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In the blue corner...
Canadian Peculiarities
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This morning I was walking around campus with a mate of mine that was visiting from Manchester, UK and we were talking about some of the odd things that he had noticed since arriving last Thursday. One thing in particular that had struck him as extremely peculiar was behavoiur surrounding the lift (or the elevator here). Unlike in the UK, he claimed, in Canada the elevator was a zone of sacred silence. There would be no chatting up of the pretty girl beside you, asking the elderly gentleman about the weather or the like. If one were to talk they would receive looks of disgust or utter contempt. After we parted ways I got into the lift and sure enough there was no talking. While waiting for the lift there had been 2 couples of talking and a group of 4 mates, but as soon as we entered the lift everyone became silent. Upon arriving at the fourth floor and piling out immediately conversation that were going on before the elevator arrived were restarted. I wonder why this is? Who was it that decided that talking in an elevator was taboo? How does anyone get that much power?

This got me thinking about some other strange differences between Canadians and other cultures. Why is it that after a meal or even a coffee and there is an argument about who is to pay it is almost always over who gets the chance to pay, with each party insisting that they will cover it (something I am guilty of myself). Why is it that conversations with strangers always start with "So what do you think of the weather today."

Please don't make the mistake that I believe that Canadians are all one huge homogeneous lump of people. There are certainly huge regional discrepancies as well. For example while in New Brunswick cars stop to allow pedestrians to pass, in Ontario it is customary to to speed up to either a) frighten the living daylights out of the elderly woman and her dog or b) hit them. Another example is why do people in Ottawa love to shovel repeatedly during snowstorms while people in Niagara wait until the storm is finished before shoveling? And furthermore why do more people drive pick-up trucks in Niagara, where 20cm is an insane snowfall, than in Ottawa where 20cm is a good winter day?

What an odd country!

January 8, 2009 | 2:06 PM Comments  0 comments

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