Job Discussion Forums

juststeven · Joined: 18 Aug 2004 Posts: 117

My Canadian friends,
What is this obsession some of you have to call yourselves 'North American?' Question

Brief story/experience:
- Working in Abu Dhabi for the oil company.
- Man from Hallifax is hired and enters the teachers office.
- Sitting at break with one Brit, one Irishman, and four Palestinian English teachers. (if you go to the ME and work, be very careful about what you say to the Palestinian teachers, they
will be intrusive and question you with attitude)
- The Arabs ask him, "Where are you from?"
- He responds, "I'm from North America".

The next day, 9/11 happens (or 11/9 in most of the world) and we still must go to work. We get off the bus at the training center (by the way I spelled 'center' you know where I come from) and on our way there is a small market. When he walks in, he grabs a small package of cookies(bisquits) and announces at the top of his voice, "I like these, but the one's they make in Canada are much better. Because, I AM CANADIAN!

It must be difficult, and at times very painful, to straddle that barbed wire fence.

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

Maybe the Cdn didn't think the Arabs knew where Canada was.
Let me guess, you made a big announcement that YOU ARE AMERICAN to everyone in the market. No?
Canada is part of North America in case you didn't know. Don't you know it is a national pastime of Cdns to tell everyone they aren't Americans? You can guess why that is so. If I was living in the Middle East, I'd make darn sure people knew I wasn't American.

GambateBingBangBOOM · Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 2021 Location: Japan

In a lot of countries people think of nationality in terms of "race" (Japan being one of them). Most people want to learn "American English", and plaster US flags on everything. The fact that there are many different varieties of English in the US doesn't seem to bother people here mainly because a lot of people have severe difficulty telling the difference between an American accent and one from anywhere else, to the point where a Japanese L1 teacher of English who has been teaching for 15+ years couldn't tell the difference between an English speaker from Manchester, England and an American newscaster from CNN. It's all about appearances and the brand recognition of the different countries, which is connected to the appearance of the flags (red and white stripes, coincidentally, are used to cover the walls for celebrative occasions like graduations in Japan) .

A lot of linguists talk about North American varieties of English because there is so very little difference between Canadian English varieties and American English varieties that people from the US assume I am also from the US until I tell them I am from Canada. And I've mistaken Americans as Canadians once or twice, when I get introduced to too many people at once and forget who is from where.

So yeah, it's difficult to be on the one hand a North American (meaning an L1 speaker of a North American variety of English) and yet at the same time not American (it's surprising how many people do not know that North America is not just New York, New Jersey and PA et al). Canada does not have the kind of brand recognition that the US does and people either love or hate the US but generally seem to either not really care about Canada or have the opinion that it's a giant forest covered in snow 24/7 12 months a year.

Aramas · Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 5:02 am Post subject:

That was an awful lot of words with which to say "People are stupid". Smile

lagerlout2006 · Joined: 17 Sep 2003 Posts: 985

Did you here this somewhere? It's actually a joke--a parody of Molson beer commercials.

Never EVER heard of a Canadian insisting they are "North American."
Aboriginals maybe.

valley_girl · Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 6:12 pm Post subject:

I never define myself as North American unless I am discussing culture. When asked, I say that I am from Canada, always.

Side note: It sure seems like there's no pleasing people on this site sometimes. If we claim to be "North American" and not Canadian (which is accurate...we are both), someone from the U.S. has a problem with it but if we wear a maple leaf on our backpack/suitcase/jacket, someone else from the U.S. has a problem with that. What gives? Confused

you forgot Poland · Joined: 30 Oct 2004 Posts: 13 Location: AB, Canada

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

texastmblwd69 · Joined: 25 Sep 2004 Posts: 91 Location: Seoul, South Korea

I may be mistaken, but aren't Canadians and Americans frequently lumped together in standard Mexican Spanish as "norteamericanos?"

Boy Wonder · Joined: 29 Mar 2004 Posts: 453 Location: Clacton on sea

American...Canadian..these days amounts to pretty much the same thing.

If Blair is Bushs poodle then Paul Martin is an obedient little hamster...

French Canadians are different and a race apart....but outside of Quebec the mentality...and social awareness of Americans and Canadians is about as different as Geordies and Londoners.

Welcome to Toronto Airport ...home of Bushs 52nd state.!!!!

carnac · Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 7:24 pm Post subject:

GambateBingBangBOOM
“it's surprising how many people do not know that North America is not just New York”

It’s not??? You’re just kidding, right? Shocked

texastmblwd69
“I may be mistaken, but aren't Canadians and Americans frequently lumped together in standard Mexican Spanish as "norteamericanos?"”

By the polite ones, yes. Usually, though, we’re all just “gringos”. Wink

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Sinobear · Joined: 24 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269 Location: Purgatory

My students were given a world map. They didn't understand "United States" and kept asking where America was. It takes a fair bit of explaining to get them to understand that the U.S. is part of North America, which is part of the continent of America.
To the OP, I think maybe you just have a d**khead on your hands versus a 'normal' Canadian.

Cheers!