Canadian Appreciation

As mentioned, I spent a month in Nipigon, Ontario this year and had a fantastic time.  I wanted to share some of my favorite Canadian-isms--no intention to offend! It's entirely possible that these are Nipigon-isms and I just associate it all with Canada.  Just my take on some things I thought were different than in the States. My dad would make fun of my Canadian accent/inflection when I called home, and it took me a couple weeks to lose the Canadian elements that crept into my speech. It's fun to talk Canadian :)


Eh? 


Obviously everyone knows Canadians say "Eh". This is a completely under-appreciated filler word in the States. Here, we say "you know?" or "yeah" or other phrases, and really, it's completely inferior. Eh is infectious and fantastic. Everyone should say it. Give it a try, eh?


One of my clinic patients sounded like the dudes from Strange Brew or the moose characters in Brother Bear. He used "Eh" after every sentence:


"My eye is kind of puffy, eh? I woke up and looked in the mirror, eh, and it was all swollen shut eh, and after a few days I decided I'd better come in eh?"


Other speech Canadianisms:


Either pronounced eye-ther (not eee-ther). I still can't go back to eee-ther after my trip. Eye-ther is better.


mmhmm said with emphasis on the second syllable: mmmm HMMM. This is best used when actively listening to a conversation. In Mali, many of the women I spoke with would click the back of their tongue when concentrating on a conversation. In Nipigon, people said mmmHMMM. I now do both intermittently. Multicultural active listening. Give it a try!


I've not versus I haven't. Interesting contractural difference. 


The main interesting difference is the overall inflection. I don't really call it an accent because it didn't seem like an accent to me. It wasn't that the words sounded different, it was that the sentence structures did. Does that make sense? Canadian inflection!


Canadian Cuisine
While in Canada, Ray served moose meat! He is a great hunter and gets a moose every year! I felt that was as close as I'll get to having something in common with Sarah Palin. We've both eaten moose. 


Things I did not try in Canada but would like to:

Poutine:

Poutine--french fries smothered in gravy.
And now, the obligatory Super Troopers connection. You can't say "poutine" without thinking of this movie if you're me or Ashley Trock:


Just heading over the border for some french fries and gravy, sir! Poutine!
Mac, if I were your mother I'd have smothered you by now.
Smothered me in gravy you big dirty man.


Pierogi--now, I'm pretty sure this is not Canadian (Wikipedia says Polish/Eastern European), but I had never had this or been exposed to this on a menu in the States. This is served commonly at restaurants in Nipigon and there is also Pierogi day at the Nipigon hospital cafeteria. I'd still like to try it! It looks like dumplings, and I've never met a dumpling I didn't love.


Also, Canadians love hockey. There are hockey players on their money!! It's amazing!

Kathryn and I hosting a Canadian Appreciation Party in Northfield, MN

So, the result of the trip overall is that I love Canada even more and want to go back and maybe even live there in the future. What a phenomenal place, eh?