Canadians have the international reputation of being polite and courteous—and this apparently extends to our signs.
Construction work is a pain for everyone, pedestrians and drivers alike. Unfortunately, in Canada, because of our long and harsh winter, spring and summer are known are “construction season”. Tons of projects, from road repairs to paving, from condo developments to building demolitions, are underway all across the city. This often causes traffic delays, roadblocks, dust and leads to a myriad of little annoyances.
Fortunately, this über-polite sign makes of forgetful:
“Work in progress.
Sorry for the inconvenience caused.
These improvements are for you.”
Well, I’m not sure if I will benefit from these improvements, whatever they are, but at least the apology sounds sincere!
Welcome to Canada, where our signs are oh-so-polite!
He he, I love Canadians! I always wonder whether people think I am rude here because I am not yet as courteous as everybody else here yet! I try though!
You certainly don’t come across as rude!
I love Canadians’ politeness, that was my first culture shock!
… and a good one, I bet!
Haha! Love this 🙂 I have to keep reminding myself that it’s considered very rude not to say “you’re welcome’ when someone thanks you, crazy!
But you are British… so über-polite too!
Typical Canadian politeness:
Person 1: I’m so sorry.
Person 2: No, I AM the one who’s sorry!
P1: No way, what do you have to be sorry about? I’m the one that ____________.
P2: What are talking about? That only happened because ____________. It’s not your fault. If anyone’s at fault, it’s me!
P1: Yeah, well, I’m still sorry. And it wasn’t your fault either.
P2: I’m so, so sorry.
Yes, this is such a Canadian thing. These arguments about who should be the sorry one were a regular occurance while I was growing up.
This above example happened to me several times when I didn’t hold open a door for my friend or something “stupid” like that.
😆 This is so true across Canada!
I guess “I’m sorry” is one of those things you can’t fully translate. At least in German (and probably other languages too), “I’m sorry” is more understood as an apology for something you’ve done, but not in English.
It’s not unique to Canada at all, it is also commonly used in England and -surprise, surprise- even on
Sorry if the link doesn’t work. Or better yet, I’m sorry, no matter what 😛
meh… that didn’t work at all. I meant to write
It’s not unique to Canada at all, it is also commonly used in England and –surprise, surprise– even on planet Druidia.
The link still works though.
The Chinese say 对不起, which basically means “I’m not up to your expectations”. I kind of like that. Let me check the link…
Even our buses apologize when not in service. You must have seen this: “Sorry, Not In Service”
HAHA!
Oh yes I did! 😆