Around ~2008 I was in a Barcelona hostel and met a guy there. He started speaking and I interrupted him excitedly…“Oh you’re American!!”.
He looked down…the weight of pain curdled the air around us. You could sense deep sorrow welling beneath the surface of this man. He paused for what felt like an eternity to compose himself,
He looked up with a piercing, but harrowing, stare and said “No, I’m Canadian…”
I’ll never forget that moment. That sheer depth of emotion is something I haven’t experienced before or since.
Did I silently murder this poor Canadian soul? How do Canadians cope with the mistaken identity?
I thought your whole ‘thing’ was that you’re polite and friendly!? Surely you don’t need to say “friendly” and “approachable”?
With regards to your reputation for politeness/friendliness - do you think that’s compared to Americans? So for example you’re at the same level of polite as Brits? Or do you think your friendliness/politeness goes above Brits even.
Obviously this is all stereotypes/generalisations. You’re average inner-London (UK) chav with a zombie knife isn’t that polite!
I think Canada is a bit better when it comes to the approachable apsect than the UK.
But yeah more so compared to America. Canada has it’s own weird alt right community but I feel like the average Canadian is close to centre. I’d say most people are friendly to all minorities here and if they aren’t they’re at least not vocal about it and they usually get shot down pretty quick for example.