Yes, the "eh" is so convenient. It can be a short and sweet way of asking questions, or asking for confirmation, and an effort to build rapport with people. It is a jack of all trades in Canadian English. I love it.
Actually, New-Brunswick is officially by-lingual ((Fr & En), there are indeed many regions and municipalities outside QC that have fairly large populations of Francophones. One should not forget the number of Fr. immersion schools/programs in all parts of Canada as well. Probably most grads are not as elequent/comfortable as those closer to QC, but fluent enough for basic converstions. Montreal is officially approx. 68% by-lingual, and prob close to 45% multilingual (3+ languages). Overall, your assessment of stereotypes was pretty much spot on. Be well and stay safe
This was entertaining to me and as well informative. Thanks for sharing ! Like to hear more about Canada in comparision to Germany. Well. South Alberta is mostly the latitude of Paris (while North Alberta is about Oslo). This is one thing I always try to keep in mind. And Toronto is almost at the latitude of the Mediterranean Sea.
You're right about languages, only a mibority are bilingual, we learn a 2nd language in school, but very basic, and most people forget everything when they finish school, unless they have people around to practice it. I'm from Montreal, and we did have english lessons in school, but I mostly learned by myself after school was done. I'm lucky to live in Montreal, where I speak both english & french on a daily basis, but people from western provinces don't have the same opportunity, not many french speakers over there, so they lose their french pretty fast by lack of opportunity to speak it. About being polite and friendly, generally true, but as everywhere in the world, it's possible to bump into an AH once in a while, even in Canada. For Tim Horton's, I'm the black sheep, but I'm a princess🤣🤣 who likes strong coffee & I can't find that at Tim's. Good for donuts, but nothing else. Don't forget to cheer for your team, the Oilers are about to bring back the cup here for the first time since many years. Aboot poutine, I worked in a fast food, making it for years, so I can't stand it anymore. Maple syrup=yess, I used to make it with grandpa in the mid-80's in rural Québec, so it's part of me. Have a nice day & I'll watch what else you have on your channel.
Yeah, the second language education that I and others have experienced in Canada is really lagging behind the rest of the world. It's a shame. The only exception is french immersion schools we have, but those can sometimes be difficult to get into. I agree with you on Tims coffee, often I still end up drinking it though if there's nothing else around 🙈 and appreciate the support for the Oilers - Go oilers go :D Thanks for your comment :)
Thanks for the feedback, I also think it would be fun since there's lots of new things on the menu since I've been away! Stay tuned, it's in planning :)
always cold in Canada? yeah no the other day it was 38C 100.4F with a humidex of 42 107.6F far from cold but I love to toy with Americans who complain that 30 degrees is to cold I laugh and say that's t-shirt weather, me knowing we're talking different scales but them not knowing it. but regardless 30 F 30C I'm still in shorts hell I used to walk through 3 feet of snow to get to school in shorts. but my reasoning proved out to piss off the school and children's aid. you see I wore shorts because I knew id have to walk through snow and its easier to bring a towal to dry legs off than it is to strip out of wet pants so I'm not sitting in cold wet pants all day I never got sick everyone else did
Hi Meghan. UA-cam shows me a hour ago your first long video. So i am no here. Watch every video in a row. Okay, dass war mein Englisch. Ich mag deinen Content. Ruhig & ehrlich gesprochen, vorallem der deutsche Rasenmäher in der Nachbarschaft. 😉 Ich wünsche dir weiterhin viel Erfolg in Deutschland & auf UA-cam. Grüße aus Hameln. Yes, die mit dem Rattenfänger. 😋
You have some really interesting things to say about your home country! I really wanted to go to Canada back then, but unfortunately it didn't work out. What really surprises me after hearing from you and another Canadian expatriate is that Canada is very US-American, which I wouldn't have thought. Among other things, I noticed that Canada has a similarly good social system as Germany, but is very US-American when it comes to vacation days, road construction (very wide), no good public transport system, "mandatory" tipping, huge Supermarkets with huge packaging, etc. Anyway, I would be happy if you would make a Video about what is true, what is not, where the big differences are! Greetings from Kiel to Hamburg Michael PS: And I would love to see a Video of you in German!
Hi Michael, you are right that there are a lot of different ideas and misconceptions about Canada vs US, thanks for your idea, maybe I'll make a video about this at some point!
As a fellow Canadian, and New Brunswicker, I agree with this video. Alot of the stereotypes are actually mostly true... Maybe not for my Province, but still, there's a lot of similarities.
About the "friendliness", someone explained on Reddit once pretty well by contrasting people from California and New York how cultures are different. When you have a flat tire and stuck at the side of the road and don't know how to change a tire, Californians will stop and will say "Oh that's so terrible what happened to you, I hope everything going to be fine ..", they will empathize with you but won't help you. They are nice but not kind. A New Yorker will stop and change the flat tire for you but say "What's wrong with you? Are you stupid? Why don't you know how to change a tire?" They're kind but not nice. Seems the same pattern with Canadians, people confuse kind and nice. 💀😅
From a Finn's perspective, I find this video very interesting since three of those points apply to both 🇨🇦 Canada and 🇫🇮 Finland. Sorry that my comment is a bit long, but bear with me (in Finnish "sorry" is pronounced similarly to Canadian English, sori, not sari 🇬🇧🇺🇸). 1⃣ While studying in 🇪🇦 Spain, I heard so many times that "Finland must always be so cold", which is obviously not true. I wouldn't consider it to be 🥶 "cold" if it stays around or above +20°C summer time. And I assumed the summer temperatures would be similar in Canada, but a personal experience slightly proved otherwise: wearing long sleeved clothes while it was scorching hot, about +35°C, and not realizing it until back at the hotel why I felt so exhausted. 😅 2⃣ In terms of the bilingualism stereotype, it's kind of the opposite: the people abroad don't seem to know that Finnish and Swedish are the national languages of Finland, and here too it's mandatory to study the other national language at school. And yes, most of us aren't fluently bilingual in our languages either; but in English and one of our languages yes, maybe. As a Canadaphile (that's the correct word, eh?), I have always wanted to know if you guys also have that same obligation to study both official languages, so thanks for clarifying it. 🤓 3⃣ The Finns aren't as passionate about hockey as the Canadians, but pretty close still (fortunately no riots, though). I even chose my university city based on my favourite Finnish League team (I grew up near a rival city), and my sister named our cat after our favourite player Saku Koivu. And whenever Team Finland wins gold in the Olympics or the Worlds, the whole nation goes absolutely bonkers, like climbing on things they shouldn't, even on ice cold fountains, etc. While I only follow how my favourite NHL team is doing, the other people seem to be more interested in individual Finnish NHL players' stats and success; and they usually hold a public celebration event (nowdays televised) if some of them bring home the Stanley Cup. Those were the three similar points. Personally, I have noticed that I say "eh?" a lot, regardless of the language, even in Spanish. In southern Spain, it got me in trouble in a bank: I just wanted to pay some sort of 🇪🇺 EU resident fee, but they thought I wanted to open an account, when I actually meant "no" (I said "I don't have to open a bank account, eh?" in Spanish). 😆 Most Canadians behaved politely when I travelled across the country on August 2017 (I took that profile picture in Moraine Lake, Banff, AB), but I hadn't met such indifferent or rude customer service before as I did at the 🏒 HHOF store (Toronto-Montréal rivalry?) and Toronto Pearson airport while returning back home. Luckily at Calgary airport, I had one of the nicest encounters ever with a customer services agent, 🇩🇪 a German, who was so polite and attentive and even recognized my nationality based on my name. 👍 Yet despite those two bad experiences, I dream of moving to Canada some day, and in fact when I said that to my therapist in June, apparently my phone listened to my voice and the algorithm immediately suggested this video of yours. 🙃
I think every language and dialect is beautiful in its own way. For me personally though, having lived in Hamburg, I found the north German accent extremely clear and easy to understand, so naturally I have a bias towards it. When I worked with German speakers from other parts of the country, it sometimes took me an extra beat to understand their accent, slang, and speaking cadence. Generally it's something you get used to over time, just like someone's foreign accent or even their individual way of speaking. One exception is Swiss German which I can only understand about 15%
Wenn dir einmal "Zuckerrübensirup" in Hamburg begegnet ... das ist das Äquivalent zu Maple Syrup in der Mitte Deutschlands (Nordrheinwestfalen), sehr lecker
Tsssttt ! 🙂
You forgot New Brunswick
And it's French speaking Acadians
Officialy, a bilingual province
You're absolutely right - thanks for reminding
Are you a fellow New Brunswicker!?
Yes, the "eh" is so convenient. It can be a short and sweet way of asking questions, or asking for confirmation, and an effort to build rapport with people. It is a jack of all trades in Canadian English. I love it.
Actually, New-Brunswick is officially by-lingual ((Fr & En), there are indeed many regions and municipalities outside QC
that have fairly large populations of Francophones. One should not forget the number of Fr. immersion schools/programs
in all parts of Canada as well. Probably most grads are not as elequent/comfortable as those closer to QC, but fluent enough for basic converstions. Montreal is officially approx. 68% by-lingual, and prob close to 45% multilingual (3+ languages).
Overall, your assessment of stereotypes was pretty much spot on. Be well and stay safe
Seems like no one west of Quebec knows that many Newbrunswickers speak French
This was entertaining to me and as well informative. Thanks for sharing ! Like to hear more about Canada in comparision to Germany.
Well. South Alberta is mostly the latitude of Paris (while North Alberta is about Oslo). This is one thing I always try to keep in mind. And Toronto is almost at the latitude of the Mediterranean Sea.
Glad you enjoyed :) and useful and interesting tidbit about the latitudes!
You're right about languages, only a mibority are bilingual, we learn a 2nd language in school, but very basic, and most people forget everything when they finish school, unless they have people around to practice it. I'm from Montreal, and we did have english lessons in school, but I mostly learned by myself after school was done. I'm lucky to live in Montreal, where I speak both english & french on a daily basis, but people from western provinces don't have the same opportunity, not many french speakers over there, so they lose their french pretty fast by lack of opportunity to speak it. About being polite and friendly, generally true, but as everywhere in the world, it's possible to bump into an AH once in a while, even in Canada. For Tim Horton's, I'm the black sheep, but I'm a princess🤣🤣 who likes strong coffee & I can't find that at Tim's. Good for donuts, but nothing else. Don't forget to cheer for your team, the Oilers are about to bring back the cup here for the first time since many years. Aboot poutine, I worked in a fast food, making it for years, so I can't stand it anymore. Maple syrup=yess, I used to make it with grandpa in the mid-80's in rural Québec, so it's part of me. Have a nice day & I'll watch what else you have on your channel.
Yeah, the second language education that I and others have experienced in Canada is really lagging behind the rest of the world. It's a shame. The only exception is french immersion schools we have, but those can sometimes be difficult to get into. I agree with you on Tims coffee, often I still end up drinking it though if there's nothing else around 🙈 and appreciate the support for the Oilers - Go oilers go :D Thanks for your comment :)
The "reviewing Tim Horton's" video sounds like a really good idea. I hope you do it!
Thanks for the feedback, I also think it would be fun since there's lots of new things on the menu since I've been away! Stay tuned, it's in planning :)
always cold in Canada? yeah no the other day it was 38C 100.4F with a humidex of 42 107.6F far from cold but I love to toy with Americans who complain that 30 degrees is to cold I laugh and say that's t-shirt weather, me knowing we're talking different scales but them not knowing it. but regardless 30 F 30C I'm still in shorts hell I used to walk through 3 feet of snow to get to school in shorts. but my reasoning proved out to piss off the school and children's aid. you see I wore shorts because I knew id have to walk through snow and its easier to bring a towal to dry legs off than it is to strip out of wet pants so I'm not sitting in cold wet pants all day I never got sick everyone else did
Hi Meghan.
UA-cam shows me a hour ago your first long video.
So i am no here. Watch every video in a row.
Okay, dass war mein Englisch.
Ich mag deinen Content. Ruhig & ehrlich gesprochen, vorallem der deutsche Rasenmäher in der Nachbarschaft. 😉
Ich wünsche dir weiterhin viel Erfolg in Deutschland & auf UA-cam.
Grüße aus Hameln. Yes, die mit dem Rattenfänger. 😋
You have some really interesting things to say about your home country!
I really wanted to go to Canada back then, but unfortunately it didn't work out. What really surprises me after hearing from you and another Canadian expatriate is that Canada is very US-American, which I wouldn't have thought.
Among other things, I noticed that Canada has a similarly good social system as Germany, but is very US-American when it comes to vacation days, road construction (very wide), no good public transport system, "mandatory" tipping, huge Supermarkets with huge packaging, etc.
Anyway, I would be happy if you would make a Video about what is true, what is not, where the big differences are!
Greetings from Kiel to Hamburg
Michael
PS:
And I would love to see a Video of you in German!
Hi Michael, you are right that there are a lot of different ideas and misconceptions about Canada vs US, thanks for your idea, maybe I'll make a video about this at some point!
As a fellow Canadian, and New Brunswicker, I agree with this video. Alot of the stereotypes are actually mostly true... Maybe not for my Province, but still, there's a lot of similarities.
About the "friendliness", someone explained on Reddit once pretty well by contrasting people from California and New York how cultures are different.
When you have a flat tire and stuck at the side of the road and don't know how to change a tire, Californians will stop and will say "Oh that's so terrible what happened to you, I hope everything going to be fine ..", they will empathize with you but won't help you. They are nice but not kind.
A New Yorker will stop and change the flat tire for you but say "What's wrong with you? Are you stupid? Why don't you know how to change a tire?" They're kind but not nice.
Seems the same pattern with Canadians, people confuse kind and nice. 💀😅
From a Finn's perspective, I find this video very interesting since three of those points apply to both 🇨🇦 Canada and 🇫🇮 Finland. Sorry that my comment is a bit long, but bear with me (in Finnish "sorry" is pronounced similarly to Canadian English, sori, not sari 🇬🇧🇺🇸).
1⃣ While studying in 🇪🇦 Spain, I heard so many times that "Finland must always be so cold", which is obviously not true. I wouldn't consider it to be 🥶 "cold" if it stays around or above +20°C summer time. And I assumed the summer temperatures would be similar in Canada, but a personal experience slightly proved otherwise: wearing long sleeved clothes while it was scorching hot, about +35°C, and not realizing it until back at the hotel why I felt so exhausted. 😅
2⃣ In terms of the bilingualism stereotype, it's kind of the opposite: the people abroad don't seem to know that Finnish and Swedish are the national languages of Finland, and here too it's mandatory to study the other national language at school. And yes, most of us aren't fluently bilingual in our languages either; but in English and one of our languages yes, maybe. As a Canadaphile (that's the correct word, eh?), I have always wanted to know if you guys also have that same obligation to study both official languages, so thanks for clarifying it. 🤓
3⃣ The Finns aren't as passionate about hockey as the Canadians, but pretty close still (fortunately no riots, though). I even chose my university city based on my favourite Finnish League team (I grew up near a rival city), and my sister named our cat after our favourite player Saku Koivu. And whenever Team Finland wins gold in the Olympics or the Worlds, the whole nation goes absolutely bonkers, like climbing on things they shouldn't, even on ice cold fountains, etc.
While I only follow how my favourite NHL team is doing, the other people seem to be more interested in individual Finnish NHL players' stats and success; and they usually hold a public celebration event (nowdays televised) if some of them bring home the Stanley Cup.
Those were the three similar points. Personally, I have noticed that I say "eh?" a lot, regardless of the language, even in Spanish. In southern Spain, it got me in trouble in a bank: I just wanted to pay some sort of 🇪🇺 EU resident fee, but they thought I wanted to open an account, when I actually meant "no" (I said "I don't have to open a bank account, eh?" in Spanish). 😆
Most Canadians behaved politely when I travelled across the country on August 2017 (I took that profile picture in Moraine Lake, Banff, AB), but I hadn't met such indifferent or rude customer service before as I did at the 🏒 HHOF store (Toronto-Montréal rivalry?) and Toronto Pearson airport while returning back home.
Luckily at Calgary airport, I had one of the nicest encounters ever with a customer services agent, 🇩🇪 a German, who was so polite and attentive and even recognized my nationality based on my name. 👍
Yet despite those two bad experiences, I dream of moving to Canada some day, and in fact when I said that to my therapist in June, apparently my phone listened to my voice and the algorithm immediately suggested this video of yours. 🙃
You mentioned dialects. How do you perceive the different German dialects?
I think every language and dialect is beautiful in its own way. For me personally though, having lived in Hamburg, I found the north German accent extremely clear and easy to understand, so naturally I have a bias towards it. When I worked with German speakers from other parts of the country, it sometimes took me an extra beat to understand their accent, slang, and speaking cadence. Generally it's something you get used to over time, just like someone's foreign accent or even their individual way of speaking. One exception is Swiss German which I can only understand about 15%
As a French Canadian, I have to say... Hey! It's all true... lol
Wenn dir einmal "Zuckerrübensirup" in Hamburg begegnet ... das ist das Äquivalent zu Maple Syrup in der Mitte Deutschlands (Nordrheinwestfalen), sehr lecker
Cool, falls ich das sehe, werde ich es probieren, danke für den Tipp :)
hello from P.E.I.
👋
Hello my northen Province neighbors!