Little Perceived Differences # 1

Some small differences between Canada and Australia that I've noticed.

Canauckians really do attach 'eh' a lot to the end of their sentences. In a noticeable way. I mean, I had a habit of saying 'eh' at the end of my sentences back home but I would say it in one whole breath, for example:

" It was a good movie eh !"

Whereas, I've noticed Canuckians say it with more exaggeration on the 'eh', as in:

" It was a good movie .... ( wait a few beats) ehhh!"

If I was Canadian I'd plan to have the words " I died, eh ! " on my headstone after I carked it.
Jusssst playin with ya, Canuckians, dont feed me to the mooses !

Pizza slices are freakin BIG here. They're like two and a half times bigger then Aussie pizza slices.

Matter of fact, a lot of their food/drink/grocery item proportions are bigger.

The obvious: they drive on the wrong side of the road.. When I first arrived here it felt so awkward crossing the road. I would automatically turn my head right instead of left, to look for oncoming vehicles.

Drivers slow down in the middle of a busy road and wait for you to cross over, if you're in the middle. Aussie drivers just let ya stand in the centre and play a game of Frogger as ya look for a big enough gap between cars to scoot across. Though, perhaps they just did that because I had a 'deer in the headlights' look about me. Now I automatically turn my head left when crossing ( yay for me and my road survival, stay-outta-hospital-coz-I-have-no-medical-coverage'ness ! ). Yet I sometimes lapse and check the 'right' way as well lol.

They have squirrels ! Still wondering if the little critters bite ?

They dont have an accent, its me who does.Their accents stood out when I first arrived. But now I've stopped hearing their accent and started hearing mine. Even to my own ears I talk funny lol.Someone asked me my name the other day and when I told them they looked at me quizzically and asked " Thats an exotic name, how do you spell that ?"
"Um T...I...N...A "
" Oh TINA ! "
"How did it sound to you when I said it "?
" It sounded like Taynah or somethin.."
I've lost my accent a couple of times where, one example, I've accidently pronounced 'cant' and sounding out the 'a' like ya would pronounce it for 'can'...instead of how I normally say it, which is pronouncing it like we do 'car' ie."carrnt". Suddenly our way of pronouncing 'cant' sounds rude heh ( I was gonna type out the obvious word it sounds like but its crude and that word grates on me like nails on a chalkboard).


Some other things in short..

Ppl stand on the right side of the escalator and walk up/down on the left side. Probably in relation to the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road and cant break this habit.

When they try to put on an aussie accent they come out sounding like a hybrid of South African, British and Kiwi.

Canadian temperature, weather-wise, feels warmer then Melbourne temperature equivalent.. A 17 degree C day here feels like a 24 degree C day back home.

My cat even meows with a Canadian accent. Meooooow-eh , purrrrr-eh.

A lot of Canadian men treat their women a hella lot better then a lot of Aussie men.Not generalising and saying all on either nationality's part but I've noticed the differences with the whole attitude to the dating game. Canadian men seem to be more romantic, respectful,thoughtful and in 'wooing' mode... even after they've 'got the girl'.
From what I've seen from Aussie men ( in my own experience and in others I've observed )a lot of Aussie guys seem to think that the fact that they're going out with ya and willing to let ya hold their remote control ( when ya pick it up to wipe down the coffee table ) is romantic enough.... haha.

Anyway I'll remember the other observations and make more observations in other posts to come.

Later, eh !