wow wrote:
I wonder what answers we would get if Canadians were asked about USA ? That's not meant as a zinger, but aside from the folk in cities along the Cannada-US border, friends who have visited "inland" Canada have been surprised by misinformation and misplacing concerning US cities and states! Meanwhile, do they sell tapes of the 22 Minute Hour shows? Have they a web site? I'd love to see a sampling.What
I feel is the difference is not so much knowing WHERE a city/state is, but having heard of it at all. If you were to tell a Canadian that Canada is bombing Vermont (to use a reverse example), we would know that you were kidding. We might not know just where Vermont (or Oregon or Nevada or Tucson or Little Rock) is exactly, but we know they are in the US somewhere. And that we wouldn't likely be bombing them! And EVERYONE in Canada knows that the US has a president, not a prime minister or a king or queen. (Even though some may not be concerned enough to know WHO exactly the president is!) You have to remember that we get half our TV channels and most of our sitcoms from you guys, so all the passing references to cities, states, people, become familiar to us. But since our Canadian-made shows are few and far between, and most probably don't get exported to the US (except some notable ones like Degrassi Junior High/Degrassi High, You Can't do That on TV), the passing references to Canadian landmarks and government are never heard by Americans.
I think, in the end, some people, Canadians, Americans, and otherwide, just don't care much about geography. One thing that ANNOYS me is that all our friends back in Winnipeg think we can so easily come back and visit them. Well, it costs between $700-$1000 round trip by plane from St. John's to Winnipeg for one person. Or we could drive 4500 km (nearly 3000 miles), including a 14-hour ferry ride, and take almost a week to get home to visit! A quick hello-goodbye and we'd be on our way back again. Guess what - on a student's pathetic salary, with my husband only working part-time because that's all there is, it isn't going to happen!
As for a web site, try
http://www.22minutes.com. Looks like you can buy tapes, and at $12.95 Canadian ($0.10 US, ha ha, just a little bitter about our weak dollar) they would be a great deal! They do have streaming video of the now-infamous rant about the leader of our right-wing party, Stockwell Day, and the move to have him change his name to Doris by a "citizen's initiative". You have to see it to get it. Anyway, for a good laugh you (plural you) may want to have a look!
