Funny Things we Canadians hear!

[twinz]

Let me just start by saying that neither of us say ABOOT...LOL
I have a few comments.
We were in Ohio at a concert, and I was talking to this other girl sitting beside me. Sha asked where I was from and I told her Toronto Canada, and she looked at me and goes "oh you speak english?" Her friend said "you dummy what do you think she s speaking to you right now!",
Another time we were visiting friends in Boston and we were talking to their neightbour, and we were telling him about Toronto. He was shocked and amazed when we told him our temperatures are VERY close to Bostons. He couldn't believe that we didn;t have snow all the time.

I always LOVE to watch the Talking to American's and always get the biggest laugh when I am watching it!

 

[pkitty]

Two Newfies talk'n bout fish.

Although I am not from Newfoundland. I did date a beautiful gal from there who told me this one. I must say they are sometimes their own worst enemy. I also have to admit they have a great sence of humor and know how to laugh at ones self.

PS. Hope this does not offend anyone.

 

[pkitty]

While reading these stories I have to share a good one with you. I am a Police Officer in Ontario and was posted to Northern Ontario for a duration posting. In the five years I spent there I have to say they only Iglo I saw was the one my DD had me build for her in the winter so she could play. Anyway I recieved a call to attend a small community about 1 1/2 hours from my office this was in regards to a fail to remain motor vehicle collision. It was moose or bear hunting season and alot of tourists were up hoping to get a head to mount on their wall (the only wildlife I like to shoot is with a camara but thats a whole other story). Knowing it was going to take so long to get there I went home and packed my lunch, and grabbed a Tim Hortons coffee for the long trip out. Once I got there I met with the complainant who's vehicle was hit in a parking lot
they had seen the suspect vehicle and cought a glimpse of the driver. The damage was quite extensive and appearant the person who hit them would have known what they did. I then took the complainants information and found them to be from Michigan and when I got to the description of the suspect and their vehicle and plate number. The plate was from Colorado. It took me about 2 minutes to find out who the owner was and what street he lived on and another 30 seconds to get his telephone number. I then spoke to the owner of the local General store/Liquor/Bait and Tackle shop and found out the culprit was staying at a hunting lodge about 5 miles out of town. Anyways the long arm of the law was speaking to the suspect approx 3 hours after he hit the victims car. In all my years of working up there I think that was the only Fail to Remain that community had in about 10 years. I just thought it was funny the two involved happened to be Amarican.

 

[pkitty]

sorry for the typo. American

 

[Eskie_Lover]

The funniest thing I had happen, was I was posting to an internet board, about how hot it was (35-40 degrees without the humidex), and that my dog was spending all day sitting on the air conditioner vent. Someone from California posted back that that was nothing - they were in the 90s.... I had to explain that I was talking about Celcius, and that 37 degress Celcius is equivalent to 100 degress Fahrenheit.

I would just love to have seen her reaction to my original post - 35 degrees Fahrenheit would just be over freezing, but to a Canadian it was so hot I had to turn on the air conditioning, and my dog had to stay on the air conditioning vent???? LOL

 

[MikeJ]

One child wrote, "London is a city in Canada and it rains a lot"
I told her they were half right - London is in Canada (she didn't know) and I said it doesn't really rain a lot (the child was referring to London, England)

Trust me, it does rain a lot here, and I have the new pond in my backyard to prove it...

- Mike

 

[DisneySpence]

My best recalection of a funny question from somone from the states was at a hockey tournament when I was younger. I was hit with a stick and cut and went to the dressingroom to get stitches and came back to play. After the game I was asked if I even felt the pain or if living in Canada and being cold all the time made me numb so I didn't feel anything LOL that was a funny one.
Another one was in Ohio while at Cedar Point and I was asked if we needed the money different colours so that we didn't get confused with American money. This was a bad one in university on our way to FLA for spring break we paid our lunch bill with CDN Tire money and they put some of it on the wall as their first CDN money ever recieved in the place we had a good chuckle over that one but looking back now we see just how wrong that was.

 

[Yzma and Kronk]

I'm still on a fact finding mission on which province says "aboot" instead of "about (abowt), lol......soooo, which province were you living in, Y & K?

Sandy: I'm from Ontario, grew up quiet close to the Michigan boarder. I had NEVER heard "aboot" before. I thought it was a bunch of sillyness too. I never heard it or said it, and I spoke to Canadians from all over in my job.
Now, that being said about 6 months after we moved down here and I found myself listening to the cashier at the local Publix say, "Hey, how y'all dooin. Jaunt sum extre caash with thaaat" I also had to switch from garbage to trash, evestroughs to gutters, pop to coke, etc, my Canadian ear must have gone a little flat!
I was outside talking to a neighbour and I used the word "about" and distinctly heard "aboot" coming out of my mouth. It wasn't as pronounced as consciously saying "aboot", it was more subtle than that, but I DID SAY IT!
I HEARD ME

I was horrified! I felt like some sort of northern Yankee hick!

I'm sure we Canadians don't really hear it in Canada, as the Sutherner's don't necessarily hear the y'all's etc. (they still think I'm the happiest Canadian they've met, because I still think the Southern accent can be pretty funny at times, and when I hear it I smile when I'm rolling with laughter inside)

I don't think it is necessarily from one part of Canada or another, it's just a Canadian thing (or should I say thang......LOL!) I was told once however, that I have a very strong Canadian accent - whatever that means!

 

[melindaandrob]

At the Canadian pavilion dh (Rob of melindaandrob) was making a purchase and the CM asked "Are you making fun of me?"
He was a little taken back and said "No! why?"
"You said eh"
He laughed, he didn't realize he even said it.
She said "I wondered because you used it right"
Imagine what the Canadians in the pavillion put up with in regards to stereotypes.
We were suddenly very conscious of the word 'eh', I never realized just how much we said it. (When I'm oot and aboot)

We were getting on a bus one morning and the driver immediately asked if we were from Canada. Rob asked how he knew.
"The kids are in shorts and t-shirts"
(Hey! we had jackets and touques in our pockets--just kidding none of us have ever worn touques)

 

[ChisJo]

This was a bad one in university on our way to FLA for spring break we paid our lunch bill with CDN Tire money and they put some of it on the wall as their first CDN money ever recieved in the place we had a good chuckle over that one but looking back now we see just how wrong that was.

This is so bad....But at the same time, so funny!!!
Jo

 

[Amberle3]

I'm still on a fact finding mission on which province says "aboot" instead of "about (abowt), lol......soooo, which province were you living in, Y & K?

According to DFi's best friend (an American) - I do. He's from NY, lived in GA for a number of years and is now in CA. Every time I talk to him on the phone and accidently say "about" he cracks up and makes me say it again. He SWEARS I say "aboot". No one else I know hears it though.

 

[sapdaddy]

When I go on vacation I try to get a tee shirt from the places that I find most interesting. I picked up a shirt that has the Peggy's cove light house and under it was "Peggy's Cove, NS. At least once every time I wore that shirt someone would ask me, "Which state is NS?" I would just say it's not in the US. I think most couldn't figure it out.

 

[Sandyincanada]

According to DFi's best friend (an American) - I do. He's from NY, lived in GA for a number of years and is now in CA. Every time I talk to him on the phone and accidently say "about" he cracks up and makes me say it again. He SWEARS I say "aboot". No one else I know hears it though.

hmmmm, my DH from Britian doesn't hear "aboot", it seems only some Americans hear it so I wonder if these same people who hear "aboot" actually pronounce boots (as in shoes) "bowts"...then it would all make sense, lol

works for me

 

[Mickey Fanatic]

We had a funny one on our last trip to WDW.

We purposely arrived the weekend AFTER their Thanksgiving to avoid the crowds. When we were talking to our airport shuttle driver and telling them that it is strange to us to have Thanksgiving on a week day and comparing the days off we both get fot the holiday he said,"You have Thanksgiving up there?"

I think that it was more funny because he just finished telling us that he spends a week every summer visiting friends in Mississauga!

 

[PanamaMike]

We had a funny one on our last trip to WDW.

We purposely arrived the weekend AFTER their Thanksgiving to avoid the crowds. When we were talking to our airport shuttle driver and telling them that it is strange to us to have Thanksgiving on a week day

American Thanksgiving is Thursday
Canadian Thanksgiving is Monday.

Both Monday and Thursday are weekdays.

 

[Sandy22]

Ok, this aboot thing drives me nuts, lol....exactly what provinces do you hear this in cause its certainly not MB, SK, AB, BC or Ont. (These are the provinces I frequent). We pronounce it about (abowt, I guess). Maybe its a french pronounciation?

LOL - no way - not a french pronounciation. I live in Quebec and have never heard it pronouced "aboot". We pronounce it like "abowt". I don't hear an accent when watching American movies or while I'm traveling in most of the States. I can hear an accent in the "southern states" and in NY/NJ.

In Florida, when I tell people I live in the province of Quebec, they have no idea where this is and are always surprised I can speak French. To help them visualize where I live I'll say I'm 15 minutes from Ottawa - then I get a blank stare. But by far, the most common thing I get is people assuming I'm experiencing summer-like weather for the very first time. I think they know I'm not living in an igloo but they don't realize that I do live in an area where it's +30 C many summer days. When I took my summer trip to Orlando, it was hotter back home!

 

[pkitty]

I lived in the Maritimes (Nova Scotia) for 6 years and have heard numerous Maritimers pronounce the word about "aboot" and hello "A buy" or where are you going "where ya too buy" and a few others. I find it hard to believe we from Ontario say aboot due in part that we know out is pronounced out and not oot. So folks from Ontario am I right or oot right wrong ?

all in fun pkitty.

 

[Sandyincanada]

Hah!! So it is the Maritimes, lol thanks, pkitty. That was my first thought, with all the Scottish there but my DD (who moved there a few months ago)said (in a rather uppity voice, I might add) no, Mom, we do not pronounce about like aboot here in NS and proceded to brag about her nice weather while asking me about our blizzard...the brat!!

Sandy22, I found that out for myself this week. I'm in Ottawa on business and popped into the Casino in PQ (hull?)...I actually found myself listening for it, sooooo sad lol.

 

[twinz]

Onthe flip side of this I notice that most American's pronounce PINK as PEENK, or BOX as BAX. It drives me nuts! LOL

 

[jersey shark]

Okay, just had to claim the 100th posting on this marathon thread.

The "oot & aboot" phenomena is really interesting...I've maintained previously that it is certainly there very prominently to the US ear (I personally hear it on virtually every Canadian I speak with), but from what many of you report, you don't detect it at all (UNLESS you've left Canada for awhile and then it becomes VERY apparent, as I believe Y & K reported). Maybe that's just the nature of accents...difficult to detect unless one is out of their native "zone".

Here's some more great Canadian accent notes (not being critical; point being makes for some charm on my visits to Canada)

* the word "again"....in the US this never rhymes with "pain"
* (of course) "eh"....this truly is everywhere!
* the word "sorry"...previously described in this thread....the Cdn "soar-y" pronounciation just cracks me up...the US way is more "Saw-ry"...also, the frequency of needless apologies in Canada makes for tremendous use of this word...I remember being in a hurry once and turning a corner in Toronto Airport only to nearly bowl someone over (my fault) and my "victim" apologized to me profusely!!!!
* not an accent thing, but the word "buggy" for cart in the grocery store is pretty amusing, as is use of word "dinner" for the noon time meal (dinner means the evening meal in the US and word "supper" is rarely used).
* there is a very unusual speech thing in Nova Scotia, many folks there, when agreeing with someone, will say "Yeah, yeah, yeah" (rhymes with heh...the way "heather" starts out), and the same time they're saying this, they seem to breathe in in short spurts (not to the point of hyperventilating but...) ...aw, I may lose you on this because it's hard to describe in words, but it's very apparent to me....but then again, people from Maine have a very odd speech pattern to many non-Maine ears.

But isn't it just grand that we all have our local accents and it makes the world more interesting....it's nice that we're not all clones of one another, isn't it??

By the way, the "bax" (for "box") described above as a US accent is very regional ...it's the upstate NY-Cleveland-Detroit-Chicago nasal accent that calls a dollar a "dallar".

I have a few honies that I'm ALWAYS called on when in Canada (and in many other parts of the US)...mostly the "awe" sound in words like "costs", "office" and "coffee"...which Cdns hear as "cuh-wa-fee" as opposed to your "caw-fee"! I also have a great deal of difficulty with those French derived words that come seemingly natural to many Cdns...I love croissants for example, but can never pronounce them correctly (even as English Cdns can)...same for foyer (of a hotel for example)...I'm amazed that Cdns use the fo-yeah versus foy-er, but it shouldn't be that surprising...just sounds so odd to me when you first hear it.

Happy Weekend All!

Heavy rain in NJ today...hopin' for sun tomorrow!