i am canadian

(photo from here)

today is canadian thanksgiving.

sadly, it's come to mean little to me. we don't get the day off here, so it usually goes by without me even noticing. however, i thought that since i did remember this year, i should, in commemoration, do something. there's a canadian boy who i've become friends with recently who brought some canadianisms to my attention that i had not yet thought of, and so, i share them. please join me in this brief comparison of canada and the usa... mainly in reference to language.

usa canada

canceled, traveled cancelled, travelled

color, humor colour, humour

judgment judgement

check cheque

realize, apologize realise, apologise

defense defence

theater, center theatre, centre

mold, smolder mould, smoulder

civilization civilisation

licorice liquorice

*these are examples from a textbook i'm reading called A Writer's Refence by diana hacker. no wonder i've been so confused for so long. i just thought i was bad at spelling certain words.

this little pronunciation oddity was brought to my attention twice in the last month. strangely i had never heard it in my eight and a half years living in america.

say this word: resource

if you're american, you likely pronounced it like it's spelled: re-source. if, however, you are canadian, you probably said it like i do: re-zource. ask your friends. weird huh?

oh, and how about this:

grammar rules say that you keep all punctuation outside of parenthesis (if you're in america, that is).

if you're in canada, you keep punctuation inside (which has thrown me off many times in papers and things.)

i'm sure their are many more, and maybe some of these aren't completely true. many are things i've just heard from people. i'm sure their are several... not to mention cultural phenomena like the removal of shoes in canadian homes, and the fact that canadians all have dogsleds, and live in igloos with lamps that use whale blubber... oh canada.

on this day of thanks, i am thankful to be a canadian.

*