Iginla

24 hour garages that you can walk into and not be served through a hatch at 0200.

Took me a while to work out that there was something strange going on.

yonk

Different celtic language....welsh is different again.

Iginla

Actually they're very similar to each other and it is quite easy for the two to converse both verbally and in writing.

Welsh is completely different and is closest to Breton (from Brittany in France) where they can have small bits of verbal conversation but are completely different in written form.

Then you have Cornish, Galacian and Azurian (sp?)

willmore

Great.....really interesting......thanks for the info......

I had no idea that there were so many different gaelic languages....I knew about Irish, Scottish and Welsh......

Any more fun tidbits?

willmore

[QUOTE=Grah]Well I don't if its "Canadian Idiosyncrasies." or immigrant Idiosyncrasies.

Have you seen all the "Polish Canadian", "Portugeese Canadian", "somewhere else" Canadian Legions. In the UK I've seen British Legion can't say I've seen a straight forward Canadian legion. Mostly you'll find more than 3-4 generation European Canadians ( not French) will speak English all the time and consider themselves Canadians but others still seperate to their Global ties, I think it must be the kids that grow up with more and more Western style freedoms that merge the culture boundaries. But once the school loses that Multiculture mix it reverts back to the majority culture.

My polish grandparents/dad after moving to Canada, spoke a combo of polish/english/russian (once they learned english) all the time and even after we moved from Winnipeg....when my dad spoke to his parents, it continued this way until the day my grandparents died. However when my grandparents went shopping in the polish district of Winnipeg, it was completely polish - no english spoken...so I could never understand what they were saying.

Guggler

Ah'm thinkin yon Gaelic isnae muckle uised in Ireland ony mair, deed some wid ee'n say it wiz deein' oot!! In the counties Antrim an' Lunnunderry some fowk uise the Ullans leid, a kynd o Scots tongue, 'no like the Gaelic at aw.

As fair as hou alike thae twa Gaelics air, Ah'm no awfy sure. Wan thing Ah ken - they baith cry 'Slainte' when sirplin' thair Guinness!!

Iginla

Cheers, thanks,

A tidbit?

Well of the languages I've mentioned some have their own pipes that they consider traditional.

e.g Scotland has the Bagpipes, Ireland has the Uileann (elbow) pipes, Brittany had the Breton pipes (or biniou), and Galicia has surprising enough the Galician pipes ( I recommend a Carlos Nunez album )

Don't ask me about the Northumberland or Bulgarian ( i had a friend that would turn up to the pub with them) pipes.

How do I know this? I used to go on my holidays for several years running to Brittany (Lorient), on the west coast of France for a festival and celebration of Celtic music. It centered on pipe and traditional music, song, dance and craic of the Celtic nations.

http://www.festival-interceltique.co...il_english.php

A great weekend where beer is best bought from the supermarket.

Out of interest the local Bretons seemed to have a habit of calling the Welsh "Go to bed earlies".

To Guggler:

The Irish language is still strong and making a massive comeback in the North thanks to the British govn. finally deciding to subsidise its teaching. deed its live n kickn. It is still the primary language in the Gaeltacht parts of Donegal right down the west and around and up to Dublin.

Having said that I must admit that reading Irvine Welsh was no bother to me although I had to guess some words whereas I know "yins that had big bather wit it"

cello

Just outside of Ottawa we used to partake in Meadow muffin throwing competitions!

pdarwin

The number of Canadians who say "I'm Irish" yet were born and raised in Canada, as their parents were, and have never even visited Ireland or even drunk Guinness !

Guggler

Aye, yon Welsh fallae's unco interess'in. Hiv ye read his beuk cawd 'Glue'? Verra guid!! He's frae Leith, ye ken. D'ye ken 'The Leith polis dismisseth us'? (tae be tried efter a wheen of Mcewan's)

Iginla

You should visit Boston!

canuckfcuk

In Canada "how's it going?" is more common (although it's also used in the States). "How are you doing" is more American (although it's also used in the States). Answering with "good" is common on both sides; and wrong! lol.

MarkS

Here's some others:

1) Canadians never seem to use their car indicators when turning.

2) BBQs in -25 weather. When I first arrived in Canada I went to a buddy's house and he said, "I put some burgers on the Q". I replied, "HA HA very funny make fun of the British guy it's -25 out". He said, "Err no i'm not joking" and then gestured out of the screen doors and sure enough, there's another guy flipping burgers, with his coat, boots and mitts on.

3) They seem to be obsessed with square footage. Example, "My new place is aboot 2000 square feet, how big are houses in the UK?". "Err....I have no idea, i've never checked".

4) Always take their shoes off when entering someone's house.

5) Seem really interested in the UK but then ask questions like, "where in England is Scotland?....or I thought Scotland was an island......or aren't Scotland and Ireland joined together...or isn't Britain and England the same......or Inverness? is that close to London?

canuckfcuk

Toilet is considered rude here. They never ask for the "toilet" (unless they're just with a bunch of close mates); it's always 'restroom', 'bathroom', or the very Canadian 'washroom'. My friend told me that 'bathroom' is what you have in a house, i.e., it has a bathtub in it. I've never actually seen the word 'bathroom' in public; it's always 'washroom' ('restroom' also appears in restaurants). When I wanted to ask a hostess at a restaurant where the toilets were my Canadian friend stopped me as I was getting up from the table and made sure I didn't ask for the 'toilet' but rather the 'washroom' or 'restroom'.

Lol.

Glaswegian

That's one of the things I'm getting to enjoy ... I remember when Canada purchased that second hand sub from the UK and it broke down ... our local radio station reported it was adrift in the sea between Scotland and England ...

Don't even try to explain the UK ... well it's four countries, well actually, one is really a bit of Ireland, but that's a long, very complicated story, but for all intents and purposes all four countries are actually one country with one government.