Well, I had a lumberjack shirt on over top of my bunny hug, of course. 
pssst…Mehitabel
bolding mine, but I think Rashak meant that if you’re an American who doesn’t want to hide it, you can probably do well by proclaiming a hatred for Bush 
:smack:
And I’m the native English speaker. Me fail reading comprehension? That’s unpossible!
I saw someone wearing this in Minneapolis a few weeks ago. She didn’t kick my ass, however.
I would never pretend to be Canadian overseas unless I was in a really dangerous situation.
I also would never wear something like the anti-Bush stuff mentioned above. I do hate Bush, but I resent anyone who feels that, as an American I need to prove myself as worthy before I can be treated decently. I hate Chirac, but I don’t ask French people what they think him as some sort of litmus test.
By the way, a Swedish guy once trashed me for being Canadian. This was despite the fact that I never claimed to be Canadian and this occurred in Minneapolis. Go figure.
I do not! I tip correctly! (In fact, one time near the end of my trip to Spain, I was eating with some Spanish friends, and the bill came. I left my usual 15-20% tip, and my friends said, No, that’s too much, and cut it down to 2%. SO either these people were the stingiest skinflints that ever lived, or I had been leaving a trail of very happy waiters in my wake.
Yeah, that’s what I figured, so I made sure to put both a Maple Leaf and a Fleurdelisé on my purse.
Yup. Totally. We enunciate. Whether we’re from Skatchwin, Tronno, Munchryall, or Noofinland.
A few more:
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“Writer” and “rider” are not homonyms.
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“Mary,” “merry,” and “marry” are, however. Except, for some strange reason, for anglophones who have lived their whole life in Montreal.
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Really, really, not “aboot.” If you’re from Nova Scotia, you might say “aboat,” and that’s as far as it goes. What it really is is that we don’t say “abaht” or “abalt” like some places in the States.
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A parking garage is a parkade (if you’re [pretending to be] from Western Canada); a sofa is a chesterfield if you’re over 40; and you’re probably a Grit, a Tory, or a Kneedipper, so pick one (I suggest Kneedipper.)
No, we say it. But you have to know how to use it.
Correct: Heybud, howzitgoineh?
Incorrect: Hi, Doug. How’s it going? Eh?
The “eh?” is always a part of the preceding word; it’s never pronounced separately.
Perhaps the reason we don’t think we use it as often as we do is beacuse we do it without even thinking. I never realized how much I used “eh?” until I visited my sister who was living in Australia at the time. She remarked that it had been a long time since she had heard “eh?” used correctly, and that I was using it a lot. I never even realized.
Hey, don’t forget places like Sudbree, Tunderbay, and Calgree!
Gotta second (or is it third by now?) this one. We don’t say “aboot,” and the only time I’ve ever heard anybody coming close to it is when a friend of mine from Nova Scotia has a few beers too many. Even then, it’s not “aboot,” but as matt says, closer to “aboat.”
This is a source of amazement to my American inlaws. “Spoons, are you a real Canadian? You’re not saying ‘aboot.’” I like my inlaws but I just gotta… :rolleyes:
I’ve never heard ‘Kneedipper’; around here its always Endypee-er.
Yeah, ‘chesterfield’ is dying out (even though there’s still a chain of furniture stores in the Toronto area called the Chesterfield Shop.) But, to me anyways, ‘sofa’ has an alien feel and is much less common than ‘couch’. I blame the insidious linguistic subversion of the expression ‘couch potato’.
A few more odds and ends that my American born-and-raised wife just reminded me of…
Up here, pecans are PEE-cans, never pe-CAHNS. A decal is a DECK-al, never a dee-CAL. And a Toyota Celica is a se-LEE-ka, never a SELL-i-ka. For that matter, the Nissan is a two-eighty-ZED (280Z).
Gutters are by the side of the road, while eavestroughs are what we have on our houses.
You’ve also got to be bilingual in metric and Imperial units, and be able to use them both, often in the same sentences: “The only used car I could find that was both in my price range and would fit my six-foot-six size had 280,000 K on the clock [that is, kilometers on the odometer] and could only start if the temp was over 10 [Celsius]. Oh, and the suspension was shot, so it couldn’t even carry a hundred pounds of stuff without bottoming out.”
Of course, the real mark of being Canadian is being able to understand exactly what the speaker of the above is saying in spite of the two measurement systems being used.
And to be a Canadian, you’ve got to love butter tarts. They seem to be unknown in the US, since my wife said they were a pleasant (and tasty) treat she only discovered when she came up here.
She did not find “Thrills” chewing gum, however, to be a tasty treat. According to her, “It tastes like soap!” Sure, but we all chewed it as kids. If you can speak of enjoying Thrills gum as a child, in spite of the soapy taste, you must be Canadian.
Have you tried her on Nanaimo bars yet, Spoons? Now those are tasty!
(I bought a pack of Thrills gum just for nostalgia’s sake awhile ago. Yup, still soapy.)
Why don’t you just go and move to Canada permenantly? If you are such a pussy that you would pretend to be from another country then America is probably better off without you. Exceptions are made, of course, if you are escaping from Iranian terrorists or something.
A slight hijack, but an example of how not to act abroad can be taken from this past weeks (or any weeks episode I imagine) of The Amazing Race. Basically, the episode consisted of a bunch of relatively wealthy, spoiled Americans running around Africa screaming and insulting the locals and generally treating the country like some kind of amusement park. I was really hoping that some taxi driver would get pissed off, take them into the jungle and take a machete to them.
- un-gawa motherfuckers.
Yes, Nanaimo bars are another treat she encountered. But I think she likes butter tarts more. And pretty much anything from Tim Hortons.
Thought of some more things our American friends can use to pass as Canadian:
Forget the “freshman, sophomore, junior, senior” stuff when talking about your school days. At high school, it’s Grade 9, Grade 10, Grade 11, and Grade 12. And if you’re old enough and went to school in Ontario, there was also a Grade 13. At university, it’s first year, second year, third year, and fourth year. In addition, a university gives you a degree, a college gives you a diploma. If you speak about “earning your degree at college,” you’re definitely not Canadian.
When talking about sports, you have to remember that pretty much everything takes a backseat to hockey. You can like the NFL, but to pass as Canadian, you have to admit that it’s perhaps an easier game than CFL football (y’know, NFL has a shorter field, four downs instead of three to make ten yards, a fair catch rule that doesn’t exist in the CFL, goalposts the players don’t have to avoid during play–the kind of things that diehard CFL fans refer to as “sissy stuff.” Sorry, American NFL fans, but that’s what you’ll hear in our sports bars, at least in western Canada.) MLB baseball is worthy of attention, as long as you can work the Blue Jays into the conversation somehow, and it’s a shame about those Expos, eh? NBA basketball is not hockey, so it barely registers. And NCAA anything is beneath contempt, unless it’s New Year’s Day, and you’re starved for football. Let’s face it, Canadians have no attachment to those schools, the players are not pros, and no matter what NCAA game is on TV, it’s never hockey.
Did I mention that everything takes a backseat to hockey?
Canadians certainly do say “eh” but only in certain contexts. (Unlike the English habit of saying “Innit” indiscriminately after every sentence, declarative or not.)
(Also I’ve known people from BC who say “Hey!” the way I’ve always heard people say “Eh?” - anyone else heard that?)
As far as I can tell it’s like “about” - unless you can do it exactly right, any Canadian (or anyone who’s spent a lot of time with Canadians) will spot it right away.
Kind of like a secret handshake, or something.
Or, what Spoons said. (Except the part about the Thrills gum: most people I know eat it because of (not in spite of) the soapy taste. I love Canada!)
Fellow Canadians should also be aware that the subtle difference between “about” (the correct prononciation) and “aboot” is inaudible to many people’s ears. I established this with a Scotsman, to whom I would repeat the word “About ! SAY IT ! ABOUT!” and he only heard “aboot.” So forgive them, they know not what they do.
Oh, most of them do say it now and then. But then so do lots of Americans. If you try to use it to pretend to be Canadian, you’ll overuse it, and expose yourself.
An American trying to pretend to be Canadian will say this:
“How are you, eh? I went downtown today and saw the CN Tower, eh? So I went up and it was really tall, eh? What a view, eh? Then we went to Tim Horton’s, eh?”
A Canadian would actually say:
“Howzitgoineh? I went downtown today and saw the CN Tower. So I went up and it was really tall. What a view, eh! Then we went to Timmy’s.”
There are plenty of sites that sell F*CK ANN COULTER shirts (not baseball hats).
Speaking of Ann, here’s some advice she may offer the OP:
If you’re out and about with a travel mate and they find themselves in the unfortunate position of getting mugged while their back is turned, all you have to do is point the finger of blame squarely at the victim and ask the assailants if they need a place to hide out for a while.
Are there honestly people so shallow that they’d hide their nationality based on who other people voted for in a national election? Give me a break! If you’re that upset about it, have the guts to become a Canadian instead of impersonating one.
There are plenty of things I don’t like about the American government, but that doesn’t cause me to masquerade when I travel abroad. There’s a lot I like about living here, too.
And I really don’t think we’re that different. Alberta abuts Montana, and I work with people from both sides of that border. The Canadians may sneak in some "eh"s when they speak (and “aboot” too, no matter how much they deny it), but other than that you’d be hard pressed to pick out the Canadians from the Americans in a bar around here.
I’ve done a fair amount of travel outside the U.S. in the last 30 years (Canada, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Belgium, Greece, Kenya, Tanzania, Ugunda, and Ethiopia). If the folks in those countries hate Americans, I haven’t noticed. I have, however, noticed that most of them hate idiots.
When you travel, try to pick up a bit of the language, don’t act superior, don’t compare their culture to your own (unless they ask), and do your best to leave a pleasant (or neutral) impression on the people you meet.
And stop worrying so much.
So what? Anyone who feels a little bit of shame regarding what this country is doing abroad is a pussy? And should therefore get out?
This sort of chest-thumping jingoistic idiocy is exactly why a lot of us don’t want our nationality to be recognized. Folks like you have done such a good job of co-opting the symbols of the country back home that it’s hard to believe people anywhere wouldn’t associate the flag with flag-waving morons like you.
Some ideas from the friendly people at FARK.
And Canadians do say “eh” a lot, or at least those from the prairies do. I know that because I became one of them after 2 years in Saskatchewan: my mum teased that out of me when I came back to Brisbane in a few months!
Yeah, everyone knows it sounds more like “a-boat” not “aboot”. :wally
I’ve had this happen. It’s interesting the way stereotypes reinforce themselves. Anyone who is obnoxious or fat is assumed to be American. I’ve won more than one bet by going up to strangers who my companions were sure were Americans to find out where they were from.
I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I’m American, and I’ve never had a negative reaction to that fact. Anyone worth knowing will judge you on your own merits. I do get tired of hearing how I don’t seem American because I have dark hair, or because I’m not fat, or because I speak their language well. Maybe I don’t get negative reactions to my nationality because people don’t believe me!