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North Americans

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by Techno Kid, Jan 29, 2014.

  1. Techno Kid

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    How similar do you think Canadians and Americans are?

    I think that individual regions tend to be more different than the two countries are as a whole. What I mean is that for example people in Alberta are as different from people in Quebec as New England folk are from folks in the deep south. While people in the mid-west and Ontario are VERY similar.

    I'm asking this because we Canadians seem to like to feel we are "better" than Americans while constantly interested in what is happening in the US at the same time. :/
     
  2. Data

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    I feel like the English Canadians are pretty much just Americans that live under a different government. Beside the way Canadians talk, I find many of them are just like my fellow American friends. My friend from HS Jonathan was remarkebly "normal" for lack of a better term, until he said "Do you guys want to eat outside?" :grin: Then we all knew he was Canadian. On the other hand, my friend from MN spoke funny too...

    If I was forced out of the US and had to live elsewhere, I'd go to Canada because it would be minimal culture shock.

    ---------- Post added 29th Jan 2014 at 01:25 PM ----------

    Oh, and Davidsfarm on YouTube is just like a Southern redneck until you hear him say he lives in London, Ontario. He's a beer drinkin, car fixin, Confederate flag wavin redneck.
     
  3. Harve

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    I can barely tell the difference between the way a Canadian from anywhere west of Quebec speaks and an American from, say, Iowa. There are of course differences but coming from an area where going 100km in any direction gives a completely different accent, it's pretty strange.
     
  4. Skov

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    Living in the northern part of the midwest and Minnesota, I can see that our culture is pretty similar to the Central parts of Canada like Manitoba, western Ontario, and Saskatchewan. I feel like I share more similarities with those Canadians rather than Southerners or East Coasters. My cousin lives out in Seattle and I think the people out there are pretty similar to people in Vancouver.
     
  5. malachite

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    The English Canadians, I've always thought were much nicer than us Americans. The French Canadians, whom I've had plenty of dealings with tend to be more dickish.

    ...dickish...is that word? Well I'm going with it.
     
  6. MattB

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    Even though I'm not North American, I have lived (studied) in Canada (Ontario and Québec) before and I know many Americans, so I'm going to try to describe what I have seen and still see, as a foreigner, based on my own personal experiences...

    Americans and Canadians (especially English-speaking Canadians) definitely share many things in common, as they are usually submitted to the same cultural forces (such as television, news, societal values, etc.). The common language, the geographical proximity and the big American influence in Canada also contribute to the existence and maintenance of such similarities.

    To me (a non-native speaker of English), Canadians from British Columbia and Americans sound very similar, whereas those from Ontario, the Maritimes and Newfoundland and Labrador have a different and very characteristic accent.

    I personally find Canadians to be a bit more accepting towards LGBTs than Americans. I reckon that one reason for this might be the fact that Canada has a more secular society than the United States.

    As for Québec ( ), it clearly shares less similarities with the United States than the rest of Canada. The language plays an important role in keeping this distinct feature of Francophone Quebeckers, as it shapes the way we think and communicate. Culturally speaking, I find Québec very similar to my own country (Brazil), just much more developed. Perhaps due to Québec's Latin roots, I feel that I can relate more to its sense of humour, social etiquette and the way whereby interpersonal relations are built than to those of the English-speaking parts of Canada. In short, when I was in Ontario, it was lovely, but I always had this latent feeling that I was an outsider, whereas in Québec it felt like home.

    Amongst the Canadians that I have met, I found Quebeckers to be more accepting towards gender issues (especially LGBTs and women's rights) than other Canadians, and to have a more social democratic view of the world.
     
  7. apostrophied

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    No but really, we're not *that* horrible... I swear!! Lol.

    I think that the American and Canadian mentalities may appear to be similar on the surface, but if you dig deeper, they are very different (in most cases).
     
  8. Browncoat

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    Eh, it's the same going the other way with British accents. Generally speaking no one here realizes/can note that there are any more than English, Scottish, and maybe (but probably not) Welsh. If you lived over here for a while it would be apparent.


    I presume there are large differences in culture and attitude when you start digging. On the surface we're both just privileged, relatively rich people (in comparison to everywhere but Europe) - taken as a whole, anyway.
     
    #8 Browncoat, Jan 29, 2014
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2014
  9. AudreyB

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    On the other hand, Mexicans are so dissimilar to us Northern barbarians they're not even included in the continent of the subject title. :lol:
     
  10. AwesomGaytheist

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    Since my boyfriend is actually half-Irish thanks to his dad, he has a very interesting accent. We mainly tease each other that you spell everything wrong. The one thing that caught me off guard is that someone is in hospital. Another way American English makes more sense-they're in the hospital.
     
  11. Rakkaus

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    I don't think there really is much difference between Canadians and Americans.

    People on both sides of the border like to pretend they are different and superior of course. Right-wing jingoistic Americans think USA is #1 and could obviously kick Canada's ass in a war, so they'll say Canadians are weak, pussies, etc. Leftish Canadians meanwhile will think of Canada is superior because it is not as militaristic and jingoistic, and think of Americans as bullies, crazy cowboys, etc.

    But I think these kinds of stereotypes are inaccurate, and really aren't widely held.

    I agree that different regions between both countries have more similarities and differences than the countries as a whole. After all, our national "border" is just an imaginary line on a map, it would make sense that people who live closer together are more similar even if they are technically in different countries.

    For example, the Northeastern United States, especially New England, which borders Canada, is much more similar to Canada than it is to the Deep South. There is a lot of cultural diffusion across the border.

    Lots of people from Vermont go to Montreal as the closest city when they want to experience the excitement of city life (or need something that is only available in a city), meanwhile lots of Canadians travel to Vermont as a summer destination. Coincidentally Vermont is the most left-wing state in the U.S., it voted 67% Obama twice, McCain and Romney took only 30% of the vote there. Vermont is the only state to be implementing single-payer universal healthcare, many towns in Vermont passed resolutions during the Bush years calling for Bush to be impeached over the Iraq War. There are also a lot of Francophones living in Vermont and Upper New England. So I would say parts of the U.S. are more similar to their neighbors in Canada than to other parts of the U.S.

    And you seem to have forgotten that Mexico is part of North America too. :grin:Mexicans are North Americans, even if they share far more culture with Latin America than with the rest of North America.
     
  12. greatwhale

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    I am as North American as can be.

    I was born in Mexico (which is, despite what everyone thinks, still part of North America), have lived in Canada the vast majority of my life and have worked as far north as Hudson's Bay.

    I have travelled extensively in all three countries, north and south, east and west. One thing for sure is that Canada is a very diverse set of communities. Yes, it is quite easy to confuse an Anglo Canadian with an American, but there are very real, if very subtle differences between the two.

    Being from Quebec has its own flavour as well, I speak the language like a native French-speaker, which seems to unnerve some (I've been called a chameleon more than once). Heck, it's where I'm from...
     
  13. Browncoat

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    Well for that matter I can note that both of you forgot the nations South of Mexico and in the Caribbean. So the title was mislabeled, whatever :lol:.
     
  14. AudreyB

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    You expect my mind to wander that far south og the Rio Grande when I can't even walk a straight line rigght now? :lol:
     
  15. Techno Kid

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    Yeah sorry about that guys... I should have acknowledged that Mexico, the Caribbean, and Greenland are also part of North America. I was just keeping the topic to the US and Canada because of the stronger cultural connections.
     
  16. Both are very diverse, that's for sure.
     
  17. Argentwing

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    I'm from Florida so all I know about Canadians I learned from Degrassi XD. But judging from that, the only discernible difference is the *slight* accent.

    I might be mistaken, but do Canadians tend to be slightly more liberal?
     
  18. Techno Kid

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  19. gravechild

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    Of course there are going to be more similarities between Americans and Canadians than say, Americans and Bhutanese, or Canadians and Algerians, given their shared cultural history and close proximity. Sure, there are going to be differences across regions, but all-in-all, we probably look very similar at first glance in the eyes of foreigners.
     
  20. mbanema

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    I'm a dual citizen and I don't think the differences are all that significant. It's probably easier to say since I usually go back and forth between Boston and Montreal which aren't very far.

    On average, I think Canadians are more liberal, more patriotic (excluding Quebec), and a little bit more polite (the overly-apologetic stereotype is pretty accurate), but that's about it. To me walking around Toronto feels no different from walking around Boston.