What the English?!: Ep. 4, Weird Canada

Hello fellow weirdos, and welcome to episode four of the “What the English? !” podcast.

This podcast is for intermediate English learners who want to listen to interesting, thought-provoking and sometimes weird content spoken in clear and natural English.

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In today's episode I want to talk about some of the things I have found weird and wonderful about the country I now call home: Canada.

I'm originally from Wales in the UK, and though British and Canadian cultures are quite similar, there were a few things that gave me culture shock when I moved here. I'm sure you can guess what that term “culture shock” means. It's when something within a new culture is surprising or makes you take notice.

That was a little of the Canadian National Anthem “O Canada”. I got to sing it with a room full of fellow immigrants when I became a Canadian citizen in December of 2018. It was surprisingly emotional for me, even though we sounded pretty terrible singing together! I don't think one of us was in the same key. Anyway, it was still a very special day!

So, I've been a Canadian citizen for just over two years now, but I've been living in Vancouver on the west coast of Canada for eight and a half years in total. I came here with my husband, who I met while we were both teaching English for the same company in Sendai, Japan.

I'm pretty acclimatized now I would say. Meaning I feel like Canada is home, I know the social norms and what's expected of me. I feel comfortable in social settings. That isn't to say there aren't things that continue to surprise me though.

Here are some things I found a little weird when I came to Canada.

I want to start with a drink. A drink I tried without knowing what was in it, and I was horrified afterwards when I discovered the ingredients. I'm talking about the Canadian Caesar.

Have you heard of it? I hadn't. This drink is most definitely NOT popular in the UK. A Canadian Caesar is clamato juice, vodka, hot sauce and worcester sauce. You may know vodka, it's an alcoholic spirit. That word “spirit” came up in my episode about Halloween, do you remember? It means ghost, to “get into the spirit” means to show that you are enthusiastic about something, but in this case spirit has a different meaning: it means a strong alcoholic drink. Some other spirits include whiskey, rum and gin.

Anyway, you mix your vodka with clamato first. That word “clamato” is a combination of two words, or a portmanteau, the two words are: clams and tomatoes. Yes, you heard that first word right, clams. The clams you find on the beach. Clamato juice is clam juice and tomato juice mixed together. What does it taste like? Exactly like you would imagine clam juice and tomato juice to taste: gross!

I mean, it's not for me, I don't enjoy it at all. Especially after the hot sauce and worcester sauce have been added. There is usually a stick of celery added to the drink at the end too. Just in case you want to stir it then snack on the celery afterward. Celery happens to be the only vegetable I don't like the taste of.

When I first tried a Canadian Caesar I found it very difficult to swallow. Really difficult. I didn't want to at all. Then when I was told what was in the drink I made a promise to myself, I will never drink a Caesar again.

It's a really popular hangover cure here. A hangover is that awful feeling you get the day after a night of lots of alcohol. There's a saying “Hair of the dog that bit you” and it means the alcoholic drink you have when you are experiencing a hangover that helps you feel better. So if you hear someone say they need the “hair of the dog” now you know to get them a caesar… or something less gross maybe.

In the UK, hunting is something only rich people do and most of it is “sport hunting”. That means hunting to kill and not to kill and eat. The most commonly hunted animals in the UK are deer and foxes. Deer are hunted with guns and their heads are kept as trophies, that means a kind of prize for achieving something. Fox hunting though, is cruel. Hunters search for foxes with horses and dogs. Once they find a fox or foxes, the hunters send their dogs into the foxes burrow, the hole in the ground they live in, to kill them. Fox hunting is actually banned now in the UK, but groups continue to do it.

I most definitely did not grow up rich, and so hunting is something I never did. I never had the desire to either. Though I do eat meat, I love animals. I realize that is a rather contradictory thing to say. A contradictory statement is one that says two things that can't both be true. How can you love animals but also be ok with them being killed so you can eat them? Anyway… I'm getting off topic. It's something I struggle with.

Back to hunting… while in the UK hunting is associated with the rich, here in Canada it is an activity many people do, rich, poor and in between. Instead of buying meat from the supermarket or the butcher, lots of Canadians hunt for deer, duck, moose, caribou… even bears! There is sport hunting in Canada too, but mostly what is hunted is eaten.

My husband hunts. At first, I had an issue with it. Deer are so beautiful, those poor cute little ducks! But then I really thought about it. I eat meat, would I rather eat an animal that spent its life locked in a warehouse in the dark with no room to move? An animal that had to listen to other animals being slaughtered and wait its turn? Isn't it more humane, meaning kinder (if you could say there's a kind way to kill), to kill an animal quickly? An animal that got to live in its natural habitat? I think so, and so moving to Canada completely changed my mind about hunting.

I don't agree with sport hunting, but I eat ducks and deer that my husband has hunted, and I feel more grateful to the animal, more connected almost, than if I had bought it from the butcher. So many difficult and disturbing things are hidden from us in today's world. Sometimes you just need to pull the feathers out of the bird you're going to eat for dinner.

Now onto something sweet. Canadians like to put it on pancakes, sausages, bacon, eggs... snow. I'm talking about maple syrup.

You might think of this sweet and sticky syrup when you think of Canada. I did before I moved here. But I wasn't quite ready for how popular maple syrup really is, and how my eating habits would change once I was introduced to this delicious food.

I used to make fun of my husband for putting maple syrup on scrambled eggs and bacon, but now I do it. Have you tried it? If not, you have to. I'm not sure how available maple syrup is in your country, but here in Canada you can buy it at any supermarket and it comes in one litre jugs. We always have one in the fridge.

I think my favourite thing with maple syrup has to be candied salmon. It's salmon that has been smoked with salt and sugar then painted with maple syrup.

I haven't tried maple taffy yet. Maple taffy is made by pouring maple syrup over snow and then scooping it up with a stick and eating it off like a popsicle. I'm hungry…

You might have heard the stereotype that Canadians say sorry a lot. “Stereotype”, that‘s a great word. It means something that is generally believed about a group of people. You know, like the stereotype that British people have bad teeth or that blonde women are not very smart.

If you have never met a Canadian or been to Canada I am here to tell you that this stereotype is mostly true! Canadians are always saying sorry, and it's adorable! I have bumped into people and it has been 100% my fault and the person I bumped into has said sorry! It's true what they say, Canadians are just really nice! Of course I'm speaking generally, there are mean Canadians out there.

I have a theory about why Canadians are generally polite and nice… Canada is amazing! The natural beauty alone is enough to put me in a good mood most of the time. I just came from a snowy walk in the woods near my house and someone had left a disposable coffee cup on the trail (not cool). I had a dog poop bag in my pocket and so I happily picked it up, without touching it of course in these COVID times, and carried it with me on the rest of my walk because I didn't want it to ruin the beauty of the woods. Also, you hardly ever see trash here.

The last thing I want to mention in this episode about weird and wonderful Canada is some of the slang I have discovered. This is a podcast about English after all.

You can't mention Canadian slang without mentioning the word “eh”. “Eh” is what's called an interjection, which means a word or phrase that shows emotion or feeling. Words like “hey”, “wow” and “oh” are also interjections.

“Eh” can mean two things: that you didn't understand something that was said to you. It's like saying “huh?” or “can you repeat that?”. Canadians, though, use “eh” to express a question, they want to know if you agree with what was said. For example, “maple syrup tastes great on eggs, eh?” or “Bob makes the best Caesars, eh?”. I would make fun of the way all Canadians use “eh” when I first came to Canada. I would use it on purpose and try to say it in a Canadian accent. Now though, I actually use “eh” for real, all the time. It's funny how that happens, eh?

Another word you will hear a lot if you ever visit Canada is toque. This isn't a word used in the UK at all, and so I had no idea what it meant. I toque is a warm, tight-fitting winter hat. Most places in Canada have very cold and snowy winters, so Canadians love their toques.

Snowy wind

People from the UK are Brits, Americans are Yanks, New Zealanders are Kiwis and Canadians are… do you know? The slang word for Canadians is Canuck. This word I learned very early on as the Vancouver ice hockey team is the Vancouver Canucks.

What do Canucks say when they want you to give it your all, to just do it… “give ‘er!” I love this phrase. It's a combination of the words “give” and “her”. Your friend might say “I have no energy at all today. I don't know how I'm going to make it through until 5”. And you can respond. “You can do it. Just have another coffee and give'er!”.

I want to finish with my favourite expression. I looked it up and it apparently originated in the UK, but I had never heard it before I came to live in Canada. My husband says it all the time, “my dogs are barking.” Can you guess what it means? “My dogs are barking” means my feet hurt. So the next time you've had a hard day working on your feet, or maybe you went on a big hike, you can tell your friends that your dogs are barking!