How should we characterise Canadians?

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

I have to call bull$hit too on the Americans pretending to be Canadians thing - I jsut don't know anyone who has ever done it. Besides you don't get "treated better" because of your nationality. You get treated better because you are nice and respectful.

Having said that, I think I'm the only American I know who is regularly mistaken for canuck abroad. Dunno why. Maybe growing up 10 miles from the border rubbed off on me.

It's pretty common among undergrads. It's not so much pretending to be Canadian as it is just putting the flag on your backpack so when you're jetting around Europe and people hear the accent, they don't assume 'American.'

I'm sorry, but I have never encountered this phenomenon having lived in Scotland in the 80s, studied in London in the early 90s and lived in England (various cities) from 95-05, barring one year in Asia (2004). I have travelled extensively throughout Europe, Asia and Australia and never encountered a fake Canadian, or an American brandishing a maple leaf, unless they were really good actors. I have a really hard time believing its "pretty common"

[mawilson 2,133]

I'm sorry, but I have never encountered this phenomenon having lived in Scotland in the 80s, studied in London in the early 90s and lived in England (various cities) from 95-05, barring one year in Asia (2004). I have travelled extensively throughout Europe, Asia and Australia and never encountered a fake Canadian, or an American brandishing a maple leaf, unless they were really good actors. I have a really hard time believing its "pretty common"

How do you know that the Canadians you did encounter weren't fake?

[KarenCee 3]

Pretty much, yes. I saw it with my own eyes in foreign countries, not from some biased chair in an office IN CANADA.

Well, isn't that special!

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

I'm sorry, but I have never encountered this phenomenon having lived in Scotland in the 80s, studied in London in the early 90s and lived in England (various cities) from 95-05, barring one year in Asia (2004). I have travelled extensively throughout Europe, Asia and Australia and never encountered a fake Canadian, or an American brandishing a maple leaf, unless they were really good actors. I have a really hard time believing its "pretty common"

How do you know that the Canadians you did encounter weren't fake?

If you ask people where they are from and they give you a place names like Guelph

[Mephys 2]

Notice how they all live on the US border...

What does this graphic represent VJT?

satellite image at night

That is the time that the smart people go to bed and the Americans go to Walmart

How to drive *many* Canadian expats crazy....

ooooohhhh

me wanna, gimme gimme gimme

/drool

You are so not cool

Edited August 28, 2007 by Mephys

[no name 1]

Bottom line is - all you Canandians chose to come live in the USA, so you are now (or soon will be) permanent residents of the USA.

The very place you mock is your home now(or soon).

[mawilson 2,133]

I'm sorry, but I have never encountered this phenomenon having lived in Scotland in the 80s, studied in London in the early 90s and lived in England (various cities) from 95-05, barring one year in Asia (2004). I have travelled extensively throughout Europe, Asia and Australia and never encountered a fake Canadian, or an American brandishing a maple leaf, unless they were really good actors. I have a really hard time believing its "pretty common"

How do you know that the Canadians you did encounter weren't fake?

If you ask people where they are from and they give you a place names like Guelph

Then they are definitely fake. There's no Guelph in Ontario, Canada - it's a fake place

that Americans invented to pass for Canadians

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

Then they are definitely fake. There's no Guelph in Ontario, Canada - it's a fake place

that Americans invented to pass for Canadians

if you are going to fake something you are probably going to stick with a place you know and have been to

come one mawilson, even you can admit that most americans won't fake their nationality because some euro-pansy looks down on them

[Jenn! 918]

Keanu Reeves is Canadian?!

[Marilyn. 340]

Bottom line is - all you Canandians chose to come live in the USA, so you are now (or soon will be) permanent residents of the USA.

The very place you mock is your home now(or soon).

who said we are mocking?? the magority of the mocking is being done against the Canadians...

I don't know if most people are aware but most of us Canadians didn't move to the US because we wanted to be Americans, we moved here because our SO's happened to be Americans...

Us Canadians even make fun about things in Canada.. is there are law against saying stuff you don't like about the country you are living in??

Keanu Reeves is Canadian?!

he was born in Beirut, Lebanon but moved to CAnada when he was young....

[almaty 19]

whoa dude, that is so righteous

[AnaAndDaniel 0]

i still say they are nice folks.

Daniel

:energetic:

[Caladan 19]

I have to call bull$hit too on the Americans pretending to be Canadians thing - I jsut don't know anyone who has ever done it. Besides you don't get "treated better" because of your nationality. You get treated better because you are nice and respectful.

Having said that, I think I'm the only American I know who is regularly mistaken for canuck abroad. Dunno why. Maybe growing up 10 miles from the border rubbed off on me.

It's pretty common among undergrads. It's not so much pretending to be Canadian as it is just putting the flag on your backpack so when you're jetting around Europe and people hear the accent, they don't assume 'American.'

I'm sorry, but I have never encountered this phenomenon having lived in Scotland in the 80s, studied in London in the early 90s and lived in England (various cities) from 95-05, barring one year in Asia (2004). I have travelled extensively throughout Europe, Asia and Australia and never encountered a fake Canadian, or an American brandishing a maple leaf, unless they were really good actors. I have a really hard time believing its "pretty common"

My sense is it that was more something people did when going somewhere where they were afraid of anti-American sentiment. I am not surprised that you haven't encountered it, because 'pretty common among undergrads' doesn't translate into a large percentage of American tourists, and 'pretty common' doesn't entail universal. Certainly my friends who studied abroad in England didn't.

But I first heard of this phenomenon in college when I asked someone why she had a Canadian flag on her backpack, and she said apologetically it was something her mother thought was a good idea from the summer when she went to France. Another friend did it when he traveled to the Middle East and Egypt. Plus you've got the person's experience in the MP office (which we're discounting for some reason because...?) It's something I've heard students discussing post 9/11.

So, my vote is for 'not urban legend' but 'not universal.'

[almaty 19]

i still say they are nice folks.

Daniel

:energetic:

i agree..some of my favorite brothers and sisters are from canada... i miss my bff..sister sharon these days...

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

My sense is it that was more something people did when going somewhere where they were afraid of anti-American sentiment. I am not surprised that you haven't encountered it, because 'pretty common among undergrads' doesn't translate into a large percentage of American tourists, and 'pretty common' doesn't entail universal. Certainly my friends who studied abroad in England didn't.

But I first heard of this phenomenon in college when I asked someone why she had a Canadian flag on her backpack, and she said apologetically it was something her mother thought was a good idea from the summer when she went to France. Another friend did it when he traveled to the Middle East and Egypt. Plus you've got the person's experience in the MP office (which we're discounting for some reason because...?) It's something I've heard students discussing post 9/11.

So, my vote is for 'not urban legend' but 'not universal.'

I lived in England for 2 years as a student, so if undergrads were doing it I probably would have encountered it. I didn't.

I'm not saying it never happens, I just think it's much, much rarer than people are suggesting here. It's something I hear all the time (usually from Canadians) and experience just doesn't bear it out.