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Oh my; I completely forgot the venerable "roundabout" for the efficient and orderly movement of traffic through "intersections" of highways.
Roundabouts move traffic 50% more efficiently than stupid stop signs, and they are not used between highway intersections. Small city roads, yes.
North America should do away with stop signs at all but the smallest intersections. Roundabouts for the medium-sized ones, and traffic lights for the large ones.
Canada is still a destination for migrants from the UK, but for younger people my sense is they go more to Australia and the US these days, and you're just as likely to hear a young person with a British accent in the big northeastern cities of the US as in Toronto for example.
Australia still gets reasonably large numbers of UK migrants. Interestingly, they have by far the highest return home rate of any migrant group. It's an issue that gets a bit of coverage by social researchers from time to time. The most common reasons given by those returning to the UK are distance from family ( which is hardly specific to Brits) and that Australian lifestyle and culture are just "too different" - they feel too much like outsiders.
Australia still gets reasonably large numbers of UK migrants. Interestingly, they have by far the highest return home rate of any migrant group. It's an issue that gets a bit of coverage by social researchers from time to time. The most common reasons given by those returning to the UK are distance from family ( which is hardly specific to Brits) and that Australian lifestyle and culture are just "too different" - they feel too much like outsiders.
That's very interesting. Relative to population, Quebec gets a lot of French immigrants these days (usually first or second on the country of origin list from year to year), but they also have a very high return rate to France. Much more than any other immigrant group.
Well, I guess our cars would have bonnets, not hoods; boots, not trunks; tyres, not tires; and we'd drive on the left, in right-hand drive cars, down streets lined with kerbs, not curbs. I wouldn't take the elevator, I'd take the lift; and the first floor would not be ground level; it would actually be what I now call the second floor. I'd ride a coach between cities, though I'd ride the bus in the city. Or I might travel by tube or Underground--I wouldn't take the subway, metro, or LRT.
I'd measure my weight in stones and pounds. Speaking of pounds, they'd be our currency, not dollars. I'd be eating delicacies like spotted dick and toad-in-the-hole, not poutine and Nanaimo bars. If I needed help, I'd call the bobbies, constables, or PCs; not the cops. And if a fire was involved, I'd call the fire brigade, not the fire department. Oh, and I'd call 999, not 911.
I'd have to pay for a license just to own and watch a TV. I'd use the Royal Mail, not Canada Post. I'd have a mobile, not a cellphone.
I would consider "football" to be what North Americans call "soccer," instead of Canada's own football game, which is very similar to American football. Indeed, Canadian football, and hockey, and baseball, and basketball, would take a backseat to soccer. Heck, soccer would be a grownup game, instead of something our kids do, until they grow out of it. And I'd play cricket, instead of knowing nothing about it.
Hey, this is fun! C'mon, Canadians, answer the question: How much more British could we be?
Well there'd be all those articulators on the highways instead of "semi's", we'd visit the "loo" instead of the washrooms or bathrooms. We'd tell hotels to knock us up instead of leaving a wake-up call. We'd shop for our "messages" instead of going to the supermarket for our groceries and we'd be doing it on a daily basis rather than weekly or bi-weekly due to the normally much smaller under-the-counter refridgerators.
We'd go to an off-track and place a bet on the races. We'd have a pint in one pup with regular Saturday group but walk out the door and three steps to the north, enter another pub for their plowman's lunch and another pint, then step out the door to walk a further three steps to the north to join your regular dart's league at yet another pub to then..........and so on; never having to once sit behind the wheel of a car.
Oh my; I completely forgot the venerable "roundabout" for the efficient and orderly movement of traffic through "intersections" of highways.
Well, the person deliberately chose English words that are different in North America vs. the UK. There are words that are similarly different between us and France, but obviously they aren't usually the same ones.
Although in Quebec, soccer is used for the sport known in most of the world as football. Football in Quebec is gridiron (Canadian or American) football. But interestingly enough, the short form for football (soccer), "foot", when used in Quebec will refer to soccer. There is a store in my city called Planète Foot and it is soccer stuff they sell.
If someone here says "je joue au foot", it means they play soccer.
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