And people wonder why I grind my teeth sometimes.

[camwyn]

Morning radio show today, a Top 40 station in NYC. DJs chattering about traveling overseas safely. Topic of passing as a Canadian came up. All the usual reasons - nobody hates Canadians, Canadians never give anybody trouble, reputations for politeness, etc.

DJ 1: So say you're from Toronto! Hey, [DJ 2], let's say you were over in - I dunno, Pakistan - visiting family.
DJ 2: Yeah...
DJ 1: Say you wanted to go out and walk around the city or something, you know, not with your family. Say you just wanted to see the country, and you wanted people to think you were a Canadian so they wouldn't give you any trouble.
DJ 2: Right...
DJ 3: (general laughter)
DJ 1: What would you do? I mean, to make people think you were a Canadian?
DJ 2: *thinks* Well, I'd carry around a can of maple syrup, and I'd probably say CLICK-

CLICK is the point where I changed the station. I did not want to hear it. I brushed past the station a few moments later and DJ's 3 and 1 were trying to convince DJ 2 that wearing a Canadian sports jersey would be a lot better than wearing a New York sports jersey and explaining that Canadians like New York sports too.

Jeebus. mtr1966, mountainspeak, anybody else Canadian on my friends list or otherwise reading this - I'm really sorry. Let me send you these guys. I'll take three cranky Francophones of your choice in exchange.

Comments

Don't worry, we've done things just as bad.

[mtr1966.livejournal.com]

The year: 1983. The venue: Lahr Senior School main library. The event: pre-Berlin Class Trip briefing by the military police.

I attended Lahr Senior School, part of the Canadian Armed Forces Schools Overseas. In my graduating year, the seniors' school trip was a week in Berlin. In 1983, of course, the Cold War was running on full. As a result we got a "security briefing" about how to behave, what to expect when we hit the East, etc. Most of it was boring, boilerplate crap. There was one part that was germane to this post, however.

Principal: Now I know that you're going to be drinking out there.
Us: No! Never!
Principal (chuckling): You will because we can't watch you 24 hours a day. So here's my plea. First, if you drink, don't get drunk. Second, if you get drunk, don't get into trouble.
Military Policeman (interjecting): Third, if you get into trouble, say you're an American. They already have a bad enough name in Berlin, so you won't tarnish ours.

I do have to say, however, that I'm a bit disturbed that Americans are going around pretending to be Canadians. That means my saying I'm Canadian is no longer a safety tip. Although even in Europe Americans used to try that all the time. They were easy to spot however. Canadians would maybe have a small Canadian flag pin or a small sticker on their luggage. Americans would have large Canadian flags plastered over everything. Euros had no difficulty spotting them. But I somehow doubt that, say, the Chinese would spot that subtle difference.

Re: Don't worry, we've done things just as bad.

[camwyn]

I'm not sure how many are actually saying that. The guys on the radio didn't seem all that serious about it; I came back three minutes later and they were talking about something else, rather than having extended call-in conversations on the topic the way they do when lots of their listeners like or dislike an idea. That's just one radio station, though. I don't know about the rest of the country.

Perhaps the Canadian government should issue a bunch of fuzzy winter headgear and large pieces of living room furniture to foreign governments and tell them to ask English speakers what they are?