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If you take French in Canada vs. Spanish in the U.S., French in Canada punches higher.
In order for it to be even comparable you'd have to have something like the entire Midwest functioning in Spanish with much of it having no "anglos" living there at all. You'd have immigrants from totally non-Hispanic countries taking up Spanish (often with little to no knowledge of English) for their new lives in the U.S., from A to Z, in places like Chicago, Madison and Minneapolis.
Both the Dem and GOP presidential candidates would have to have reasonable fluency in Spanish, to the point of being able to partake in a debate in that language. If you didn't have it, you'd probably not even make it to the primaries - where there would also be debates in Spanish.
Most senior government officials would also have to know Spanish in addition to English. Not just a "nice to have", but a pretty firm requirement.
The Surgeon-General of the United States for example would have to field media questions in Spanish, regardless of his or her origins or background. Just like the Chief Medical Officer for all of Canada is doing this week, even though she is 50-something native of Hong Kong who grew up in the UK and went to university in Britain and Western Canada. So nothing in her life path predisposes her to know any French at all. But there she is this week, explaining our country's COVID-19 response in both English and French. Because it's Canada.
You're describing the predominance of a minority language, not a diversity of different languages present in Canada.
Well in my months travelling in the US I found the food quite homogeneous. Lots of chain restaurants and much of the ethnic food Americanised. We have found in the US one of the least enjoyable aspects of our time there. And don't start me on the coffee!
The panic shopping here at the moment is seeing the most sought food for storing is pasta.
But I have had a much more diverse range of food in the UK than in either the US or Canada. The food in London is brilliant and we have had really good Thai food in places like northern Scotland, much better than the Thai food we had in Utah a couple of years ago.
I cannot deny buying lamingtons. You can get 18 small fingers for $2.50 at Coles and they are excellent bribery for our grandkids.
Ethnic food is much less "Americanized" than ethnic food is "Britishized" in the UK. To call it homogeneous when we also have a larger array of regional and local cuisines is pretty ignorant, including cuisines that Australia nor the UK have at all, like Mexican and Latin cuisines. We also have Mexican cooking styles indigenous to the SW.
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Originally Posted by Acajack
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The chain dining scene (both fast food and sit-down) is ubiquitous sometimes to the point of feeling oppressive in the U.S.
But if you get past that, the U.S. is clearly far ahead of all three other countries in this poll in terms of the sheer variety and quality of regional cuisines. Nobody else has anything close to the same number of equivalents to Tex-Mex, soul food, Cajun, Southern BBQ, Hawaiian, etc. Those were just off the top of my head in a split second. There are too many to mention.
I do think another poster made a good point about the UK (especially London) doing an excellent job at ethnic cuisines from all over the world. In that respect specifically it would probably be the winner.
It would be interesting to ponder why that might be the case. Could it be that the fact that English/British cuisine doesn't get much love or respect (even from people in the UK themselves) that it left lots more "open space" to be taken up by the cuisines of newcomers as they arrived?
The chain dining scene is no more ubiquitous than it is in Canada, where I found it to be more of a problem outside of major cities.
But of course, a traveler is likely to have a different perspective.
Last edited by wattsupmane; 04-10-2020 at 05:54 PM..
I feel the same way. Funny how, in every category stated by Creneb56, the US wins or ties, every time.
Let's consider "Political/Ideological Diversity." According to Creneb, the US comes out on top, followed by the UK and Canada. But the US has only two political parties who mean anything, and who occupy seats in Congress (admittedly, there are fringe parties, but they never get elected to Congress or the presidency). The UK has at least ten parties represented in Parliament; and Canada has five parties represented in Parliament, plus one independent. I'm unsure about Australia's Parliament, but I'll let our Australian friends speak to that.
How can the US be more "politically/ideologically diverse" with only two parties in Congress, when other western democracies have more parties in their Parliaments--all of which parties have different--and most importantly, diverse--views?
Political diversity doesn't equate to the number of parties.
The US is the largest country on earth, and is measurably one of, if not the most, ethnically, racially, and religiously diverse, as well as the most culturally dominant force right now. Maybe it just deserves to win on most or all of these categories? Canada is very small, and was dominated by French and WASP culture for much longer. How would you say it's more diverse?
That's not to say Canada isn't diverse. I just don't think its as diverse in any of these ways as the US. I know everyone these days wants everything to be an opinion, but it's not: what we're discussing here is facts. What country is most diverse in terms of ethnicity, art, language, religion, food, etc, can, and has been, measured. On most, if not all of these categories, the US is more diverse than most any country in the world. It's huge population size and multi-ethnic community, not to mention it's intense period of nation building, ensured that. And it looks like the vast majority of people in the poll agree with me. 39 of 56, to be exact.
Last edited by wattsupmane; 04-10-2020 at 06:46 PM..
Culinary diversity: Australia ranked last. Does the poster have any idea what we eat here?
Religious diversity: Australia ranked last. True that a third of the population state they have no religion, but what religions would be represented in the other countries that are not found here?
Australia doesn't rank highly on any list I've scene of cities for availability of ethnic food, relative to the US. It also has no regional cuisines like the US does. I don't know how it can be argued to have more culinary diversity.
And there are way more religious people of all sort in the US than in Australia
Thinking the same thing. Indeed the most Christian country on the List is Actually the USA. The US is the highest Jewish % to total of course, but it is also the least Islamic by a good margin, and would be near the bottom or at the bottom for virtually any religion that comes out of Asia.
Of course Christian protestants take in a huge variety of different religions, however you would be flat out find one that exists in the US but not Australia. Groups like Quakers, Exclusive Brethren, Peitism and other such Christian Dominions, that are not exactly well known or main stream all exist in Australia, as they would elsewhere.
I once had a boss who was in the Exclusive Brethren, its a rather weird religion that's for sure.
The US isn't that much more christian than Canada is.
The US has far more religious denominations and indigenous religions than Canada or Australia, as well...
By indigenous, I mean religions invented in the US, rather than native religions
In the first place, the drive from NYC to Miami probably seemed extremely long to you, but you only saw a tiny fraction of the entire US.
Secondly, if all of those cities and states you drove through were the same to you, you either didn't venture far off the highway or you weren't looking. Could you really not tell that people in the South have different accents than people in the North?
By the way, the nationalities I mentioned living in my California town are not people whose great-grandparents immigrated from wherever. They are people who ACTUALLY were born and lived and still have ties to those countries. My Argentinian neighbors visit their parents in Argentina almost every year; my Iranian neighbors celebrate Nowruz.
Your experience in the US is so limited, you don't even realize there are lots and lots of neighborhoods where people of all races live close together, and interracial marriage is not uncommon at all.
Her claims are extraordinarily extreme and ridiculous.
The idea that people in the US don't mix like in the UK is absurd. There have been different races and ethnicities living together in the US since it was founded, that defines the American nationality. To say that the UK is more diverse in this respect is just absurd and anti-factual.
Yep, and among Anglophone countries that's a trait shared with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore with the last one probably being the one that has the highest percentage of people whose immigration history don't go that far back.
But all of those Anglophone countries had much more restrictive immigration policies than the US until very recently, after World War II. That's what I'm saying. The populations of Canada and Australia, while very diverse, aren't AS diverse or mixed as the US - which is why their populations are so small, for one.
But all of those Anglophone countries had much more restrictive immigration policies than the US until very recently, after World War II. That's what I'm saying. The populations of Canada and Australia, while very diverse, aren't AS diverse or mixed as the US - which is why their populations are so small, for one.
Ok wattsupmane,
You win. The US is the best at everything. We are all anxious to move there at the moment.
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