Canadian American RV Culture Difference

Veebyes wrote:
Not being either a citizen of the USA or Canada I have gone through most of this thread with some amusement. It is nice to be standing on the outside of the forest looking in sometimes.

How come citizens of the USA are known as Americans but citizens of Canada are not also known as Americans? Don't both countrys form North America? In fact Canada is much larger than the USA. Maybe Canadians have more claim to known as Americans???

Hmmmmm.

Ask any Canadian a string of general knowledge questions about the US & see how many are answered correctly. Ask the US citizen the same questions about Canada, Capital, Leader, sports etc & you will likely get silence. The only thing known about Canada is that cold air comes from there.

Heck, the Canadian most likely knows more the US, provided you don't ask about Hollywood celebrities or sports, than the US citizen.

A sad situation.

The US has Florida where very few speak English. Canada has Quebec where most of them know English but refuse to speak it. Don't those folks know that they lost a war 200 years ago & through the kindness of the English were allowed to stay. Show some respect & appreciation or go back to France or maybe a Louisiana swamp.

On the serious side, Canada is the very best friend of the USA, along with England. Be nice to each other & respect or smile at each others cultural differences when visiting each other.

Further to the American thing. Mexico is of course also part of North America but they are known as Mexicans.

You seem open minded so I'll point out a couple things. Many quebecers don't speak English or for that matter need to speak English. It is a French Canadian culture and day to day life is in French. I have spent significant time in Quebec during my career and it wasn't uncommon to find entire communities with very few English speakers. As far as refusing to speak, I haven't seen that although I have seen many times where the person was just too self conscience to try and then make a mistake. If you ever learn a second language you'll know this queasy feeling you get when you are about to speak in a language that you can't think in. Not fun.

Of the 11 million French speakers in Canada about 6 million live in Quebec. Many live in Canada's only bilingual province, New Brunswick. It is more common to find bilingualism in New Brunswick. PEI also has a high French speaking (Acadian) population. Manitoba as well as Alberta have some comunities that are predominantly french speaking . They are however of course bilingual. Quebec is different. It's history has always been French and the outcome of a war doesn't change that. It is not a bilingual province, it is officially a unilingual province. French.

French and Spanish have played huge roles in the development of North America and the evolution continues. Spanish moved to second place displacing english in the world as far as the spoken language goes. (Mandarin is still number 1). By 2050 it is expected that 40 percent of the US population will speak Spanish. As the Latin Anerican markets continue to open up it will be a necessity for business. Unilingual kids will have a limited job market in the future in the Americas. Functionality in English and Spanish is going to become real important in the future.

I speak 3 and a half languages (my German sucks but is getting better) and without a doubt I enjoy Spanish the most even though I am fairly certain I sound like a moron when I speak it.

Parts of Canada are not that far north.

You beat me to it! I was going to say that parts of Canada are further SOUTH than parts of more than half of the US states.
Dyngbid, I really liked your post, very refreshing from the usual, "I don't know much about Canada, and don't care!" :)

Not being either a citizen of the USA or Canada I have gone through most of this thread with some amusement. It is nice to be standing on the outside of the forest looking in sometimes.

How come citizens of the USA are known as Americans but citizens of Canada are not also known as Americans? Don't both countrys form North America? In fact Canada is much larger than the USA. Maybe Canadians have more claim to known as Americans???

Hmmmmm.

Ask any Canadian a string of general knowledge questions about the US & see how many are answered correctly. Ask the US citizen the same questions about Canada, Capital, Leader, sports etc & you will likely get silence. The only thing known about Canada is that cold air comes from there.

Heck, the Canadian most likely knows more the US, provided you don't ask about Hollywood celebrities or sports, than the US citizen.

A sad situation.

The US has Florida where very few speak English. Canada has Quebec where most of them know English but refuse to speak it. Don't those folks know that they lost a war 200 years ago & through the kindness of the English were allowed to stay. Show some respect & appreciation or go back to France or maybe a Louisiana swamp.

On the serious side, Canada is the very best friend of the USA, along with England. Be nice to each other & respect or smile at each others cultural differences when visiting each other.

To me Canada is to far North, I am not a big fan of cold weather

Parts of Canada are not that far north.

Did you know that Point Pelee Ontario is farther south than the northern border of the state of California?
Pelican Beach CA USA 41.92 N Lat
Point Pelee ON CAN 41.75 N Lat

Did you know that you must travel north from Windsor Ontario to cross into the city of Detroit Michigan?

Strange but true.

Orion wrote:

To me Canada is to far North, I am not a big fan of cold weather

I looked on Google Maps and figured out that Charlottesville would be fairly close to you?
We live in Canada and our average winter temps are WARMER than yours! Our January & February MEAN temps are 43F & 44F respectively and Charlottesville are 34F & 37F! Brrrrr.
I was going to do a comparison of the summer temps. and humidities, but I didn't want to rub it in!;)

Not far off, I think Charlottesville is about 20 miles from here. :)

Shows my ignorance, I really know nothing about Canada, I know it is North, and Northern US is cold, my assumption is Canada is farther North therefore colder. My Father-in-law lives in Montana and it is too cold for me up there.

I will one day get to your great Country for a visit. I am sure I will learn a great deal, and will enjoy my visit.

To me Canada is to far North, I am not a big fan of cold weather

I looked on Google Maps and figured out that Charlottesville would be fairly close to you?
We live in Canada and our average winter temps are WARMER than yours! Our January & February MEAN temps are 43F & 44F respectively and Charlottesville are 34F & 37F! Brrrrr.
I was going to do a comparison of the summer temps. and humidities, but I didn't want to rub it in!;)

Dyngbld wrote:

I hope to one day visit your great country.

I know that Ottawa is the Capitol but I doubt I could find it on a map. I believe it is in Ontario, but not 100% on that. I would imagine if I were to honestly poll every American on this forum that less then 60% would be able to fill in a US map correctly.

Try google maps. Just go to google www.google.ca for us. Up on the black strip of menu options, click on maps. Put in the place you want to check out. & the good thing about google is that if you spell a place wrong, google is going to guess and suggest spellings that might be the place you want.

It's good to guess the province for Canada and the State for the US.

Beats thinking "I dunno".

:W

Paoli wrote:
It always amazes me how little Americans know about Canada.
One visitor from the US told me Toronto is the capital of Canada and after that he asked me who is the president in Canada. :S

I will admit I know very little about Canada.

I hope to one day visit your great country. I will it is on my list of things to do the first year we hit the road full time. I have been to 43 US states and 13 countries. To me Canada is to far North, I am not a big fan of cold weather, I don't know how you all do it. The northern US states are to cold for me. So I guess it will be a summer trip.

I don't know who to Canadian PM is, but really I don't care. I don;t live there and don;t vote there, so your politics are really not something I worry about. I know that Ottawa is the Capitol but I doubt I could find it on a map. I believe it is in Ontario, but not 100% on that. I would imagine if I were to honestly poll every American on this forum that less then 60% would be able to fill in a US map correctly. I say 60% because of the number of full time travelers here. In my experience less then 40% of the people I have given a map "test" to will complete it correctly. Add the capitols of the states forget it only a few can do it.

There are culture differences in the US for North to South, East to West, it is what make life interesting.

With all the countries I have been to, I have discovered one thing, The vast majority of folks just want to be left alone to raise their families, support themselves, and enjoy life. It is a very small part of the world population that are just jerks.

I for one enjoy learning about other cultures.

"Unless they hunt, no one owns a gun in Canada. Canadians like it that way. They think people in the U.S. who are so adamant about owning guns are extreme.

Not true. Many non hunters have guns in Canada."



The "no guns in Canada" pops here often, oddly enough this topic is popular with Canadians talking to Americans when visiting- just this past summer I had four different Canadians ask about US gun laws and three of them expressed their unhappiness with the laws in Canada.
Not my business and attempting to understand a given law there or in the US based on a five minute conversation would likewise be silly. That being said, I do sometimes hesitate to travel unarmed anywhere to include Canada. I know that the majority of both countries are good honest people just as I know that there dangerous people everywhere.
BTW, the last time we went north (trip 10) we found Canadian customs unwilling to admit a shotgun. Sigh, so even the bears, wolves, etc. promise not to bother us nice Americans :-). I was in law enforcement for many years (federal) and the only time I have used a weapon was on duty. But boondocking often as we do I sometimes would prefer to be armed. But I do not carry weapon into Canada if told not to - it is their country. And may the odds be ever in MY favor ...
One other thought about guns for my Canadian friends, it was guns that the British army was after on that faithful day at Lexington and Concord that saw the first shots of the American revolution fired, as a result gun ownership in the US sometimes carries with it a different connotation than in Canada.

Lil Kopit wrote:
Now, there's a place that's really made good use of the rotary/roundabout/traffic circle. The Aussies have a solid circle in various places in ordinary width streets and roads. U-TURN permitted or EASY RIGHT TURN (remember, you drive on the left in Oz). It's really great when you think you goofed up on your direction.

Just discovered this thread. Roundabouts work well when there is an optimum size..Too big and it is like entering a demolition derby. These usually end up with traffic lights.

Tequila wrote:
I, a Canadian, call my electrical power hydro. I always have. My American friends call it electric. Definition- hy·dro
/?h?dr?/

In the Australian State of Tasmania where all electricity come from Dams they use "Hydro" as well.

gitane59 wrote:
Huh?? Absolutely not. It is a rarity to drive through a neighborhood (even on Canada day) and see many Canadian flags flying from private residences

Different here see many Australian flags flying on Australia Day.