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The accents like the diphthong OU like in house or about. In the US the diphthong is very different , to explain it to people in Canada the diphthong OU sounds like AR so when Americans say about it sounds like abart to people in Canada.
Canadians say 'roof' while Yanks say 'ruff'. Anyone who ever watched Irv Wienstien on Buffalo news knows that... Though he isn't the only American I have heard use that odd pronunciation.
- people are a little different (generally more goody-goody....
Sorry about that; excuse me.
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Originally Posted by gosling
For the most part it really isn't a shock at all it is just the little differences....
My American ex-wife encountered a number of these when she arrived in Canada back in about 1990 or so. First of all, at that time, supermarkets accepted cash only. You might be able to use a cheque if you were a regular and knew the cashier personally, but it wasn't guaranteed. So there she was, not even a week in the country, and she was buying a cartful of groceries. She found out quickly that a cheque drawn on her brand-new Canadian bank account was not acceptable--terms were cash only. We simply did not use cheques as often, or as in as many places, as they did in the US.
She was a little surprised that French wasn't used more often--she had been told in school that Canada was a bilingual country, which she took to mean that French was as widely spoken in Alberta and Nova Scotia and Ontario as it was in Quebec--but she quickly learned that wasn't the case. Still, she enjoyed using what she learned in Beginner's French 101 at a US state university, in order to get a coffee and a donut at a Tim Hortons in rural Quebec one time. ("They understood me!")
To her credit, she never called our currency "Monopoly money," or similar; she learned quickly that when we use the term "dollars," we mean "Canadian dollars." She did keep a supply of US dollars in cash, as she would visit her mother in the US regularly, and she needed local currency when she visited. But she called those "US dollars." To her, living in Canada, "dollars" meant Canadian dollars.
The metric system as we use it, never really stymied her. Shortly after arriving, she bought a car, and it was calibrated in metric (as all cars sold in Canada are), so if the speed limit sign said "100," she knew she could crank it up to 100 on the speedometer, and she was fine. Though as she said, "This isn't really a hundred, you know." Once, she got confused, and in that memorable instance, ended up buying a ten-kilo ham (22 pounds) for just the two of us, but that only happened once. She lived and learned. I ended up eating ham-and-cheese sandwiches for quite some time.
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... and the fact you can't get biscuits at KFC.
I asked my ex about this, as I had heard it from her American family and friends who were visiting. To me, "biscuits" means "cookies." Why would anyone want cookies with their fried chicken?
Well, Americans don't. They want something like we would call a dinner roll, preferably with honey. Okay, that makes sense. Still, the first time her sister visited and said, "The KFCs here don't have biscuits," my reaction was, "Why would they?" That earned me weird looks from my wife and sister-in-law. Of course, once my wife understood my confusion and explained it to me, it made sense.
As I said, she is now my ex-wife. But I will say, it was fun watching her adapt to her new home.
I asked my ex about this, as I had heard it from her American family and friends who were visiting. To me, "biscuits" means "cookies." Why would anyone want cookies with their fried chicken?
Well, Americans don't. They want something like we would call a dinner roll, preferably with honey. Okay, that makes sense. Still, the first time her sister visited and said, "The KFCs here don't have biscuits," my reaction was, "Why would they?" That earned me weird looks from my wife and sister-in-law. Of course, once my wife understood my confusion and explained it to me, it made sense.
TD is open till 8pm most nights at certain locations. Are you talking 11ish here?
In fairness, I remember when Canadian banks kept "bankers' hours": if memory serves, banks were open from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday to Thursday; but on Fridays, they were open from 9:30 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. There was no Saturday or Sunday banking, and there were no ATMs. Needless to say, there were long lineups at the bank on Friday afternoons, as people were trying to cash paycheques and get enough cash for the coming week.
The idea that consumer banking can take place outside of "bankers' hours" is relatively recent--within the last thirty years or so.
Canadians say 'roof' while Yanks say 'ruff'. Anyone who ever watched Irv Wienstien on Buffalo news knows that... Though he isn't the only American I have heard use that odd pronunciation.
In the southern part of the US it sounds more like rerf where people in Canada it sounds more like rooooof really big emphasis on the oo sound than the er sound.
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Originally Posted by f1000
the people are generally less judgmental and less likely to be confrontational, is what i mean
the accent is different. noticeably different to my ears but i pay attention to details. word use is pretty much the same.
there are definite cultural diffences but far less than between the US and hundreds of other countries/ parts of the world
From what I seen Canadians dress way more casual than people in south or sun belt cities in the US with may be the exception of Florida.
Growing up in a British tradition home, I can confirm we had biscuits. My great-grandmother used to serve them with tea (usually with jam) and they were called "tea biscuits". They were also popular with beef stew.
Calling a cookie a biscuit is still true in England, but I think long out of daily use Canadian English.
Main differences between these biscuits and US biscuits I've had were that the "tea biscuits" were always small, and had less oil in them - this made them drier and not as golden brown as US biscuits.
Canadians say 'roof' while Yanks say 'ruff'. Anyone who ever watched Irv Wienstien on Buffalo news knows that... Though he isn't the only American I have heard use that odd pronunciation.
I say it as roof [maybe it's that double "oo" - explaination found later in this post]. We lived up near Rochester, NY. Maybe the way you heard it perhaps they were just joking? We had a comedian in our house - my Dad. He would say to our dog, "what's on top of the house?" and of course, the dog does his bark which is more of a ruff than a roof but you get the picture, right? That's how we jokingly sometimes say ruff rather than roof. Maybe there are some that make the 'oo' sound in roof, more like an a sound but I thought that was more like when it's only one o in the word rather than a double oo together? I'm somewhat guilty saying the word, rock or Rochester with an a in place of the o but it's only with certain words. I can't do it too much with words like word or soft but words like hot and rock, well... guilty as charged .
I don't think the Canadians way of saying things or doing things is strange but I'm sure it might take a while to get used to just as it might be for them when it comes to the U.S. Maybe some are already use to hearing words said a different way because they have a close friend or relative/s that live on the other side of the border or that they themselves have spent a considerable amount of time in either place? I know for myself doing the metric may be more challenging as I'm not used to it but then I'm not a pro at the US version of measurements either. I'd at least prefer picking up on languages than doing any kind of math and some of
my friends and/or relatives would probably choose math over language.
I don't know about the banks opening later as even in the US, some are open later than others. As for the athletic centers or sports centers - some malls or big shopping and residential areas do have these. There's
alot of shopping and recreational that was purposely built around a residential center in Northern Virginia. Actually I'm not sure if the idea of the shopping and recreational was purposely built around the residential area or vice versa. In either case, I think it's a great idea. I wish more places had that option but with that, more than likely, the prices would be signficantly higher. Still, there's a number of people who would support such a complex. I might even be tempted but alot would depend on how much it would cost me, and the advantages/disadvantages if one has any pets.
I shouldn't have spoken for the whole U.S. The bank I used to go to always closed at 5:00 and only open until noon on Saturdays. This was a small bank so it might be different with the larger institutions. They also had drive-thru banking which doesn't seem to exist here.
Last edited by gosling; 05-10-2013 at 09:07 AM..
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[maybe it's that double "oo" - explaination found later in this post]. We lived up near Rochester, NY. Maybe the way you heard it perhaps they were just joking? We had a comedian in our house - my Dad. He would say to our dog, "what's on top of the house?" and of course, the dog does his bark which is more of a ruff than a roof but you get the picture, right? That's how we jokingly sometimes say ruff rather than roof. Maybe there are some that make the 'oo' sound in roof, more like an a sound but I thought that was more like when it's only one o in the word rather than a double oo together? I'm somewhat guilty saying the word, rock or Rochester with an a in place of the o but it's only with certain words. I can't do it too much with words like word or soft but words like hot and rock, well... guilty as charged 
.
