Comparing Canadian and American Communications
Canada and America are similar countries. We have states and they have provinces. High school is five years there and only four years here. Canada has a type democracy and we have a different type democracy in our governments. These all are similarities and differences at the same time. However when we look at communications in the country of Canada we might be able to see more differences as well as similarities. Culture is a system of shared values, customs and norms in a group of people, it distinguishes one group from another. Communication is an imperative part of making cultures different. No two cultures speak exactly the same.
Maude Demers is a Canadian, she grew up in Québec, and
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is currently attending college in Urbana, Ohio at Urbana University. Maude’s (pronounced as “mode”) native language is French. In Québec students now are required to learn English along with French in school. This was not the case when her parents were in school. They were only required to learn French, so they do not speak any English. Canada can be represented by the symbols of a Moose or Maple Syrup. As America may be represented by a baseball. Symbols are representations of ideas. So a symbol of a country would represent what the idea of that country is. People associate Canada with moose and syrup. As America has different ethnicities Canada also does. Some of the ethnicities that are included in the boundaries of Canada include the French Canadians, English Canadians, British Columbia( Chinese), and Ontario (Indians). Ethnicity is a group one is placed in by ancestry of heritage. With different ethnicities there will undoubtedly be some trouble speaking to some others outside of your own ethnicity. In Canada, The French Canadians, and the English Canadians have the most trouble communicating with each other. This is because they speak different languages. Canada is working on this problem though, but they are still in a transition period where most of the young people know english, but some of the older people only know french. Eventually however all of Canada will be speaking English, with the school requirements of taking English classes. Figurative language is something that is unique to each culture. It is said that if you want to speak like a native the first thing you can do is use their figurative language and phrases correctly. “C'est tiguidou!” means “That's all good!”, this phrase is used when a group of people who know each other want to tell someone that “ that’s fine”. For example if someone said “I will pick you up at 7:00” and you were okay with that you would say “C'est tiguidou!”. Another figurative phrase that the canadians have is “Avoir de l'eau dans cave” , which is French for “Your pants are too short.” This is a saying for when someone has grown a lot since you last seen them. Slang is typically used in a group of people who are close to each other.
It is an informal word or phrase that is typically used in place of a different more formal one. Chum is used as boyfriend and blonde is used as girlfriend. American media is a strong force in the entire world, with Canada bordering The United States it is no surprise that the slangs used here would rub off on Canada. Popular slang of 2015 that are popular in both the U.S. and Canada include: “On Fleek”, which means awesome; and bae, which can be used as girlfriend or boyfriend. There are many more words and phrases that are slang that America and Canada share. This is especially true in the young adults and …show more content…
teenagers. Canada is very similar to the United States in the aspect of gender and their roles in society.
A society is a group who share a certain culture. Gender roles, norms of the way men and women act, are very important in society. These roles guide families and build structure within a society. Canada is a masculine society. Masculinity is defined as a gender role which emphasizes strength, and dominance. A masculine society is one where the men are the moneymakers, and they would typically supply the majority of the family income. In contrary the a women’s role in a masculine society is to be nurturing. Today we see women going to work just about as often as men do, but it used to be that the mother in the family would stay home and raise the children. However, just because women are working jobs does not mean that they do not occupy the same role. Women still have the duty of being nurturing. We see this through the way women speak compared to men. Women typically use what is called expressive talk. This way of communicating is with the purpose of to express emotions and to build relationships. With women being taking on the feminine role in Canada expressive talk helps show their nurturing and gentle aspects of their role. Men and women speak differently in a masculine society. However if Canada’s culture was a feminine society, it would not be uncommon to see men take on similar traits as women in a masculine society, and vice
versa. Canadian culture is actually very similar to the United States culture when comparing communications. Through the process of learning about Canada and the culture of the country, a lot was brought to attention. The slang in Canada was an interesting bit to find out about. A completely different country uses the some of the Same slang as the United States. Also very interesting was to find out about some of the different ethnic groups in Canada. A typical thought of people in the United States is that there are only French people in Canada, when in fact there are many more groups of people, such as the Chinese. Chinese people are not typically what you think of when you think of Canada. Overall Canada has much to offer when it come to communication, as would any other nation, after all communicating is part of what make a culture different from another.
Finally, if the comparison were ever made a survey, it would really show the full scale of Americanization in Canada. But until now we can only see from the daily life, how American culture is inviting Canada. Today more then ever, Canadians are in real danger of loosing their national identity. It is unfortunate that if the study of this cultural influence will be done few years later, it might be too late to save Canadian culture and identity.
Before World War I, equality for woman and men were very unfair. Woman weren’t even legally “persons”; they weren’t allowed to join parliament or the senate because they weren’t legally “persons”, therefore these jobs were occupied by men only. During World War I and World War II, many men had left for war, thus meaning there were many job openings that needed to be occupied as soon as possible, women then began to take on stereotypical male jobs which men thought women couldn’t do or couldn’t do as well. Women showed their capabilities and realized they shouldn’t be considered less than men. In retaliation of not being considered “persons”, women decided to take action. The famous five brought the persons case upon the supreme court of Canada in 1927, which was finally determined by Judicial Council of Britain's Privy Council in 1929. The “persons” case involved women not legally being “persons”. After the famous five won the case, women were legally considered “persons” then women began to join important jobs such as members of parliament and the senate. Along with becoming “persons”, women were beginning to get their right to vote in provinces slowly. In 1916, four provinces gave women the right to vote provincially and, finally, in 1940, the last province (Quebec) gave women the right to vote provincially. Later, in World War II, there was another change in
The father is recognised and acknowledged as the head of the family and household, in charge of the family’s spiritual life and providing the family’s sustenance while wives are subordinate to their husband. Males provide overall leadership within the community. They are responsible for educating young boys in masculine areas such as farming and woodwork. Females are to do the same with young girls, educating them in feminine areas such as running a household and homemaking skills. Unmarried women may work outside the home yet married women are not allowed to work and are expected to hold their families and house as the priority. Gender dictates those within the Amish society, with their roles clearly structured and set out. Unlike the Amish, this strict definition of gender roles doesn’t apply to me. There is a certain degree of restriction within Australian society in me being a young, female student. Mainstream Western society still values the traits of being feminine with the media constantly reinforcing feminie standards. In my macro world, as a female, I am expected to be soft, pretty and ladylike. This value, my culture and heritage come with the expectation for a woman to marry, have children, maintain a household yet also participate within society in working. However, societal expectations for females within mainstream society are slowly being broken. There is the implication that females cannot work once they become mothers, but there is no set of defined rules for females restricting them to traditional roles, despite the societal expectation for women to conform to
Since Canada and China have two diverse cultures language would be another contrasting feature. As a Canadian, I mostly speak in English and many people around me speak English as well, French. Since Canada is comprised of many other subcultures there are other languages that are spoken. In China the language differs with Canada, several of Chinese dialects are used, although the majority of the population speaks
Canadian workplaces today seem to be a fairly diverse place, with a blend of many religions, ethnicities, and genders present. However, although people preach affirmative action and melting pots in current times, many inequality and power issues still abound. One strikingly noticeable example is gender discrimination. Women in the workforce face many challenges like smaller wages, harassment, male privilege in hiring or promotions, and lack of support when pregnant or raising children. One half of the planet is women, and it can be assumed the same for Canada, but they still face judgment at work because they lack the authority to dispute against big corporations or even their male supervisor. It cannot be argued that Canadian women’s status has worsened over the past hundred years, of course, thanks to feminism and activism. However, their status is not as high as it could be. Women as a group first started fighting for workplace equality during the second wave of feminism, from the 1960s to the 1990s. Legislation was approved during the second wave to try to bring gender equality to the workplace. Feminists both collided and collaborated with unions and employers to ensure women received fair treatment in an occupation. Quebec had the same issues, only the province approached the conflict differently than English Canada with its own unique viewpoint. It became clear that women were entering the workplace and did not plan on leaving. Second-wave feminism in Canada shifted power from the government and businesses to women in order to try to bring equality, although the discrimination never completely disappeared.
Many people might have a diverse opinion on the extend of the American cultural influence on Canada, but the truth is, these two countries share a long common border, they use frequently the same language, they watch the same movies, listen to the same music and collaborate on other numerous levels, including economic and political activity. In this paper, I would like to show the extent of the influence on Canadian popular culture that comes from the United States. For my analysis I have chosen four segments of popular culture: television, printed media, music and films. In these are the main sectors where we can see the biggest evidence of this phenomenon. In the first part I would like to shortly introduce the history of this issue. The second part is the analysis of the four sectors.
The culture of Canada refers to the shared values, attitudes, standards, and beliefs that are a representative of Canada and Canadians. Throughout Canada's history, its culture has been influenced by American culture because of a shared language, proximity, television and migration between the two countries. Over time, Canadian-American relations have helped develop Canada’s identity during the years 1945-1982; thus introducing changing social norms, media and entertainment. In support of this, due to the United States being approximately 9.25 times larger in population and having the dominant cultural and economic influence, it played a vital role in establishing Canada’s identity. With Canada being its neighbour, naturally, the United States would influence their way of life upon Canada.
“Honey, you’re not a person, now get back in the kitchen and make me a sandwich!” If a husband were to say these words to his wife today, he would likely receive a well-deserved smack to the face. It is not until recently that Canadian women have received their status as people and obtained equal rights as men. Women were excluded from an academic education and received a lesser pay than their male counter parts. With the many hardships women had to face, women were considered the “slave of slaves” (Women’s Rights). In the past century, women have fought for their rights, transitioning women from the point of being a piece of property to “holding twenty-five percent of senior positions in Canada” (More women in top senior positions: Report). The Married Women’s Property Act, World War I, The Person’s Case, and Canadian Human Rights Act have gained Canadian women their rights.
In contrast, men have been seen as more dominate than women because of their masculine abilities and other traits and most importantly their profound responsibility of being the provider and head of the household. Americans constantly uses theses two distinct stereotypes that in many cases present many biases regarding gender codes in America. Things have changed over time the women are no longer just house wives taking care of the house and children waiting for their husband to come home from his nine to five occupations. Andrea L. Miller explains in her article “The Separate Spheres Model of Gendered Inequality” that, “A common theme in the study of gender is the idea that men and women belong in distinct spheres of society, with men being particularly fit for the workplace and women being particularly fit for the domestic domain” (Miller 2). Miller gives two very specific examples on how gender is viewed in American
The controversy over Canada and America, and who takes after whom has been around for many years. Canada and America are puzzles, two countries that are home to millions of people, living in relative comfort and health. We both have become nations through the help of each other and other nations. Yet, Canada has its own identity as a delightful complexity of cultures and customs, government and heroes. On the other hand, Canadians are simply not Americans by government and technology.
The cultural difference between Canada and Canada is huge. Both the countries are multicultural but Canada is more western in culture whereas Singapore is mostly dominated by Chinese, Malay, and Indian culture. According to the Greet Hofstede Model, the power distance in Singapore is 74, where in Canada it is 39, power distance shows the equality of people in society or culture and the distribution of power (Hofstede Centre, 2016). In Singapore, the distribution of power is not equal; everyone is not treated the same, but in Canada, the power is mostly distributed equally. Another metrics in the model is individualism vs collectivism, from the graph above we can see the Singapore is more in collectivism whereas Canada is more in individualism (Hofstede Centre, 2016).
Canada and the United States of America have a very healthy relationship today and throughout history. These two countries are in a “happy marriage” meaning they both work together and have prominent economic ties. For many reasons, their relations are healthy, but there are 3 reasons that stand out. Canada and the USA have a healthy connection because they have been close trading partners, they have similar values, and they have alliances and treaties. As a result of the events which occurred between these two countries, Canada and the USA formed and still have a great relationship.
Women and men are nestled into predetermined cultural molds when it comes to gender in American society. Women play the roles of mothers, housekeepers, and servants to their husbands and children, and men act as providers, protectors, and heads of the household. These gender roles stem from the many culture myths that exist pertaining to America, including those of the model family, education, liberty, and of gender. The majority of these myths are misconceptions, but linger because we, as Americans, do not analyze or question them. The misconception of gender suggests that biological truths no longer dictate our gender roles as men and women; they derive from cultural myths. We, as a nation, need to do severe critical thinking about this delusion of gender, how has limited us in the home, media, and education, how it currently limits us, and what the results of the current and future changes in gender roles will be.
In the past, many people believed that women’s exclusive responsibilities were to serve their husband, to be great mothers and to be the perfect wives. Those people considered women to be more appropriate for homemaking rather than to be involved in business or politics. This meant that women were not allowed to have a job, to own property or to enjoy the same major rights as men. The world is changing and so is the role of women in society. In today’s society, women have rights that they never had before and higher opportunities to succeed.
The term “culture” refers to the complex accumulation of knowledge, folklore, language, rules, rituals, habits, lifestyles, attitudes, beliefs, and customs that link and provide a general identity to a group of people. Cultures take a long time to develop. There are many things that establish identity give meaning to life, define what one becomes, and how one should behave.