Quote:
Originally Posted by wave46
I'd offer the opinion that alien would be too strong a characterization.
I'd like to think I quite understand America. I might not agree with some of the views, but I think I could at minimum understand the point of view of an 'average' person there. As you mention, your sister married a local - this isn't an oil to water situation.
Whereas somewhere like mainland China or Japan I would describe as alien. Would we laugh at the same jokes, as I laugh at something like the Simpsons? (at least the early seasons) Even if I was a native language speaker, I think I'd struggle with the overarching social interactions - there's levels of context to interactions I'd never really understand, having been raised in a low-context society. Sure, the Japanese are quite friendly to tourists, but I think I'd always been looked on as a gaijin if I tried to settle there. The interactions would be friendly, but I suspect I'd never have the candid take on things that I get here (or in America) if I sat down and had a few drinks with someone.
Anyway, I digress on the matter.
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I am in general agreement with you, and I don't think you're being disrespectful. (How can you be, anyway? You're talking about your own people!)
But if we're talking about micro-aggressions and such (yeah, I know I'm the one who brought that up), another one is probably
saying that (Anglo-)Canadians are exactly the same as Americans.
Some might even say that alluding to the existence of "Anglo-Canadians" as an identifiable group is also a micro-aggression.
In any event, I do think Rousseau has a point when he talks about what I think we could call mindset and demeanour.
There *is* a perceptible difference I would say between Canadians and Americans, though there are also differences within the US itself. As such, assuming there was no border would the mindset and demeanour fit in rather nicely among the variety in terms of mindset/demeanour that already exists across the US?
Is there is a Canadian mindset/demeanour that is predominant in Lower Sackville, Guelph and Sherwood Park but that drops down to zero as soon as you cross the border?
And if so, within the entire United of States of America and its 330 million people and infinite subcultures, is there no mindset/demeanour among those multitudes that is essentially the same as the Canadian one? Or that comes close enough?
Here I am using the same principles that I apply to accents. Yes, most Canadians who speak English do sound a bit different from Americans. But to me the accent is not alien to the point where, in the absence of a border, it could not be considered one accent among all the regional accents that already exist within the US: Boston Brahmin, New Yawk, Texas, California, Northern US Cities Vowel Shift, etc.
I mean, in many ways the Canadian accent in English is closer to "neutral American" than some accents that are native to the US.
(The Newfoundland accent is a notable exception - there aren't any accents native to the US that are similar to that.)