Country Stereotypes and

Chatterbox: Down to Earth

Country Stereotypes and

Country Stereotypes and Differences!

I recently went on a week-long mission trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan and about 40 of us were Canadians while there were 20 Americans all staying in one big church. I learned that Americans do not have Hickory Sticks or Coffee Crisps and you call Rockets candies Smarties! (Canadian Smarties are like M&Ms but less tasty imo) Food and gas seem to be cheaper there and servings are usually way bigger. Me and my Canadian friends gawked at the 44 oz. slushies that seemed to be at most gas stations- AND THEY WERE ONLY $1! In Canada, well, my area anyway, you can buy $1 drinks at McDonalds and a SMALL frozen lemonade at Tim Horton's is $1. That's considered a sale! It made me so sad to return. (I heard, however, that the 44 oz. drinks were outlawed in New York?- but the 36 oz. and 22 oz. would both be considered Large sizes here I think.)

Some of us spent a whole night arguing American vs. Canadian which was pretty funny! I was wondering what you CBers think of Canada, because I know many of you are from elsewhere. Even stereotypes! Apparently Canadians speak nasally?

Some things that I learned are the East Coast-ish accent- "Ruf not roof"- and that 50 cent ice creams from Burger King are huge.

What do you guys think? 

submitted by Olive, age 14, Toronto, ON
(July 29, 2013 - 3:59 pm)

back to the Down to Earth

The only Canadian stereotype I've found is that you guys supposedly say 'eh' or 'ay' a lot.  I never heard a Canadian say it as often as the stereotype says, though.

 

Also, Canadians are always linked to hockey in stereotypes.  

 

 

That's okay, because Boston has some pretty bad stereotypes, and most of them are true.  The traffic is horrible, and a lot of us do drop our 'r's.  For example, I can't pronounce 'weirdo' properly.  I always say 'weihdo'.  Other than that, my Boston accent isn't apparent unless I'm super tired or super angry.  Most of the people I know say 'roof' though, except one or two do say 'ruf'.

 

Also, the thing about it being less expensive for stuff stateside is the Canadian dollar has like a weird exchange rate in which it is more expensive for stuff in Canada than the US but only by like a few dollars instead of it being, like 4x the amount or something.  That may account for it.

 

About the $1 slushies and $0.50 ice cream thing, that's not normal.  That's just awful fast food places being awful fast food places.  

 

 

Also, I haven't seen you around here in a while, so welcome back. 

submitted by Melody, age 15, Disney
(July 29, 2013 - 11:56 pm)

TOP

submitted by TOP
(July 30, 2013 - 11:44 am)

There are so many stereotypes about Yoopers (a person who is born in and lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan). One day in class, my teacher was telling us about what people who don't live in the UP think of Yoopers. The following are some of them...

1. Yoopers ride moose everywhere: to school, to work and to the store. (This is absolutely positively FALSE! My class laughed out loud at that one!)

2. Yoopers don't have electricity. (Again, false! Yoopers live in the modern age too.)

3. Yoopers don't have running water, thus do not have bathrooms. (False.)

4. All Yoopers go huntin' and campin' in the fall. (Not true, although there are some who do hunt and camp.)

5. Yoopers have a funny accent and typically put 'eh' after a sentence. (This is only part true. Most Yoopers don't have an accent. The 'eh' is more common, but most people don't say it often. An example of an 'eh' sentence: It's been mighty cold up in these parts, eh?)

 

submitted by Teresa, age 14, Michigan
(July 30, 2013 - 12:44 pm)

I've heard the "eh" about Canadians a lot.  Also, someone at my summer camp had just gotten back from Canada and said that they drank milk out of bags.

In my town you can always spot the tourists.  Because they're the only ones wearing tie died shirts.

submitted by Gollum, Woodstock, NY
(July 30, 2013 - 7:21 pm)

@Melody- I personally never say "eh" but everyone else does in my area :D And there's always at least one rep hockey player in a class. Well in my experience. About the fast food places: our Burger Kings don't have 50 cent ice cream here to my knowledge (sadly) but is it normal for fast food places to have stuff like that? And thanks for the welcome, I really missed the CB!

@Teresa: I have a funny story regarding the hunting! One of the Canadians asked a (North-Michiganer) American if they had a gun and she said, "No. I have five." We gasped and she added, "Don't you guys go into your backyard and shoot chipmunks when you're bored?" We said no and she found that weird...

@Gollum: My family doesn't use milk bags because they're too big but there aren't milk bags in the US????

submitted by Olive, age 14, Toronto
(July 30, 2013 - 10:17 pm)

It's nice to see you back, Olive. The only Canadian sterotypes I can think of are the people saying "eh" and the weather being always cold. Then again, I'm the type of person who says 70 degrees is cold and complains about it until it warms up.

submitted by Ruby M., age 14, Somewhere
(July 31, 2013 - 9:34 am)

Thanks for the warm welcome! :D Again, many of us say "eh" except for me because I'm speshul :p The weather is definitely not always cold though. We have summer heat waves (in the late 80s F/30s C) too but not as hot as the west coast states and our winter this year was pretty warm (in the 30s F/1s C) until January when we had a bunch of blizzards and snowstorms and the weather was below zero (C/10s F)

My Texan cousins once told me that they had a snow day because it flurried, is that true? This was in March sadly so I couldn't show them a Canadian snow day- 30 cm of snow I think. Buses get cancelled if the road is super icy but school stays open and if it's below -15 C (5 F) school is still open but we can't go outside for recess.

I was stupid once and went outside in the middle of winter in jeans and an Abercrombie sweater. Yeah, don't do that. Ever. 

submitted by Olive, age 14, Toronto
(July 31, 2013 - 1:21 pm)

It depends what part of Texas you live in, but where I live, yes, snow is so rare that any amount will get school cancelled.

submitted by Ima, age 15, Texas
(August 1, 2013 - 5:01 pm)

Wait, you have recess? We haven't had any since elementary school.

submitted by Ima
(August 1, 2013 - 5:22 pm)

Yup! We have a 15 minute lunch I think then we go outside recess for 20-30 minutes. But in high school there's just a one-hour lunch break and you can go wherever you want. This is standard for public and public Catholic schools but private schools and other districts could be different.

What do you mean by elementary school? Is that K-5/6 or K-8?

submitted by Olive
(August 5, 2013 - 1:19 pm)

@Olive

We don't have milk in bags.  I honestly thought Canadian milk in bags was a myth until you brought it up.  And yes, fast food restaurants often sell stuff for really cheap but it's often pretty much like radioactive and super-unhealthy.  Except for those giant dollar iced teas.  Those are actually really good.

 

@Gollum

I actually like tourist hunting in Boston and Salem.  It's funny because they all have the huge cameras and the fanny packs in Boston.  When it gets to be Halloween time, all the tourists wear costumes in Salem.  However, some Salem residents do too (the loonie ones do it year-round) so... Yeah. 

submitted by Melody, age 15, Monstropolis
(July 31, 2013 - 3:48 pm)

@ Melody

My friend said she once saw some tourists taking a picture with one of the resident hippies.

submitted by Gollum
(July 31, 2013 - 7:35 pm)