5 Canadian Culture Facts I Never Truly Understood
Canada, Gatineau, February 2012
I have been living in Canada for quite some time now and all in all, I think I adapted pretty well.
I left France at 18 years old, traveled a lot and of course, I’m living with a Canadian—all that probably explains why embracing another culture was fairly easy for me.
Yet, there are a few cultural facts—habits, customs etc.—that I adopted without being entirely comfortable with.
Tipping — Before the flaming starts, let me assure you that I do tip—I was told it was proper etiquette in North America and I respect that. Yet, I don’t truly understand why I tip. Normally, people tip because they receive good service but most Canadians automatically tip 15–20%. It is expected, regardless of whether the service was good or bad. So what’s the point of going through the “Gee, what’s 15% of $9.48?” routine? Why isn’t there a service fee included in the price? And while tipping in restaurants is now second-nature to me, I’m still not entirely sure who I’m supposed to tip in other service industries. Hair stylist? Massage therapist? Gas station attendant? Why should I tip them rather than, let’s say, a doctor or a receptionist? Why should I tip professionals who are paid to be their job? I think part of the problem is that I have never worked in a tipping job, and that France doesn’t have a tipping culture.
Calculating the HST — In Canada, sales taxes, such as the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) are not included in the price: they are added at the time of purchase. Don’t bother getting your change ready at the cash register, because your $24.04 hardcover book won’t be $24.04 but $27.17. To make matters even more complicated, taxes are not levied on all items—good luck guessing what goods are exempt. The fact that taxes are not consolidated in the price displayed annoys me because it’s hard to compute the final cost mentally. On small purchases, the difference between the price without tax and the price with tax isn’t an issue but for bigger items, such as electronics, it makes a difference.
The identity quest — Canadians seem to be obsessed with defining themselves as a nation. There are a lot of documentaries, TV shows, books etc. dedicated to showing the world—or more likely, Canadians—that Canada is a bona-fide country and not just a cold suburb of the U.S.A. The Canadian psyche is often probed and our national identity is examined a lot. And I don’t get it. Of course Canada is a country! Sure, it’s a young nation (by European standards) and sure, it shares some similarities with its southern neighbours, much like France shares some similarities with Italy or Spain. Defining Canada is difficult because it’s a huge multicultural country but to me, this is a strength, not a weakness.
Profanities and censorship — Yes, “flower” is a much nicer word than “fuck”, and “peace” is better than “piss”. But hey, shit… I mean, bad things happen, and few of us actually say “oh, fudge!” I know I certainly don’t, and I don’t care whether it’s lady-like or not—if I stub my toe against the table, I’m piss… I mean, slightly annoyed. That’s why I don’t understand media censorship. When I found out that the version of “Creep” by Radiohead issued for North American radio play replaced the line “So fucking special” with “So very special”, I was puzzled. Can you actually do that? Who these days if offended by a single “fuck”? Beeping bad words on TV doesn’t make sense to me. Ever tried watching Hell’s Kitchen? Gordon Ramsay’s rants are basically a long succession of “beeps”! Either censor the entire show or quit being hypocritical, for fu… I mean, “please”.
Some comfort food — Some food are an acquired taste and I never truly learned to like Canadians’ favourite comfort food. Like peanut butter for instance: there is peanut butter, and then peanut butter ice cream, peanut butter cookies, peanut butter candies etc. I still don’t get why people are crazy about it! Same goes with hot dogs. I don’t think I ever had one actually. Back when I was a teacher, my students would line up in the cold on Bank Street to buy them from the hot dog cart—I don’t see what’s so great in a sausage, bun, mustard and ketchup. And I don’t get Kraft’s mac & cheese (it’s just… macaroni and cheese!), Pop-Tarts… or poutine!
Are there still some cultural facts here that puzzle you? Some customs you never truly adopted in your new country?
Related articles:
- 7 Canadian Work Culture Facts You May Not Know
- 10 Clues I’m Still French
- The Tipping Dilemma
- Damn, I Wish I Had Known That…!
- What I Miss From France… And What I Don’t!
- Three Faux Pas I (Must Have) Committed When I Came to Canada
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Et pour répondre à ta question, ce à quoi je né m’étais jamais habituée au Québec, c’est effectivement la bouffe. Je suis une grande amatrice de bonne bouffe (bonne, dans tous les sens, c’est à dire saine, bien produite, et bonne au goût !). Et je né pouvais que me crisper quand je voyais que dans TOUS les produits, même les plus simples comme la farine, il y avait des putains (je né me censure pas non plus !) d’additifs. Pourquoi rajouter du fer dans la farine, nom d’un schtroumpf ?! Et de la vitamine D dans mon jus d’orange ?!
Pour ça, j’ai un peu laissé tombé la bataille, sinon malheureusement je né mangerai pas grand chose ici!
J’y suis arrivée, tout de même. Je suis capable de m’adapter facilement, je pense, à d’autres modes de vie, mais il y a une chose dans laquelle je suis intransigeante, j’avoue, et c’est ça !
Je me relis et me dis que je suis exactement le genre d’expats dont tu parles : je suis trop française !
Snif snurf
Peut-être aussi parce que tu n’as passé “que” un an (je crois) là-bas? Ça m’a pris du temps avant de m’adapter aussi. Au bout d’un moment, ça fait la différence entre expatriation et immigration
Well, to answer two in one: “The identity quest” and “Profanities and censorship”… I think you are watching too much American TV. Canadian TV generally doesn’t censor things like “fuck” — certainly not on the news. They also don’t censor things like bare breasts on the news that a US station would. The CBC and TVO and the like, and certainly the Canadian French-language TV very rarely bleep out anything. That bleeping on Ramsay is put in by the American producers of the show.
And this touches on the identity quest. You, Zhu, continually refer to things as being “North American” (vs French or European), so do you wonder that Canadians feel the need to assert their identity? If you have a Canadian accent (in English) and travel in Europe, most people will assume you are American, and this does get a little tiresome. Even American tourists assume you are one of them. But when I travelled in France people in tourist places would hear that I spoke so-so French, but obviously wasn’t a native speaker, and then they would usually try German on me! (I do not have a German accent in English or French.) Why? Because they knew that no American would try to speak French at all, no Brit would have as good a French accent as I have, and then German is third on their list, with Canadian not being on it at all.
Well that’s my rant for the day.
Regarding censorship… TV is probably a bad example, I barely watch it and when I do, it’s either Canadian or British channels. But I do know that songs that play on Canadian radios are censored (cf. the example of Radiohead’s Creep). Same goes with magazines, nudity is censored, including bare breasts. Granted, Canadians are not as prudish as Americans but they still censor more things than French.
As for the identity quest, I guess my message was a positive one. I see Canada as a country and I wish Canadians would stop being self-conscious about their identity. I refer as things as being “North American” when I opposed them to “European” or “Asian” customs, things etc. This doesn’t mind that the U.K. and France are the same country (they would kill me for saying that
), or that Japan and China are the same country. But of course, there are “cultural zones”, Europe is one and North America is another.
I think less and less Europeans assume that Canadians (or Kiwi, or Australians!) are Americans by default. A while ago, the U.S. was a rich country and they could afford traveling to Europe, hence the immediate “American accent = American” stereotype. But most European countries see more and more tourists from all around the world, and probably less Americans now.
Tipping is usually done in cases where the employee doesn’t earn that much, so it can help supplement their income. But if say, a waitress or waiter is really rude to me for no reason, I don’t tip them much of anything.
As for the identity quest, well, some of our accents are similar to Americans and yes it does get annoying. And no offense to any Americans reading this, but they aren’t exactly well loved in many countries, so making sure people know who we are can be really important.
The thing is, with tipping, we do have a minimum wage in Canada. I’m not saying it’s easy to live on minimum wage (I did and I know how hard it can be) but after, don’t professions such as hair stylists, movers, massage therapists etc. get a good wage?
Tipping — tipping is entirely up to you. I like that. Typically, Canadians tip less than Americans do because we have a higher minimum wage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._minimum_wages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_in_Canada
I’d rather it be up to me than to have a service fee. Gratuities are added to bills for groups of 6–8 people, depending on the restaurant. I think this is fair.
People don’t like tipping because they don’t like to do math. I’d rather make my own judgement about service and do the math. In restaurants I tip before taxes, which is easy because you just use the tax as your calculation, depending on which province you live in. It’s not that hard. I know I’m in the minority for tipping before taxes, so if I’m with others I do the calculations based on the group.
Tipping is not just in North America. When I was living in Australia I remember my Israeli friend complaining about being a waiter in Tel-Aviv, where they work entirely for tips, they didn’t even get a wage at all. Which meant that the restaurant wasn’t technically an employer, and could sack anybody at any time!
In Germany fuel stations there is often an attendant who cleans the washrooms, and you are expected to tip that attendant simply for using the washroom. In the UK (and other places in the world) they have attendants in the nightclubs who also work for tips, but I can tell you, they are WORTH IT. Without washroom attendants, you would never step foot in there! Disgusting!
As a photographer, I never expect tips but I do get them, sometimes very big tips (the last one was $350!). Don’t underestimate the power of good service!
Calculating the HST — See Tipping — I’d rather do the math, because otherwise ALL merchants would round up and pocket the difference, just like Cynthia says. It happened all over Europe where the euro was introduced, when the currency changed and suddenly everyone is paying more for everything. Nothing got cheaper, only more expensive. In Canada, not everyone pays HST, eg., status Aboriginals (for certain things), each province has a different sales tax rate, and Alberta doesn’t have a sales tax at all. Consumers need to be reminded that the companies do not charge tax, they only collect it. In the case of small businesses like me, I do not collect HST at all. Personally, I want to know exactly how much a retailer is charging and how much I pay the government. I do not want it all rounded up every single time, which is what happens when there’s VAT.
The identity quest — I don’t think anyone loses any sleep over this, except in Ottawa. Part of your perception is living in a city that was designed to be the capital and its whole existence revolves around worrying about these things. If you lived in Canberra or any of the other completely designed capital cities in young countries you’d hear the same things, just in a different country.
If Canada was an island, anywhere near the same age or population as the United States or Mexico, or had a highly restrictive immigration policy, it would seem more homogenous. But it’s not, and that’s good. So whenever people think ‘Canadian’ they think of different things because it’s not very obvious. Besides, the qualities of being Canadian are abstract terms, since we all look different, speak different languages, have different backgrounds. However, I do like the fact that we’re known as polite pacifists.
Profanities and censorship — See previous. We are a polite nation. From what I remember of watching TV when I had one is that we don’t censor like the U.S. We don’t blur out nipples or bleep anything. In movies shown during prime time, the only thing I’ve noticed is they may cut out a scene, but films are edited for TV length, anyway. If you watch CBC’s “The Hour”, the interviewees swear as much as they want.
Some comfort food — There’s peanut butter ice cream? I’ve never eaten a Pop-Tart in my life. I see the attraction of hot dogs — they’re cheap and have lots of variations and easy for street vending. They can even be healthy, depending on the ingredients — you can even find all four food groups. (I don’t eat ketchup or that electric yellow mustard.) I wish the Japanese hot dog carts in Vancouver would make their way here, the toppings are so tasty. But we can’t take credit for the hot dog — Americans, Icelandics, Germans, and Eastern Europeans are all big fans (if not bigger fans) of the sausage in a bun. And they’re much easier to eat in a stadium than the Aussie/Kiwi meat pies!
Re. tipping… I think the custom is hard to get for me because I’ve never worked in a tipping position. I worked a lot of minimum wage jobs, but none with tips. But hey, you aren’t going to say no to tips if you get them!
Re. the identity quest… maybe it is an Ottawa thing. I have never thought of it this way! I will investigate
As for comfort food… maybe I should try to have a hot dog once. It just doesn’t appeal to me for me reason. Maybe if I add cheese?
Actually, I wouldn’t recommend the street meat here if you want to try hot dogs, unless you’ve been drinking. It’s only sort of comfort food if you’re drunk.
The best hot dogs (or sausage in a bun) I’ve had were in Germany and Iceland… unless you can find one of those Japanese carts like I mentioned in Vancouver!
http://www.japadog.com/
There is a German deli in Ottawa that has the best salami and meat ever, so I can well believe you!
Hi Zhu,
I laughed out at your tipping rant. As Asian, it’s a mystery to me to give money at the end of a meal (just to be clear, I do it as a habit now). Tipping is basically north American capitalism at work. It’s no longer a ‘nice thing to do’ but a mandatory thing, because restaurants subsidize salaries by relying on customers to pay their employees. You know when you swipe a credit card and the machine shows a button for 15%? Well several restaurants in Toronto changed it to 18 or even 20. I am not doing this.
Speaking of comfort food, I don’t get the point of chicken noodle soup when you are sick. It’s boiled animal remains and manufactured pasta noodles with some salt, how’z that comfort?
Oh, I love soup but I don’t get chicken noodle soup either!
As for tipping… I feel the same, probably because we both come from a non-tipping culture.