When I am travelling to the US, folks there like to make fun of Canadians for saying two things: “A – boot” for “about,” and often saying “I’m sorry.”
I don’t really hear the exaggerated “boot” US people think they hear; but there is a difference in Canada and US pronunciation. In the US, they say a-bow-oot” while Canadians clip and shorten the word. It is the same way that some in the US can get three syllables in the word “dog” but a Canadian can’t. And you’ll never hear a Canadian say “Yall reckon.” So there are definitely differences in language between the countries.
As to the “sorry,” we admit it. I hear it everyday – grocery shopping, any crowded area. It is an interesting social dynamic to me. It is not a verbal tick, not a filler word or pronunciation but an interpersonal dynamic. It relates to the very Canadian style of respecting others in their community.
By saying “sorry” someone is respecting the other person’s space and their right to be there – if you may have intruded into that space. If respecting others is a sign of weakness, I guess this may be a Canadian failing. I see it as a real societal strength building unity.
Politeness, decorum and respecting other people is a Canadian trait. Canada looks for multiculturalism where we can all wear our origins as easily as we wear our flannel shirts and toques while we slurp our maple syrup or eat some daal chapatis or tacos.
The US, on the other hand, sees itself as a melting pot where immigrants need to merge into the mainstream and disappear. In the US there are only winners and losers. In Canada, there are colleagues.
At the end of important hockey games, the teams maintain a Canadian tradition to line up and shake hands. A very Canadian thing to do. At the end of a US football game, players congratulate themselves shouting “We’re Number One!” while the losing team slinks off to the dressing room.
Canada’s national government has a cabinet with a range of visible diversity; the US federal cabinet has old white men and three token women. One cabinet is representative and multicultural; the other the result of a melting pot that filters outsiders for a generation or more..
Every conversation about national capabilities in the US starts with the assumption that the US is number one. To draw from the famous speech from Newsroom, the US is number one at putting citizens in jail, spending on military, and US football. None of those should be the basis of national pride. On the military front, the US has tried to invade Canada at least three times, all unsuccessful. The greatest ever in the history of history US military is coming off a series of embarrassing defeats in Asia – Vietnam, Afghanistan and now Iran. They certainly have lots of equipment and spend a lot of money, but… I’m sorry, based on their record, hardly the greatest.
Why so many people in jail? It could be because the US approach creates the social context for confrontation both for the representatives of authority and those who feel they are adamant defending their rights. There is little trust on either side and few options to deescalate any confrontation, only options to escalate it. That might also be seen in the US desire to constantly use hyperbole to exaggerate every small achievement – in the history of history, there has never been as iconic a society…and so on.
The Canadian approach creates the context of cooperation. The US is a war machine with many invasions made in its history; Canada for many years wore the blue helmets of peacekeepers around the world. Even the Canadian indigenous recognition statement “We are on the unceded lands of the q̓ic̓əy̓, q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓, and sǝmyámǝ” is a measure of respect for other people. Nothing of the kind exists in the US where admitting someone else’s rights may be seen as surrendering some of your own.
That helps explain why the US leads the world in incarcerations. It might also explain why the US has twice as many lawyers per capita as Canada. Compare that to Japan where the spirit of community is extremely strong. Japan has one tenth the number of lawyers per capita that Canada has. It is an even more extreme example of working together.
Should giving an inch to get along be part of the vernacular? You might say, when translating culturally, the US equivalent of the Canadian “I’m sorry” is just “Get out of my fucking way!”
One theory for the difference is that the US started with an armed revolution, aided by the French, for the colonial residents to have more money. Their slogan was “No taxation without representation” even though they didn’t really care all that much about the representation part.
Canada never took up arms in confrontation. Canada negotiated a separation that occurred gradually and calmly. Neither side screamed victory or mocked the other as being beaten. While the US shouts about freedom, it was Canada where many US slaves went to find that freedom via the Underground Railway for a hundred years or so. In reality, the US has consistently been more about economics than liberty.
Canada has never had a civil war killing almost a million citizens. The US Civil War was a war that, given current US politics, seemingly has not yet been resolved. That war was about economics too. The country is still captive to a collective greed, expressing expansionary desires but not really knowing what to do with some of its current possessions, like Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands. It is like the very billionaire who still wants to acquire more even though they don’t use what they have. Even starting wars that they cannot win or threatening invasions or territorial acquisition.
Is one culture better than the other? It really depends on the individual’s personality. Do you thrive on anxiety, do you want more and more, or are you looking for stability?
With the kind of conflict, confusion and chaos in the acrimonious politics in the US these days, Canadians just look at the US, shake their heads. and say, “I’m sorry.”
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