Contrasting Canada and America: My learnings based on some time across the border - General

[QUOTE=Canuhearme?;24275940]Go to Quebec and refuse to speak anything but English. Come back and post results.[/QUOTE] Best way to be hated. I hate those who do that. All they are looking for is hate.

Well of course. Detroit is a shithole.

I love living in Canada but we do have problems.

[QUOTE=WolvesSoulZ;24276016]Best way to be hated. I hate those who do that. All they are looking for is hate.[/QUOTE] Which is why I've heard of extremist groups boycotting and [I]firebombing[/I] businesses in Quebec that aren't bilingual enough, right?

[QUOTE=Canuhearme?;24275940]Go to Quebec and refuse to speak anything but English. Come back and post results.[/QUOTE] Unless you're in Montreal.

[QUOTE=WolvesSoulZ;24276016]Best way to be hated. I hate those who do that. All they are looking for is hate.[/QUOTE] What do you mean? People that refuse to speak French? Yeah, i hate those too, fucking assholes. Btw, we learn English and they refuse to learn French. Way to fucking go.

Dude you compared Detroit? You do know a lot of Americans know that it's one of America's shitholes?

I suck at learning languages.. as soon as I got my High School French credit I stopped taking it. Every year I had to take French i got a 50-55

Did Detroit ever bounce back after we stopped making cars there almost entirely? Last I heard it was still pretty much a dead city.

[QUOTE=POWA KILLERDeux;24276184]What do you mean? People that refuse to speak French? Yeah, i hate those too, fucking assholes. Btw, we learn English and they refuse to learn French. Way to fucking go.[/QUOTE] Exactly! They come here looking for somewhere good to live, we open our arms to them, and they like just say "Fuck you I'm not learning the official language! I'll stick with learning english only!" Good thing that where I live, there's less then 1% who have english as their native language.

[QUOTE=Detective P;24275660]Oh I know I generalize, but I found the contrast between the two communities, which are neighbors, pretty symbolic of the similarities to the two countries: best of times, worst of times stuff. The whole of America isn't like Detroit and the whole of Canada isn't like Windsor, I know that, but just overall, very general, each city represents its own country in that the better community of Windsor has all of the positive qualities common in Canada and Detroit has all of the negative qualities common in America.[/QUOTE] But then how can you accurately contrast Canada and America using one of the worst American cities and one of the better Canadian cities?

Funny, I went to Montreal for about a week and it was about the same as the experience where I live in the US. Some small differences, mostly negligible. are you sure the area you visited wasn't a common tourist area? cause theres a reason why the manicure the shit out of roads and brush

[QUOTE=Roswell34;24276259]Funny, I went to Montreal for about a week and it was about the same as America. Some small differences, mostly negligible.[/QUOTE] It was Montréal, thats why. Montréal, the America of Canada. I'm going to be flamed.

[QUOTE=Tk1138;24276268]It was Montréal, thats why. Montréal, the America of Canada. I'm going to be flamed.[/QUOTE] It looked fine? Like I said though tons of touristy shit, shops and whatever [QUOTE=OP] As we handed him our IDs he inspected them closely, scanned them in his fancy machine, asked us why we visited Canada, what our purpose was, was very suspicious of us...[/QUOTE] thats mandatory, guy

[QUOTE=Roswell34;24276325]It looked fine? Like I said though tons of touristy shit, shops and whatever[/QUOTE] Montreal is nothing like any other city from Quebec, nor many other Canadian cities. I dislike montreal.

[QUOTE=WolvesSoulZ;24276365]Montreal is nothing like any other city from Quebec, nor many other Canadian cities. I dislike montreal.[/QUOTE] Elaborate, whats the main differences to other cities in quebec we were in Toronto for a split second too

[QUOTE=Roswell34;24276419]Elaborate, whats the main differences to other cities in quebec[/QUOTE] Other cities in Quebec, are first of all, French, for the most. You don't have to worry about meeting a only english-speaking person working somewhere elsewhere, rare you'd see them walking on the streets too, there are some cities where it's less rare too though, but they aren't frequent. And montreal, why the hell would someone sane want to live there, it's full, full of people. I preffer to stick in french cities where I can actually have a good land and plenties of forests. There's also other differences, but I won't list them all.

So you went to one of the shittiest cities in the country and then used that to judge draw your conclusions about the entire nation? :frog:

[QUOTE=_Sniper_;24275535]Detroit is a shithole and does not represent the entirety of the USA.[/QUOTE] It represents most of the big cities in the USA though

[QUOTE=Tk1138;24276268]It was Montréal, thats why. Montréal, the America of Canada. I'm going to be flamed.[/QUOTE] Montreal is a nice city, the people are assholes though. I'd say Toronto is more America-esque.

[QUOTE=Canuhearme?;24276146]Which is why I've heard of extremist groups boycotting and [I]firebombing[/I] businesses in Quebec that aren't bilingual enough, right?[/QUOTE] What? Since when?

[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;24276880]Montreal is a nice city[/QUOTE] It is, isn't it? Their underground city is awesome :v:

I see the main flaw in the American side. Detroit. There's a reason for those stereotypes.

I went to Montreal yesterday for the day (I live in Ottawa), and it was kind of terrible. No one uses blinkers or knows how to drive for that matter, traffic jams are common, and walking is just horrible because their crosswalks are poorly planned (no walk signs or anything). The architecture was nice, but overall it wasn't too great.

[QUOTE=WolvesSoulZ;24276241]Exactly! They come here looking for somewhere good to live, we open our arms to them, and they like just say "Fuck you I'm not learning the official language! I'll stick with learning english only!" Good thing that where I live, there's less then 1% who have english as their native language.[/QUOTE] I'm sorry, but English *is* the majority language, apart from Mandarin and Spanish. Spanish and Mandarin have more native speakers in the world, so why don't you learn it? I'm sorry, but learning a complicated language like English and then trying to learn French is a disaster. French may be an easier language to learn but after knowing English, it just complicates things. I never continued French past Grade 8, and I don't intend to learn French. I don't plan on visiting France anytime soon, and if I ever visit Quebec, I'll just hope enough people speak English to help me.

I live basically in Detroit and love to bash it but honestly every big city is like Detroit. It's bad in some aspects here because of the auto industry problems recently and all that, but really. Plus I doubt most of you talking about Detroit have even been to the city. Detroit is pretty shitty in some parts and isn't a fair thing to judge the whole country on for sure though.

Edit. Just read all the Montreal stuff lol Yeah, people dont talk to each other in Montreal. Everyone's worried about which language the other person speaks, and instead of possibly offending people by speaking the wrong language, they seem to prefer to avoid speaking at all. The hate towards english speaking people is excessive and high unnecessary, however the english people that do live here tend to stick together and are extremely friendly. The city is amazing, our living conditions are great, but a lot of the people are snobby dicks who witch hunt anyone who doesnt speak french... [editline]02:23PM[/editline] [QUOTE=Tukimoshi;24277134]I'm sorry, but English *is* the majority language, apart from Mandarin and Spanish. Spanish and Mandarin have more native speakers in the world, so why don't you learn it? I'm sorry, but learning a complicated language like English and then trying to learn French is a disaster. French may be an easier language to learn but after knowing English, it just complicates things. I never continued French past Grade 8, and I don't intend to learn French. I don't plan on visiting France anytime soon, and if I ever visit Quebec, I'll just hope enough people speak English to help me.[/QUOTE] French is WAY harder to learn than English... Most people here understand english but can't speak it worth a damn. They feel they don't have to, because everyone speaks french here. That is, until they have to do anything outside of quebec...like travel, call customer service for anything at all, find a job, etc... Ahhh...the french idiots make my life interesting :D

[QUOTE=Roswell34;24276419]Elaborate, whats the main differences to other cities in quebec we were in Toronto for a split second too[/QUOTE] Toronto is pretty shitty as well

Toronto is the Detroit of Canada

[QUOTE=Tk1138;24276229]I suck at learning languages.. as soon as I got my High School French credit I stopped taking it. Every year I had to take French i got a 50-55[/QUOTE] Same here mate, French is hard as shit.