Canadians 'eh'......
 

Example.

I was once asked,
"Do they have pizza in Scotland?".... :eek:

"Do they have lakes in Scotland?" :nod:

re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

An American once referred to Canada as being overseas.

re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

Oh good grief, we know you’re not happy here, but that’s a silly and provocative thread title. I’m sure we can all find examples of ignorance around the world. Many Brits are dumb as they come too you know.😉

re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

A joke I heard was that a Trade Union in the USA with one branch in Canada called itself "International". Was it The Teamsters, or UAW ?

re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

If someone is living in Hawaii, or America Samoa or Guam then I suppose Canada is overseas for those folks :rofl:


I don't find Canadian's any less ignorant than anyone else I have met, sure Canadian's know more about the US than American's do about Canada, but it just stems from Canada's obsession with the US more than anything else, most American's don't live near Canada, and Canada isn't something they concern themselves about.

Canadian's are just like anyone else really, people tend not to know a super ton about the world in general.

Upside to working in hotels and airlines you meet people from all over, and get to answer some silly questions.

re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

It's not the nicest thread title is it Ann? Especially since the OP only gave two choices to describe Canadians, ignorant or stupid. Maybe he should pop into a bar and ask the Canadian locals which one they are (hope someone takes a video) :lol:

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

it is not provocative now :sneaky:

they were living in NJ

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

Since Canada is a country then it is International.

Also with watching so much British television on Brit Box and Acorn, I find that more Brits than Canadian use the "eh" at the end of the sentence. And yes, I'm married to a Canadian.

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

We say eh, but we don't say oot. That's a Scotch thing

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

Characters in films and on TV flag their being Canadian by saying "aboot". I've never heard it real life but the idea must have some sort of root. Perhaps William Shatner had a speech impediment causing him to say it and now it's seen as a national characteristic.

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

When some Ontario folks say about I hear aboot, but it seems mostly to be the national news folks, Lloyd Robertson on CTV often it sounded like aboot to me.

In BC those born and raised in Southern BC, sound the same as Washington folks.

Outside of TV shows or movies, don't think I have heard anyone say eh in real life.

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

The local theatre company used to hire young women from Ontario as artistic directors and most of them had a drawl I called the "artsy-fartsy Toronto theatre accent" I assume it still exists.

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

Fer sure, eh?

Canadians tone it down a lot these days in big cities, and for professional / international audiences, and recent Canadians may never have had the exposure to the "hoser" accent at all.

But there's a reason why Bob and Doug McKenzie, of "Second City" fame, became iconic and beloved Canadian comedy characters. And a lot of it had to do with their backwoods accent and vernacular, reminding many of country cousins, past and present.

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

How to grow a mouse in a beer bottle to get a free case: Wisdom for the ages. :lol:

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

:scaredhair:

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

Nah - now the 'beerhunter' skit - that is truly hilarious!

My Uncle definitely used to use 'eh' a lot (so perhaps generational?). I have often heard 'aboot' but pronounced more subtly - more like abouwt - quite distinctive when you do hear it, but not now widespread.

It's a bit like the 'definitive' test for whether someone is a New Zealander or and Aussie - say 'sex' - NZ pronouces as 'sucks'!

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

Ya gotta put 'em in when they're real small, and feed them.

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

I was too young so don't remember this SCTV, but watching a few on youtube, quite funny.

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

My brother in law (in the UK) asked me "so you can go swimming in the lakes in Canada?" I say yes, "we do it all the time" he says, "with a wet suit"? .. Me: "err... no just in your swimming trunks..." his reply oh I didnt know it was that warm and clean".... and my brother in law certainly isn't stupid!

People in who live and one country don't know much about others, thats why that saying "travel broadens the mind" (it is so true)

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

Just wait until you hear about the Brit who flew to Toronto to see the bears and mountains of Canada. :lol:

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

I knew someone who got kicked out of the RCMP for riding his horse through a nurses residence in Ottawa. That's fairly Canadian.

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

😀😀best we ever got was 3 engines worth of firemen to rescue us from burnt toast

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

It has always been a Brit who has asked the following questions, and getting my replies ......

Them: Where do you live?

Me: In Canada

Them: Oh, my aunt/cousin/sister lives in Toronto. Do you know her? She works in a shoe shop.

Me: Unlikely. Canada's a very big country, and we don't live in Toronto

Them: I thought everyone would know everyone else there.


DOH!

Mind you, it was Texans who asked did we live in igloos and have dog sleds.

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

When I was a teenager I worked in a hotel in Perthshire and we used to get a lot of coach holiday tours stopping for lunch. Mostly it was retired people from the UK but we also had Canadian and American tour parties. Even at that time we were able to distinguish the Canadians from the Americans, not by their accents, but by their clothes. My goodness, Canadian retirees in the 1980s had a unique dress sense... polyester central, tartan trousers, shiny jackets, badges, baseball caps... it was like a uniform.

Mind you, it was an American southern chap who proudly told me, "Mah ancestors came from Loch Ness!"

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

I've had an American compliment me on 'how well [I] speak the language'. Not sure whether he assumed I was Canadian or British (my accent is more the former, given my early upbringing), but it was hilarious either way.

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

Yeah fair point. The title did come across worse (written), than what was intended.

But, "do they have pizza and lakes in scotland?" C'mon

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

I work closely with a suburban Canadian, Oakville Woman, Scottish parents, high school in Oakville, then commuted to the university in Toronto. Sometimes I wonder if she's a person or a caricature of suburbia. Last week we chatted (by Skype or Teams or Sametime) about Rogers and the way they cheat on their billing

"it's their corporate ethos, innit?" I typed.

"You're such a wordsmith" she responded

"Eh?"

"Ethos, how do you know the word 'ethos'"?

The conversation moved on to Trump and I said I hoped there's a lamppost in his future and then I explained that was a reference to Mussolini and, when prompted, that he was a dictator in Italy. My colleague asked how I knew that and I guessed I originally learned it in school and she asked if, in the UK, "students" were taught about things that happened outside the UK.

At this point I was tired of conversing with the token cradle but later I was reminded of my children complaining that, since there's no history in Canada they had to study the Plains of ****ing Abraham every year and me asking them how come they didn't always get 100% if the material was always the same.

Oakville Woman is nice enough and she doesn't need to know about anything that doesn't happen in Oakville but it's a bit limiting that, if you want to talk to someone here who has a broad knowledge of the world, Mennonites are the best bet. Informed, but smelly.

Granted, I don't suppose the cast of TOWIE could manage the names of three famous dictators between them but there does seem to be a lack of focus on anything besides the US, and Canada, in Canadian education.

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

What I find most disturbing is that she attended, and presumably graduated from university. I think in my old high-school class of '72 we received a well rounded education in world history and affairs, but acknowledge that it may have been going to the dogs already. In the late 60's and early '70's my mother worked for the provincial government, and while she was secretary to the minister of education she received letters from teachers all over the province. She mentioned one evening that she was tempted to correct the spelling and grammar and send them back with a mark on the top. For what it's worth, I've met some incredibly stupid people from the UK, but they are definitely in the minority.

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

UofT isn't so bad, at least not the main campus, it's in central Toronto so one would be exposed to a range of people and news outside the school if not within it. People who went to Waterloo really seem to have had their brains vacuumed.

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

Quite understandable, the really stupid ones don't tend to go anywhere, so you have only met Brits with the gumption to travel. Be under no illusion that the UK doesn't have it's fair share of morons.

Similarly, most Brits in the UK have a very positive view of Canadians. But, likewise, that's because they haven't met so many of them :)

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

My high school history classes consisted of US history, Mexican-American history, and world history which really consisted of lightly touching 1 major topic in a handful of countries.

I do suppose there isn't sufficient time to teach in-depth history about the whole world, so the education people have to decide what is most important.

We learned nothing really about Canada, but it makes sense, I went to school 12 miles from the Mexico in an area that was part of Spain then Mexico then the US, so makes sense Canada wouldn't be on the topic for history, the British and Canada played no real influence on the history of the area and majority of students in my school were Mexican or Mexican ancestry.


I never excelled in history, required too much memorizing random things, something my brain does not do well with such tasks, but I passed because the school needed to maintain their high % of graduating students to keep their funding up.

The politics of education when stats are more important than actually educating.

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

In the 1970s my brother met someone in the pub who was over from Canada. "I wonder if she knows (name) who moved there 15 years ago" says his girlfriend.
"Don't be daft" says big brother.
He was wrong. :rofl: They knew each other in school.

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

It's an exaggeration on the clipped vowel sound that "some" Canadians use; so phrases like "out and about" sound more like "oat and a boat".

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

Yep, agree with that!

Re: Canadians 'eh'......
 

Yes I can hear it these days. It's not quite the same phonetic sound as when we type 'aboot', but it is something like that. Anyway, different from British and American 'about'.

One pronounciation that I always enjoy here is the very American voice at UK McDonalds Drive Thru. Please drive for'd to the next window. :)