Do you speak to other Brits you come across?
Dec 25th 2008, 12:45 am
#16
Assimilated Pauper
Joined: Mar 2005
Location: Ontario
Posts: 40,018
Re: Do you speak to other Brits you come across?
It's been a running joke for some years with a friend here that she can't introduce me to someone born in Canada to two parents who were born in Canada; she hasn't found one yet. Where are you getting these "Canadians"?
Dec 25th 2008, 12:54 am
#17
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2006
Location: Port Alberni, BC
Posts: 364
Re: Do you speak to other Brits you come across?
We socialise with a mixture of English and Canadians. We spend a lot of time with our neighbours who are mostly Canadian. Can you tell?
Dec 25th 2008, 1:07 am
#18
Truro NS
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 553
Re: Do you speak to other Brits you come across?
Dec 25th 2008, 1:25 am
#19
Account Closed
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,404
Re: Do you speak to other Brits you come across?
What a grumpy bunch. What's all this "they" business, as if you've suddenly got rid of your Britishness.
Dec 25th 2008, 1:45 am
#21
Joined: Oct 2007
Location: Ontario
Posts: 6,609
Re: Do you speak to other Brits you come across?
I do if they speak to me - I don't hide. My OH ALWAYS asks them "Ooh do you go on BE"...and I cringe and slowly move away from him....What a freak!
Dec 25th 2008, 2:14 am
#22
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Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2005
Location: Windsor, ON
Posts: 3,374
Re: Do you speak to other Brits you come across?
That's a fair point - everyone we've met so far seems to have some kind of immigrant parent just about, for example, next door neighbours, the guy has Italian parents, his wife Ukrainian parents. Our landlord, Italian parents, he was born in the UK, but left when he was 2, his wife - Italian parents... Guy who came to repair the dishwasher - British parents, born in the UK and left when he was 9 (now in his 50's). Nearly everyone is from some immigrant heritage, more so than the yanks I meet who can be a couple of generation into yankdom.
Dec 25th 2008, 2:55 am
#23
Banned
Joined: Oct 2008
Location: the GTA
Posts: 3,824
Re: Do you speak to other Brits you come across?
everyone we've met so far seems to have some kind of immigrant parent
Every Canadian, except First Nations peoples, and even them at some point, came from another country or their antecedents did. I know a few whose family goes back 2 or 3 generations.
Every Canadian, except First Nations peoples, and even them at some point, came from another country or their antecedents did. I know a few whose family goes back 2 or 3 generations.
Dec 25th 2008, 3:42 am
#24
Truro NS
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 553
Re: Do you speak to other Brits you come across?
I haven't got the faintest idea what you witter on about.
How are those winter tyres working out btw?
Dec 25th 2008, 4:35 am
#25
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 1,457
Re: Do you speak to other Brits you come across?
I find when I'm out shopping talking to my husband, I have had lots of people come up to me and ask if I'm from England ( I say no- from Wales) but I often end up in a long conversation, a lot of people seem glad to hear a familiar accent.
Dec 25th 2008, 12:01 pm
#26
Account Closed
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 7,284
Re: Do you speak to other Brits you come across?
I get asked where I am from all the time, but then I did when I was in England. People used to ask me if I was Australian, or Irish. I must talk funny.
For me there's a comfort in talking to people from back home, however nice my new friends are there's definitely a solace in being with people who share some common background. I'm lucky in that I have a close friend here who I used to work with back in England (She's Canadian) so I can chat to her and she understands. I now understand more about being an immigrant and why there were so many different nationality clubs and groups in the UK. That said I don't automatically like people just because they are British, and some I have met remind me of the worse aspects of Britishness.
Dec 25th 2008, 12:03 pm
#27
Forum Regular
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 90
Re: Do you speak to other Brits you come across?
It depends on what mood I'm in, it kind of gets tireing having to go through the whole routine of explaining how, why and when you got to canada.
Sometimes its fun, but other times its just plain tedious.
Sometimes its fun, but other times its just plain tedious.
Dec 25th 2008, 2:58 pm
#28
Assimilated Pauper
Joined: Mar 2005
Location: Ontario
Posts: 40,018
Re: Do you speak to other Brits you come across?
They work ok but most of the snowy days have coincided with the need to move large things so I've been driving the Toyota which I think has all season tyres (I should look, people on this board know these things).
Dec 25th 2008, 3:19 pm
#29
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 3,124
Re: Do you speak to other Brits you come across?
In my part of the word it is rare to met a Brit. I probably have met half a dozen since 1962.
Dec 25th 2008, 3:28 pm
#30
Tea Drinker
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: Kamloops, BC
Posts: 5,387
Re: Do you speak to other Brits you come across?
Rich007 has a whole host of British friends, he goes out of his way to find British food shops and spends hours there chatting to all the British customers complaining about the weather etc.
You should see him on the weekend wearing his Ingurland football top, he hopes that fellow Brits will go up to him and start chatting to him.
Isn't that right Rich? oh sorry, you cannot reply can you
You should see him on the weekend wearing his Ingurland football top, he hopes that fellow Brits will go up to him and start chatting to him.
Isn't that right Rich? oh sorry, you cannot reply can you