What Do Canadians Think About America/ Americans?

[majoun]

Originally Posted by ubringliten

In 2006, I went to Switzerland and my friend there said that pretend you're Canadian, so locals won't think you're an obnoxious American electing Bush for the second time. I was a little embarrassed to go aboard because my President was a monkey.

I just came back from Canada, and I liked Canada so much that I bought a pin of a Canadian flag and pinned it to my bag. I was that proud of Canada. I also got a pin of Obama in red/white/blue colors and pinned it to my bag as well. I noticed several souvenir shops carry Obama t-shirts and pins. So, this is a good sign.

What's funny is that many Europeans assume anyone with the Maple Leaf on their backpack is an American because so many Americans pretend to be Canadian, and will take out their (generally verbal) frustrations on those wearing Canadian flags. That gimmick's been overused to the point that Europeans now assume anyone sporting a Canadian flag is an American.

If one really wants to avoid being blamed for US foreign policy, pretend to be Irish - as the Irish have generally been victims throughout history so they're admired. Shouldn't be so hard for someone from the Maritimes to pretend to be Irish due to the accent. (Pretending to be British wouldn't work, considering many countries have historical gripes against the UK and also its participation in unpopular US foreign policy even more than Canada).

BTW there are "Ugly Canadian" tourists who fit the "Ugly American" stereotype in everything but nationality.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by majoun

What's funny is that many Europeans assume anyone with the Maple Leaf on their backpack is an American because so many Americans pretend to be Canadian, and will take out their (generally verbal) frustrations on those wearing Canadian flags. That gimmick's been overused to the point that Europeans now assume anyone sporting a Canadian flag is an American.

I’ve noticed this as well. The "Canadian" brand represented by the flag on the backpack has been diluted/damaged by too many fakes to the point where it doesn’t really matter anymore.

In any event, most people in continental Europe (who would all be second-language speakers of English at best) have a devil of a time telling Canadians apart from Americans based on appearance and speech anyway. Except for people with extremely unique accents (southern U.S. drawl, Newfoundland outports), it’s very hard to distinguish Canadian English from, say, Midwestern or West Coast American English when abroad. I know that even native English speakers from the UK or Ireland have trouble differentiating between the two, as do I even (and I grew up and went to school in English-speaking Canada for most of my life).

None of this is surprising. How many people here who know very rudimentary German would be able to distinguish a German from an Austrian or a Swiss German during a routine service industry interaction? I am a native French speaker and it’s not always obvious to me if European francophones are from France, Switzerland or Belgium, unless the conversation lends itself to the use of country-specific terms that certain nations are known for using.

Now, for people who say that they’ve been spontaneously identified by foreigners as Canadians without having the telltale flag on the backpack, consider that a lot of people abroad will automatically ask anyone who looks and sounds like a North American if they’re Canadian. The reason is that Canadians are known for freaking out if people wrongly assume they’re from the States, whereas Americans just don’t care apparently.

[Cornerguy1]

All very interesting, folks, but the original topic seems to long been lost.