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Bien thanks there Max. It's always a fun read when the writer really likes the place.
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I have three grand-daughters born in Canada, and one great-grandson. From visits there I have learned a lot, but obviously have a lot more to learn. Few Americans know how many famous USns were born in Canada. Too bad there isn't a list of them published somewhere.Here is a link to "Things Americans should know about Canada" I didn't read it all, but did notice a few presumably good natured complaints about Americans. http://www.durtydan.com/ddcc/50things.html
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Thanks for the link, Dr. Bill, that's a page I hadn't seen yet. The guy seems a bit bitter, to say the least. Or maybe he's dealt with too many rude USns - I've been lucky enough to have mostly dealt with nice ones (you guys)!  I noticed a couple of mistakes, though. #38 - the fact about murders in NYC in one week being more than all of Canada in a year - doubtful. He quotes in the next fact that Canada only has about 600 homicides per year. Do you think NYC actually has more than 600 murders a week? #26 - the provinces. Of all things he got the floral emblem of Manitoba wrong (and I only caught this because I'm from Manitoba). It's the prairie crocus. #49 - apparently no one owns the North Pole. I just read this somewhere (source unknown) last week. However, he's right about writing to Santa Claus. Santa writes back, too. I've never tried it, but there's an army of Canada Post elves dealing with Santa's correspondence.
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[CROSS-THREAD ALERT!!]
it's hard to tell canadians apart from really boring white people, unless they're dressed up to go outside.
http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
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No way NY has 600 murders a week! NY has as raw number, a lot of murders.. but it also has 8 million residents (NYC proper) and a daytime population of over 15 million! (and even if it was 600, that would be, be about 0.004%! (based on day time population) actually rather low!(even based on 8 million is 0.0075%!) you have a 99.99+% chance of not getting murdered.
Cincinatti, (just to pick on an other city,) has lower raw numbers, but it has a much higher percent of the population being murdered. and nobody thinks cincinatti is all that dangerous!
And all east coast cities, generally, have lower percentages than western cities. there are many more gun contols laws in the east than there are in the west.
EDIT
based on tsuwm link, i should have said, southern states are more dangerous!
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white people
Uh, have you been to Canada recently? With the exception of Newfoundland, there are lots and lots of un-white people. If you want to use the "traditional" colour labels - brown, white, red, yellow, black - we got 'em all, and in large quantities!
In my mind, a "typical" Canadian is not one of Irish or Scottish or English descent, but someone whose parents are from two (or more) totally different cultural backgrounds - like me - half-Ukrainian, half-Italian - a completely typical Canadian kid. I'm married to a 7/8 Norwegian, 1/8 Danish guy, and our children will be a bit of all of the above, and quite Canadian at that. My brother is going out with a girl whose parents are from the Phillippines but she it totally Canadian herself. Typical Canadian relationship. My brother-in-law is married to a girl of Chinese background - again, she was born in Canada - and so if they ever have any kids, they'll be a Norwegian-Danish-Chinese mix. Canadians through and through!
We should debunk that myth and take a poll. Any other Canadians on Board wanna share their background? (Yes, I know we will suffer from small sample size, but we can try!)
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No way NY has 600 murders a week! Helen, I didn't mean that I believed it! I just thought this guy should check his facts. I'm still also pondering the elections-every-four-years thing that he stated. I think it's mandatory at five years, traditionally held every four years, but there have been lots of cases when they've been held sooner, because the party in power figures "Now's the time to win again for another term" or else something goes wrong. I tried finding the info but got lost in pages about Parliament and MPs and the House of Commons. Besides, guys, I'm SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING!!!!!!!!!!!!
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We should debunk that myth and take a poll. Any other Canadians on Board wanna share their background?
Not as interesting as most: both my parents are German, going waaaay back.
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Yes, and a merci to M Trudeau. may he rest in peace I am thankful to all the anglophones and allophones who helped me keep my province in my country. For weeks before the referundum I was sick with fear and I cried (and still get teary) when the votes were tallied and I knew I was still going to be Canadian that day and the day after that, and the day after that.
Imagine somebody taking away your, oh how do you say patrie in English, your homeland is the best term I think.
Sniff - I need a Kleenex, I'll be back.
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I agree with you Bean about our mixed heritage. On my mom's side: Irish, English, French (Canadian and, way back, France) On my dad's side: French (Canadian and, way back, France), Native Canadian, and U.S. deserter & philanderer (great grandpa loved to make love, not war...but that is an other story  .)
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Many years ago I read about Canada having program to encourage birth rate by a subsidy. The Indians were happy to benefit from it, and drink up the subsidy check immediately after it arrived. One Indian had the deplorable discourtesy to depart just before it was his turn to buy a round of drinks for the crowd. The others got to discussing this one day after his departure. One critic capped the discussion by remarking: "And come to think of it, he wouldn't be getting the check if I didn't help him out."
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I think most of us are a mixed breed these days. I know my mom's family all came from Germany, but my grandparents were both the first generation U.S. born. And dad's family, who still live in Canada, were of German, French and Irish decent. My dad became a U.S. citizen in 1956 shortly after he and mom married.
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Dash & blast tsuwm, no Oz or Zild stats here. Wonder if we've got anything like that up here ... [off-she-goes-a-googling-e]
Hev
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Think I am a classic case of "old-school" immigration: my parents - both British. Well....as far as we know. My dad was 1/4 Welsh, so I'm 1/8 Welsh, right?! (I cling to that!) And Mum was adopted, so us kiddies could be part ANYTHING (I cling to that, too!). I like to think I could be part Russian, or part Italian, or part Greek, or part who-knows-what.....
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Any other Canadians on Board wanna share their background? (Yes, I know we will suffer from small sample size, but we can try!)
Alas, I fear that my children will fit the stereotype. My wife's ancestors emigrated to Canada from Normandy in in the late 1600's, my mother's ancestors from Scotland in the late 1700's to early 1800's, and my father (born in Jinja) arrived in 1942.
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I tried finding the info but got lost in pages about Parliament and MPs and the House of Commons.
Bean,
Here is a link to the late Senator Eugene Forsey's book, "How Canadians Govern Themselves.
{http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/idb/forsey/intro-e.htm)
To quote from the book. One of the right and freedoms guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is:
Democratic rights (for example, the right of every citizen to vote for the House of Commons and the provincial legislative assembly, and the right to elections at least every five years, though in time of real or apprehended war, invasion or insurrection, the life of a federal or provincial legislature may be prolonged by a two-thirds vote of the Commons or legislative assembly).
This is a very interesting book and I am going to make sure my children have read it before they finish elementary school.
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how do you say patrie in English, your homeland
patrie
nf
1. [pays natal] homeland, fatherland
‘mort pour la patrie’ ‘they gave their lives for their country’
It could also be heritage. The Canadian Heritage Department is, "le ministčre du Patrimoine", en francais.
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Just by the way, here's another of those mysteries of grammatical gender. La Patrie, which means literally "the Fatherland" is feminine gender. Go figure.
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Just by the way, here's another of those mysteries of grammatical gender. La Patrie, which means literally "the Fatherland" is feminine gender. Go figure.
If think that's odd, how about...
Le féminisme
La masculinité
And one thing I have noticed is that some common idiomatic expressions pretty much the exact opposite in French.
ne réveillez pas le chat qui dort(don't wake a sleeping cat) = let sleeping dogs lie
avoir un chat dans la gorge (to have a cat in your throat) = to have a frog in one's throat
If the hat fits (French) = if the shoe fits
I didn't get the exact translation, but this French expression translation was used Toy Story 2.
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"the Fatherland" is feminine gender
A mystery only to those who have commited the linguistic faux pas of conflating gender and sex.
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the linguistic faux pas of conflating gender and sex.
How could you not? When you're talking about a woman in Italian and French, you use the feminine endings of adjectives, making the past participle agree when required, etc., etc. When you're talking about a man you use the masculine ones. You can't separate gender and sex in that case!
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You can't separate gender and sex in that case!
In Old English, wifman, (woman) was masculine and wif, (wife) was neuter. In Modern German Mädchen (young girl) is neuter.
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mysteries of grammatical gender. La Patrie, which means literally "the Fatherland" is feminine gender.
I think the feminineness of the word might come from its "ie" ending, not its "patr" beginning. If it had a gender in English, I'd guess the gender would probably come from the 'land' portion, not the 'father' (well, that's how it works in German, and it kinda makes sense).
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If it had a gender in English, I'd guess the gender would probably come from the 'land' portion
This is why the gender of wifman was masculine in OE. The Germanic rule has been that compound words take the gender of the last element. Mädchen is neuter in Modern German because all words ending in -chen are neuter. It is my contention that the concept of grammatical gender is meaningless in Modern English. It has become completely confused with the concept of sex, even to the point that, when filling out forms, you are asked, not your sex, but your gender.
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