Ms gasp!: Please send your passport to the Home Office with immediate effect, your citizenship has been revoked on the grounds that you are too polite. Kind regards,David G.A. Blunket Homo Secretary

polite is refreshing. Canadians please stay polite, you are renowned the world over and loved for it!

just a thought, anyone noticed the Armani advertising down the side?

Yeah I noticed. Spooky, it wasn't there when I first started posting (as GA). Google must be monitoring everything we say in the background and collecting it for world domination. Oh well.

I'm not in the least bit surprised, they'll probably send round the men in black to pick us all up one day for not having lives and posting on DV. It's probably a government run site anyway - thought Orca and Co knew too much!

Sorry to divert.Heh, I picked up that advertising too. Especially after I did a search. The dv-muskeeteers must be doing some clever thing. That's why I am using SpybotSD, it is just too scary to get advertising right after you are doing related things. Those cookies stores, they are good and useful, but clean it up often. After all, I read sometime ago that one CEO of some big company, what he wants is to put advertising right in front of your nose, if your PDA shopping list is connected to something global. They wanted to flash the ads on (say) microwave oven. Anyone ever had the funky display phone from TELUS? After TELUS able to put everyone phone on the display, they puts ads right in there. I was so sick of it that I returned the phone (though I got it for free for trial). It was like I am paying for the ads to come and nag me (if I rent those phone after the trial period was over).

I am Canadian and have visited the US a few times but most of my interaction with them has been in Canada.eg Im walking to the local general store in southern Ontario in the middle of August. It's in the middle of a heat wave and like 90 degrees farenheit.Along comes a car with ski's in a ski rack on the roof, pulls up to me and a guy sticks his head out the window and says in a Texan accent "I thought this was Canada wheres all the snow gone?"I think the fundamental difference between us is that Americans expect you to become American - have some apple pie, they know you want to be an American, why wouldn't anyone not want that?While Canadians are more laid back and accept you as you are - we celebrate our differences. So I ask you who has the identity crisis?

I seem to have started a trend with my Canadian liberalism shtick. Let's hope this one lasts...I am yer average Canadian, and have made brief sojourns down to the States. My southern experiences have consistently revealed such striking differences that I cannot fully accept the gradiation theory. Generally, I have found that Americans exude a stronger self-identity, demonstrate a higher degree of generousity, and before 9/11 anyway, appear trusting to a fault.I have come to believe that we as Canadians either have unwillingly transplanted European sensitivities into a North American version, or have been for too long molly-coddled by first colonial business investments, government handouts, and US-owned blue-collar plants, that we find it difficult to know how far we should extend our strut in self-assurance, our hand in helping out the average Joe/Josephine on the street, and how wide to open arms in welcome. This may be a survival instinct, because the world accepts us easier, finds us more tolerable, and (except for Britain) looks to us first for example, when they want to bother at all.Perhaps we are the European version of Americans, as Van Man had suggested, or better, Americans are the North American version of us, who had long ago cut that umbilical cord of Europen culture, sensitivities, and spelling grammer, and forced to define these themselves.I would appreciate an American view of their own identity. I may have been too nice...or too typically self-deprecatingly Canadian.

Different average height and weight.I think Canadian doesn't have as many tall people and as big people as the US.

I can't stand the Uncle Sam's image. Though I believe the majority of American people are honest and nice. But the American government has successfully painted their faces a dirty rich bully look and made sure that everyone everywhere knows about it. I can't stand that.Justin

first off, yeh i got all this advertising for leather straps and whips and chains just after i'd been doing a search for decent horse riding geer... no seriously, i got ads here for BERMUDA after i went looking up some old stamping grounds... haunting....meantime, i live in chicago and phoenix arizona.and toured the usa with a minor league electronica act so have seen much of it.i think to get a finger on the pulse, you gotta read the literature, that's the best insight into the psyche of a nation. going round in a winnebago just don't do it justice.it is certainly the case that once you move to the states there is a 'pressure' from (i dont know where) to become americanthe americans even have an accolade for each other: all-american, which is about the best compliment you could pay a stranger...they also have a epitath: 'triple A' which means all-american-azzholewot i was saying is, i met immigrants in usa from (whereever) and they were really yanki-fied very quickly, and they had 'embraced' the whole 'idea' of being american. my sense is, that if you don't embrace the 'idea' (whatever that is- gotta read the literature to know) then you just don't make it into the scene...meanwhile, in arizona (and other southern states) there is the whole hispanic angle. This is a major social identity group... these are americans. i had 'mex-zona' friends whose grand-daddies fought in world war 1 for the usa, speak spanish, and are still called 'mexicans' even though they drive a chevy and watch the ball game.It is not so simple to sum up.one of my favourite past-times is tracing the vernacular cultural boundaries... i.e 'dixie'where is 'dixie'? nobody has drawn a line on the map to say you are in, or out of it, but geographers have been able to make a map from all the business names with the word 'dixie' in it, and you see they are all clumped down there in the south east.how to describe 'dixie' culture compared to 'yankee' culture. to and outsider, all americans are the same (hence australians and ppl like me lumping them all as yanks) however if you are from 'dixie' being called a yank is about as accurate as being called a mongolian...meanwhile- the bluegrass music of the mountains, stock car racing and MOONSHINE making, are all related. we laugh at those buck tooth country hicks loving their country and western music and stock car racing- but they come from the same folk-culture. the folk culture of the dixieland area is where they did all the moonshine making, and they had to build jalopies to out run the fuzz to the next county (dukes of hazard anybody)it's a whole other world down there boi!meanwhile, i have a friend from the south side of chicago (i stayed in leafy lake forest) who grew up during the house music diffusion...woah! this is a totally different cultural group to dixie, to yankees... you just can't compare...meawnhile when i lived in 'zona, we'd go to 'cal' *(that's what people in phx call california- very annoying, but they all call it 'cal')woah- lisen to frank zappa's 'valley girl' song... you think HE IS MAKING IT UP, but he is not... you need never go to 'cal' again- just listen to the record!meanwhile my advance linguistics dictionary places as many dialects in the usa as there are geographic regions... it says the san francisco accent is related to the BOSTON accent due to the cultural diffusion of the Boston Broughams late 1800'salso - the southern cajun country... how do you put a finger on these people? the old world acadians... you can not just sum them up and have them seem similar to the french speaking americans I've met from Maine(incedently, one of the more fun evenings i spent was talking in french with a dood from Maine in bootiful quebecois joual under the sonoran sun... with all the other people in the party thinking we were from another planet, NO WE ARE FROM THE SAME CONTINENT...meanwhile... where do you put the gullah people... check um out.just google the world 'gullah'african culture in the 'sea islands' off georgia and south caroline... they still speak a creole of elizabetan english and african... they have family and christian names that come from africa and have been preserved for 200+ years... they still do traditional arts and crafts and are closely related to the people of sierra leone much the same way ppl from argentina are related to spaniards... check um out, and tell me you can lump them together with yanks, boston broughams, valley girls, south phoenix chicanos, dixie chicks, chicago meat packers...etc ... just a whole wide variety...also- usa has at least 50 million people who identify themselves as 'cultural creative' types... ie. they are NOT into the big 'american dream' myth- but into wearing birkenstock sandals, driving a vw van, surfing, making arts and crafts, writing and reading left wing literature and discourse, travelling to europe to teach in universities there... etc they split their votes between Gore and Nader in the last election to make the world think america is full of bushists. 50 million is more than all the pppl we have in canada...i worked a bit of NPR (national public radio) in vermont... there are tons of these ppl but we don't hear about them, we hear about the inside of j-lo's earlobe.we haven't even got round to talking about newyork...talk to any jewish montrealer and youll see- hey that's where the new york accent comes from....talk to any peurto rican, and then youll see- hey that's where the new york accent comes from....talk to any irish-italian and then you;ll see- hey that's where the new york accent comes from...it was once said to me- new york is the capital of the world, if you want to go to the capital of america, then go to chicago...on NPR, i would get to hear accents from all over the states... i kid you not the top midwest- minnesota wiscnonsin etc full of nordic scandinavians... and this is so true- THEY DO sound scandinavian a bit!meanwhile... canada, well we have quebec, and then the rest of canada and that'S about it...*(of course that last line is a joke)basically, i could go on and on... culture is a moving target, learned behaviour gets adulterated, nobody can fully put their finger on it. as soon as a book comes out about the cultural diffusion thing= the culture has already moved on...(just listen to brits who've been abroad for 10 years or more- they use 'slang' and informal words that have already gone out of style back home)good luck trying to tack it all down.oh, canadians are (overly) politego down a busy street and listen to what somebody says when they bump into you---(WE)THEY ARE CONSTANTLY SAYING THEY ARE SORRY! i have had to train myself OUT of this habit...

Excellent read Van Man in a Can(WE)THEY ARE CONSTANTLY SAYING THEY ARE SORRY! i have had to train myself OUT of this habit...OMG, I do this too!

that is an excellent read it really shows the diversity of culture in the USA as well as the Americanization thing. The thing that peeves off my friend down the road is that Mr Dressup show - an american produced show featuring a Canadian boy speaking in a Brit accent to his Irish dog. Casey and Finnigan. (my friend has an Irish background).The Americans seem to drop any 'old-world' cultures like a rock and make new ones.

Why, why, why are you people always obsessing over us?We don't think about YOU, believe me!By the way, it's nice to know that in the year 2004, people still stereotype others and make sweeping generalizations......sigh.Don't judge ALL of the people in a country by it's government, and quit painting us all with the same brush.Jesus, we're all North Americans, just relax

Yank,who's obsessing? how do you know all the thoughts we have inside our head...what do you mean you never think of us?what are you doing even mentioning this, then. that'S an oxy-moron!what you mean to say is, "many of us are insular and have no idea what goes on beyond our own valley, or the 'world' series, or 'live aid' because as michael jackson and lionel richie crooned'we are the world' "nobody is dissing america in this thread... nobody is coming down on you guys. you are the one obsessing, it would seem.i think it makes an inneresting topic... not an obsession.if you don't like the topic, ignore it!(notice all the other topics in the forum, beside this one, pick one that you like, and then drop in on the wave dood? what's with the hold-downs... this could be a wicked point break if only you knew how to ride it out- except neh- you don't know how to duck dive so just got caught in the rip- and undertow out to sea- so see ya later sidewalk surfer)

Van Man,Are you saying that there are never any anti-american topics on this forum???I read this forum because I was going to re-locate to Vancouver, and even though I have decided against it, reading here seems to have become a habit, for me.Yes, I meant American's don't often think of Canadians, or at least we don't go around grumbling all day about what A-holes you are.Jeez, give it a rest.YES, all Americans are evil brain-washed capitalists (or as Giorgio said, at least 95% of us).Okay? Happy?You all have been vindicated......peace.

I like Seattle people, they are very friendly. As are most Americans. They are very talkative and are fun to be around. But then there are some that can be arrogant but most are nice, or like people have said they speak their mind. Canadians are more polite than Americans I think, but I'd say we are both nice people.

we get tons of american tourists round near where i live. they are all seemingly cool people, but then we're talking about the ones with great taste in travel plans, right?oh yeh yank, there are some pretty whack anti-american stuff up on this forum, tiz true, but it has to be said- this is just a whack minority... see, here is an opportunity for you to have shown us straight from the horses mouth your impressionsall were are talking about here is impressions after all.i mean, my background, my wavelength, my vibe has all contributed to my impressions of a place.sure there are some negative people filled with rancour that go on tour, come back and say they had an awful time.well of course they did! they took there awfulness on the road.i have great memories of living in the states, even though it was a major adjustment for me that i just couldNt completely handle, so i took off back to uk, but i never left with a bad taste in my mouth.i have great mates from phoenix who visited me in van, and london...got friends in nyc who come up and check me out fill me in once in a while...my fave american friend is a semi famous pro skateboarder from the 80's... now in his late thirties. i dont know noffin about skateboarding- i met him through ex girlfriend. anyway, he turns up in vancouver and looks me up. says he is doing a skating tour round the city, and would i like to join him. He had already linked up with a local 'man about town' who knew all the parks. I had no idea, but we turned up at the parks (i had lived in vancouver 8 years and never hung around the skateboard parks... see, i don't skate and you are not allowed in unless you have a board or wanna look like a betty and just watch)but my yank friend and his buddies lent me a board so i could stand with my foot on it and look like i'm just waiting for the right wave... (i can skate, I just canMt do backflips etc like these pros..)anyway= point is, EVERYWHERE we went my mate was greeted like he was david lee roth with hair. i had no idea. not only that- here was this total subculture- as local skaters latched onto us, wanting to hear about the old days. i was being mistaken of one of their crew, but would just admit that i was there as a journalist. and that's what it was like- being on the road with an obscure jazz band that has a hard core following in each town... so i went down the coast as far as portland with this crew... and each stop was the same thing.there was no borderJUST BOARDERS

Yank - I still think it's stupid if you would seriously base a decision on coming or not coming to Canada on the basis of this discussion forum. Get some backbone, Man. Also, thanks for confirming that the US "doesn't think about us" ... don't we worry, we know, you guys don't think of any country but yourselves. Unles you need to bomb it. Not something to be proud of in my opinion. One thing that the world found IRONIC after 9/11 was the number of stupified Americans walking around saying "why did they attack, we help everybody" - it's that kind of REAL IGNORANCE of the world that your country will have to get over. And electing an ultra-ignoramus like GWB is not a step in the right direction.Sorry if I sound anti-American, I am not, I think America has many great things and many great people, but it also has a huge amount of awful and shameful things. All I'm saying is don't be too proud of yourselves.

Giorgio,the funny thing is I am probably the least patriotic person you've ever met.....a "bleeding heart liberal" and completely against Bush, big business, war, bombing.. etc.I did not base my decision solely on this forum, but it was a contributing factor, to be sure.Anyhow, you enjoy causing controversy......so I'm happy to have had the opportunity provide you with some fodder :-)Van Man....I live in Portland....and I am a "dood-ette", not a dood.I can't speak to how "Americans" are, because everyone is different.Don't like the stereotyping and won't contribute further to it.Ciao

yanky-doodette dandy:great town! great town! check out 'burnside' skate park?must say, i really dug portland...lots of cute little neighbourhoods, and yeh- lots of village voice reading up-on it types like yourself.don't be discouraged from travelling.

van man in a can, you fill this board up with too much of your own personal thoughts and experiences. We’re not all interested in how well versed in cultures or how well read you consider yourself to be, as Yank says.....Give it a rest, already!

"Hi I'd be interested in hearing (especially from people who have lived in both the US and Canada and for a balanced view from people who are neither American nor Canadian themselves but for a possibly more introspective view from Canadians or Americans) about what people think are the difference between Canadian and American people and thie attitudes and behaviour"this was the request, from a person called '.' at the beginning of the thread... I just filled in the blank... ain't my fault you ain't learned how to skip stuff!who says I consider myself anything? phwaffthanks for the laffs

hey we dont hate Americans really but we love to bitch about America er i mean the USA after all Canada is in North America isnt it?and theres a whole lot of countries in South and central America. So techically Canadians are Americans too.Maybe we should just call them Yanks. hehe just kidding.

Not that I'm into mega long posts, but VMC's last one was reasonably interesting.BTW, VMC when you say:"(just listen to brits who've been abroad for 10 years or more- they use 'slang' and informal words that have already gone out of style back home)"Can you think of any such words / expressions ?