Tim Horton's is a typical Canadian coffee shop. By observing and interpreting this setting, we can understand Canadian culture as it's expressed in that setting. Understanding this small part of Canadian culture can then be applied, in a broader way, to the culture of Canadian society. A certain language that is special to customers of Tim Horton's serves a purpose that most are not aware of, big business is changing and confusing our traditional culture with a new culture that is run and concerned with money by large corporations. Canadians are generally friendly and polite to one another but are not community oriented, they are more individualistic. The coffee business has developed, through relationships with customers, a language that is exclusive to coffee drinkers and regulars of Tim Horton's. Examples included while ordering are "double double" which means coffee with double cream and sugar, or "ice cap" which means ice cappuccino. The main purpose of this language seems to have evolved through convenience, but its existence is very beneficial to the business. This language speeds up the ordering process and goes well with their greeting of "how can I help you" while a large smile is on the employees face. The greeting is friendly, but not too friendly in that it does not open up any other conversation other than ordering. The language is quick and to the point, wasting no time. Inside the coffee shop, a great deal of thought has been put into spatial distribution. The space is small, but every square centimeter is utilized for sitting, ordering and preparing and displaying food. The floor plan allows customers to move in a structured way to order and then sit down or leave. The floor plan is similar to a continuous circular flow of costumers, that starts when you walk in the door and ends when you leave. Like an assembly line, this suggests that Canadian culture is very rigid and structured. The sitting area consists of small tables that let only three people sit comfortably at one time. The sitting chairs are upright with a hard surface; they're not comfortable and relaxing in the least bit. Upbeat easy rock music plays in the background, this music is very safe in that all ages can identify and accept it while still loud enough to not hear the noisy kitchen in the back. Bright lights, along with the chairs, tables and music create an atmosphere and mood that does not allow people to get too comfortable.
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.
Most people are trapped into believing that Canada is a very diverse place to live as it welcomes many cultures, but do not realize what happens to their culture when they have lived in Canada after time. Throughout the stories Simple Recipes by Madeleine Thien and A Short History of Indians in Canada by Thomas King, the authors tell the actions of what is happening in the characters lives to show the stripping of other cultures when they come to Canada. These two stories reveal how difficult it can be to be a person with a different culture existing in Canadian society.
Fish’s depiction of the process of buying a coffee now is an unfair stereotype, as not everyone has experienced what he describes. For example Fish states, “if you are patient and stay in line (no bathroom breaks), you get to put in your order,” (Fish). The bathroom comment was quite unnecessary because nobody gets bathroom breaks for long lines. This quote by Fish was illogical for his argument. Fish continues, stating that when one receives a coffee, the “real problem” is how the coffee accessories are placed. There are too many of them, Fish believes, and the order is random. This is not true for most coffee shops. Typically in coffee shops, the dairy is together, the sugars are neatly piled, the straws and napkins are stacked tidily. Of course, there are coffee shops now that are how Fish described. However, he only describes a percentage of coffee shops, not all of them. Fish should have made that clear in his argument. To continue, Fish writes about people fighting over the accessories and balancing coffee in one hand. This comment is almost theatrical in its description. The scene Fish depicts is rarely seen at coffee shops. Fish’s argument does not represent a realistic representation of all coffee shops. Fish does not state this, therefore being unreliable in his
...nguage, and religion all make up Canada’s human face, but also front how the cultural accommodation will continue with the risk of losing Canada’s main traditions. Faultlines again come into perspective within demographic issues, especially with newcomers/old-timers, aboriginal population expansions, and French/English language. The core/periphery model is also represented. The end of the chapter places a focus on Canada’s economic face as well, dealing with stresses inside the global economy as well as its strong dependency on the U.S markets (Bone, 169) especially with the stimulating global recession. Canada’s economic structure leans on the relative share of activity in the primary (natural resource extraction), secondary (raw material assembly), tertiary (sale/exchange of goods and services), and quaternary (decision-making) sectors of the economy (Bone, 166).
I wasn’t born in Atlantic Canada but Atlantic Canadian business certainly has had an impact on my life. My father has worked for McCain Foods for over 25 years and is currently employed as the Retail Area Sales Manager, Atlantic Canada for McCain Foods so it’s no coincidence that I was born in Kitchener Waterloo just forty minutes from Sobeys Ontario’s head office which was located in Brantford Ontario and my sister in St. John’s N.L. just two years later. I guess we moved a lot in those early years, if you call six moves in 14 years a lot, but McCain was growing and McCain always promoted from within wherever possible. In this paper I will discuss some of the reasons I feel Atlantic Canadians play such an important role in Canadian business and what motivates them. I’ll draw on some of my own personal observations as well as others from reference materials.
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.
Canadians have come along way in their culture and identity. Canadians have participated in multiple wars and battles that have shaped our country and the people that live in this country. But it’s not just the violence what shaped our country but the people and traditions that originated outside of Canada and was brought here. European, British and French cultures and tradition have all influenced Canada’s culture and identity. (Blattberg, C. 13, January 02). Immigrants from all over the world have in the passed contributed to the way we view Canada and because of that we live in a safe, mosaic, multicultural country. (Blattberg, C. 13, January 02).There have also been the First Nations people who started Canada’s good reputation and because of them we have accomplished everything that we have done today. (Blattberg, C. 13, January 02).
SCHNEIDER, Howard. (1997). "Canada's Culture War Questioned." The Washington Post Company. Online at: , consulted on February 9, 2004.
This essay will focus on the implicit nature of Multiculturalism and associated sociological and cultural constructs in regards to defining Canadian culture and identity.
Canada is a cultural mosaic. Cultural mosaic is the mixture of different ethnic groups, languages and cultures that living in a society. Canada is one of the countries to declare multiculturism in the world as official state policy. This step showed the path to a resounding and evolving cultural mosaic premised on mutual respect for all the Canadian citizens of the different types of ethnic back ground. The roots of multiculturalism in Canada can be seen in the country's beginnings, as three establishing cultures aboriginal, British and French, who were soon joined by many more cultures from around the continents. Today this can be seen as a benchmark of Canadian national identity and a point of pride for Canadians. Even though of all this multiculturism right after the attacks of 9/11 in America a lot of Muslims who were gathered for praying in mosques and churches were attacked in Canada. Even Sikhs were attacked because they were perceived to be Muslims. Several Muslim schools were closed in major cities of Canada. Women were also attacked for their dressing (Faisal Kutty). History of African labor, Chinese labor, Aboriginal genocide and Japanese entombment are all forgotten over by propagandized multicultural progress, this has created a racialized logic which made it impossible for many Canadian citizens to recognize the racism taking place in the surrounding environment. So, racism is embedded in Canadians and can be seen in form of prejudice and discrimination at workplace.
Canada today is referred to as a cultural mosaic because it ensures the ethnic backgrounds of all its people are secure and welcome. Canada’s culture itself is one that celebrates and embraces other cultures without condemning or discriminating against other peoples’ ethnicity because in Canada multiculturalism and equality of everybody is very important. But has it always been like this from the start? Unfortunately it was not. In times of Canada’s past, diversity was not something that was celebrated and those who were not white had great injustices done to them|. Canada does have a history of mistreating minorities this can be seen through assimilation policies used on the Natives, racism of African Canadians and discriminatory practices against Asian Canadians.
In Canada, the First Nations people are the first people who came to Canada first and were the ones who started off as being the various distinct groups in the country. In fact, the name Canada comes from the Iroquois word “Kanata” meaning village. The I am Canadian and Global Beer Fridge commercials by Molson Canadian promote a message of cultural exclusion of the First Nations groups in Canada. Through this essay, the I am Canadian and Global Beer Fridge commercials demonstrate cultural exclusion through the use of their speakers, one representing the Caucasian race and the other with people of multiple ethnicities. Moreover, Molson Canadian attempts to provide through their commercials a positive image of beer, but fail to acknowledge one
McDonald's Corporation is the largest fast-food operator in the World and was originally formed in 1955 after Ray Kroc pitched the idea of opening up several restaurants based on the original owned by Dick and Mac McDonald. McDonald's went public in 1965 and introduced its flagship product, the Big Mac, in 1968. Today, McDonald's operates more than 30,000 restaurants in over 100 countries and have one of the world's most widely known brand names. McDonald's sales hit $57 billion company-wide and over $25 billion in the United States in 2006 (S&P).
Another question in which was asked of me was; what do the customers order? Since my scan was done at night most drinks that where ordered where hot. Also some people would order a pastries with there drinks in which could be a coffee cake, or a chocolate espresso browny, or one of the other pastries in which where offered. People ordered many different types of drinks such as hot chocolate, vanilla crème, and coffee. An item in which people also order but was rare is the sandwiches in which Starbucks makes daily. While listening to what people order there was a coffee language in which was used a lot and one that every customer knew, this language was the language in which told the employees what size of drinks they wanted.
Payson loves coffee but decided she would try two different businesses coffee. The two businesses were 392 Cafe and Starbucks. Payson loved 392 Cafe because of their coffee, bakery, smoothies, the work setting, and the workers personalities. She has not gone back to Starbucks due to her enjoyable experience at 392. The bubbly personalities marked a spot in her loving heart that no other coffee shop can compare too. She loves doing her homework there because it is so relaxing. Payson loves seeing people walk in with huge grins on their face. 392 Cafe is such a positive atmosphere. Of course the coffee is stellar. Starting out as an anti-coffee person because of terrible experiences, she loves 392’s coffee. It just has the perfect mixture. It is not too black, but not too creamy either. Although many coffee lovers will argue that Starbucks is better than 392 Cafe, further investigation proves that 392 Cafe is better according to the surrounding area testers.