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Greetings

When I was growing up I spent a lot of time questioning the existence of a Canadian culture. Like the Yeti or the Sasquatch, the idea of a true Canadian culture was believable but just a little too fantastical to truly get behind. Afterall, a country as young as ours (post colonization, of course) has little in the way of history and nobody ever clamours for "Canadian food". It's true that recently Canadian music has made huge inroads, but in my youth there was Cory Hart and Brian Adams...enough said.

But after spending a year overseas and meeting friends from all over the world, I've come to realise that not only is the Canadian culture real, but it's fantastic. I'm definitely leaving here a lot prouder of Canada than when I came here (which says a lot because I was always patriotic).

To demonstrate my newfound love for all things Canadiana, I thought I would make a list of the things I've come to love this year.


Number 8: Come on in


In television shows nobody ever takes their shoes off upon entering a house or apartment. I always thought that this was to save time or something. I certainly never thought that millions (perhaps billions) of people actually do this every day. But, upon visiting an Australian friend's house I learned that people really do wear shoes in their houses. It seems that this is common behaviour in Australia.

It seems that this is also common in South Africa too, as a friend from there mentioned that they do the same thing. As someone whose mother would introduce them to the business end of a cane if he did such a thing, I still can't wrap my head around the idea. I guess it depends on the weather and geography of a place. But still, here's to you Canada and your clean carpets. Keep up the good work.



Number 7: It's a F^ck*i%g toboggan

If you looked at the above picture and thought "hey, thats a swell looking sled" then please leave the site because we can no longer be friends. I was shocked how many people had no idea what I was talking about when I used the word toboggan last winter. I'm proud to come from a country where people still know what a toboggan is. I know that this is true because every winter Canadian tire publishes fliers advertising both toboggans and sleds. Hooray.



Number 6: This is not a knit hat or knit cap, sock cap or stocking cap, or a watch cap - It's a tuque.

Sigh, much like toboggan the word tuque needs to be exported to the rest of the world. It's a fine word and besides, can you imagine asking "hey where is my stocking cap"? That just sounds wrong.



Number 5: "tee"? NEVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

This is something that I have struggled with all year but try it out. Please say the following words aloud:

1. Thirty
2. Forty
3. Fifty

If you pronounced them just as they are written then you're probably not Canadian. It seems to be a Canadian thing to say "thir-dy, for-dy, fif-dy" and so on and so on. For some reason Canadians prefer to add a 'D' sound to the end of their numbers. I tried to avoid doing this when I was teaching the children as most native English speakers don't seem to do it. It was hard for me though. I would clench my teeth and shake as I forced myself to say "twen-ty, thir-ty", etc etc. Somedays I would run home just so I could scream " FIF-DYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY".

I don't know if this is common all over Canada or in any other English speaking countries, but from the sites I've read it definitely appears to be a Canadian phenomenon.



Number 4: Yeah, I said it...chesterfield.


Dictionary.com defines a chesterfield as:

"Chiefly Canadian. Any large sofa or couch."

To me chesterfield was just another name for a couch. I had no idea that it was a Canadian concept until a few months ago. I was eating lunch with some people from Australia and Bengladesh, when I told a story about how I had seen a couch in the middle of the road. Of course, I used the word "chesterfield" instead of couch and the blank stares I got back were priceless. At first I thought everyone was surprised because I was wasting their time with such a boring story. But alas, the stares were because they had absolutely no idea what a chesterfield was.

Another fine example of Canadian culture - the chesterfield.

Number 3: Degrassi High Baby

This show is to Canada what the Kangaroo is to Australia or what the hairy highland cow is to Scotland. Simply put, nothing truly encapsulates Canada like Degrassi High. I swear that when I meet non-Canadians for the first time they always bring this show up. It always goes like this:

"So, you're from Canada? How about that Degrassi? Now that was a great show."

No kidding, it's always like that. People from all over the world know about Arthur and Wheels and Snake. In fact, a friend from Australia watched the show in Sex Ed. Yep, it's true, what the Australians know about sex they learned from Joey Jeremiah.

If that doesn't make you proud to be Canadian, nothing will.

Number 2: What I'd give for a box of KD


I'm extremely proud of how much Jo and I became accustomed to Korean food. We eat it all the time and we truly love almost all of it (we'll never love that nasty spinebone soup). But despite our newfound relationship with Korean food, we never lost our cravings for Kraft Dinner. When I went home for that week in November I brought a suitcase of it back and we've been rationing it ever since.

Our love for the cheesy goodness that is Macaroni and Cheese seems to puzzle most of our friends. Upon studying the matter further, I've learned that Canada consumes more Kraft Dinner than any other country, and that lots of people from other counties either don't like it or have never even tried it.

So tonight celebrate Canada by having a bowl. Mmmm cheesy goodness.



Number 1: This land is my land, this land is your land (everyone hug now)


The word multicultural is old hat to my generation. It's something we take for granted and accept as an absolute societal norm. Few of us can imagine living in a country that isn't filled with a wide variety of ethnicities and cultures.

Being in Korea has really made me appreciate what Canada has to offer in this area. I know that we aren't alone with this, but seeing what the complete opposite is like has given me a newfound sense of pride in the diverse nature of Canada.

Canada is home to people from all over the world and the fact that we don't have one recognizable culture and instead have dozens (if not hundreds) of different ones, is what makes us great.

Still, as my list has proven, we do have a lot in common. So everybody join together...

"Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbaya"

Cheers

Shayne