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Beyond all that, if Canadians are intentionally slighting the U.S and engaging in nationalistic superiority than I agree with your comments. I just find you are probably embellishing things and making a mountain out of a mole hill with respect to how Canadians portray the U.S.. I really think at its root - its just to differentiate ourselves from another country which is fair really. You may have an amusing and ironic tale, but by and large I think it is an outlier example and not the norm.
Look, I could care less if any Canadian shouted from the rooftops that America is ****e. My point mainly has to do with your, fresh out of college, Canadians going around the world into countless thousands of ESL classrooms and letting their innate issues with America come to the fore.
In Asia, teachers are still greatly regarded, even if it is some 23 year-old backpacker from Toronto. As such, when they say America is like this IN A CLASSROOM, it carries weight. Again, I have actually conducted informal surveys of HUNDREDS of highly educated Asians and more often than not, they have confirmed that indeed, they had at one time heard such things from Canadian instructors. Of course, most educated East Asians have probably had a dozen or more native ESL instructors in their educational lives, so it by no means implies it is the average Canadian ESL instructor that behaves in such a way.
The good news for Americans in the region is that more often than not, Canadians' "issues" with its giant neighbor are pretty well known amongst the locals, so they take the Maple-leaf waving with a teaspoon of soy sauce.
Look, I could care less if any Canadian shouted from the rooftops that America is ****e. My point mainly has to do with your, fresh out of college, Canadians going around the world into countless thousands of ESL classrooms and letting their innate issues with America come to the fore.
The good news for Americans in the region is that more often than not, Canadians' "issues" with its giant neighbor are pretty well known amongst the locals, so they take the Maple-leaf waving with a teaspoon of soy sauce.
I think everything you just said and they WAY you said it - particularly given the humble nature of my post, is more a reason than not to disassociate with such bravado and egoism.
Using expletives and underscoring giant neighbour for example... pure embellishment and what the world usually associates with your country - a total lack of humility and empathy. On a personal level, you seem to exemplify Americana with your over the top ways and chest thumping - its all about me... not all Americans are like this and we shouldn't generalize a nation or its representatives - but you seem to be a perfect example of what the world sees in your country. I could actually see you typing with one hand, verbalizing what you are saying and waving your finger in the air with the other as soon as you started with Look... lol
America is that guy in the locker room who takes a few extra seconds to stretch before getting dressed, knowing that everyone else is noticing the elephant trunk sticking out from under the towel, sniffing for a peanut.
I think everything you just said and they WAY you said it - particularly given the humble nature of my post, is more a reason than not to disassociate with such bravado and egoism.
Using expletives and underscoring giant neighbour for example... pure embellishment and what the world usually associates with your country - a total lack of humility and empathy. On a personal level, you seem to exemplify Americana with your over the top ways and chest thumping - its all about me... not all Americans are like this and we shouldn't generalize a nation or its representatives - but you seem to be a perfect example of what the world sees in your country. I could actually see you typing with one hand, verbalizing what you are saying and waving your finger in the air with the other as soon as you started with Look... lol
Whatever.....nice way to twist everything and throw the fact that I have heard from countless Asians that they have experienced Canadian ESL teachers in class say bad things about America into a critique of myself.
So you think tat it's appropriate for young Canadians to see the world, get paid, and spread anti-American opinions?
Sounds like you're all for it.
And please, enlighten me about how I was saying anything that implied "it's all about me?" You are the one seemingly focused on me, not me lol.
I think everything you just said and they WAY you said it - particularly given the humble nature of my post, is more a reason than not to disassociate with such bravado and egoism.
Using expletives and underscoring giant neighbour for example... pure embellishment and what the world usually associates with your country - a total lack of humility and empathy. On a personal level, you seem to exemplify Americana with your over the top ways and chest thumping - its all about me... not all Americans are like this and we shouldn't generalize a nation or its representatives - but you seem to be a perfect example of what the world sees in your country. I could actually see you typing with one hand, verbalizing what you are saying and waving your finger in the air with the other as soon as you started with Look... lol
He or she also has to keep in mind the way in which he poses his question to those ESL students. You make no secret of the answer you desire if you lead off with "may I ask you if Canadians ever said anything to you about America". Perhaps following up with a "have American ESL teachers ever impressed you negatively in comparison to other nationalities." I can assure you, you would have gotten an earful.
Travelling abroad through those decades when encountering Americans with Canadian flags on their luggage and clothing was the norm and even later; I've incountered many Americans that are quite willing to start a conversation with questions like "how'd y'all go from being a frontier to a socialist nanny state in less than a hundred years"?
Canadian inferiority complex my hairy azz! I'm frankly tired of that mehm. Not so very long ago they didn't mind being mistaken for Canadians and I will tell you quite frankly the reverse has never, ever been true. We stand up for our country and it's an inferiority complex. They shout "were numerso uno" from the rooftops and it's just good old pride?
Give me a break here; they're the most conflicted folks on the planet and it doesn't take a degree in psychology to recognize that.
Spoken like one who absolutely positively does not obsess about Americans and America in general. My lord, I've called Canada awesome in this thread, and pointed out that it is a minority of young Canadian ESL teachers who behave in this manner...and look at the hornet's nest I stirred up. s-e-n-s-i-t-i-v-e
And in my experience (again almost two decades living abroad) the most likely to obsess about America and to slag on it are those from Ontario. I have never met a Newfie or folks from Nova Scotia/New Brunswick/PEI whose anti-American tendencies could hold a candle to folks from Ontario. BC folks are a mixed bag, Albertans can be rather pro-American, and those in the middle seem like Minnesotans who really can't be bothered. Quebec is another discussion.
I don't dislike Americans but I'm not fond of some of their attitudes towards our healthcare, military and accent. Some Americans (not all) seem to look down on us almost as though we're not as important.
Spoken like one who absolutely positively does not obsess about Americans and America in general. My lord, I've called Canada awesome in this thread, and pointed out that it is a minority of young Canadian ESL teachers who behave in this manner...and look at the hornet's nest I stirred up. s-e-n-s-i-t-i-v-e
And in my experience (again almost two decades living abroad) the most likely to obsess about America and to slag on it are those from Ontario. I have never met a Newfie or folks from Nova Scotia/New Brunswick/PEI whose anti-American tendencies could hold a candle to folks from Ontario. BC folks are a mixed bag, Albertans can be rather pro-American, and those in the middle seem like Minnesotans who really can't be bothered. Quebec is another discussion.
Yeah , yeah with your patronizing "Canada is awesome but all those young Canadian ESL teachers who diss on the U.S. .......and further "I've talked to many Asians who confirm this for me" stuff. Now it's me who is obsessing over America.
S-E-N-S-I-T-I-V-E is the person who noticed this while teaching in Asia and thought to mention it here as a problem for the masses to consider. Couldn't just write it off as an anomaly not worth dealing with, could you? But we're sensitive?
You eptiomize the American who thinks the world is standing on the brink holding their collective breath waiting for that little positive acknowledgement from an American "I think you guys are awesome but......".
We get that you've zeroed in on Canadians as the major culprits and now narrowed it down even further to Ontarians; nice compartmentalization thingy you got going there.
You show up and criticize Canadians and now especially Ontarians and it's us that is being obsessive when we, or I in this case, disagree and further hypothesize I've got decades of experience of the exact same behaviour being practised by the whole spectrum of age groups of Americans while they travel abroad.
I can match you story for story of anecdotal crud I've experienced in countries all over the world of Americans dissing on many other countries, even their host country, and Canada has not escaped their derision unscathed.
What useful purpose did you expect your initial post to achieve might I ask? Did you expect we'd just take your word for it and issue a carte-blanche agreement that Canadian ESL students are dissing on America while teaching Asians? An apology perhaps? Really?
I don't dislike Americans but I'm not fond of some of their attitudes towards our healthcare, military and accent. Some Americans (not all) seem to look down on us almost as though we're not as important.
Well you can expect to be accused of being sensitive, obsessive, and possessing of an inferiority complex any second now.
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neighbor are pretty well known amongst the locals, so they take the Maple-leaf waving with a teaspoon of soy sauce.
