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?
This may be an unpopular opinion, but Canadians are Americans not just technically, but also culturally. The difference between a Canadian and an American is similar to an American in NY and another in Alaska. Very similar, but they are a little different but not as much as compared to say English person or Australian. So when people assume I am American, I am not offended as yeah…we really kinda are. We share the same culture that is nearly identical. So much so that most Americans cannot tell Canadians are Canadians until they have spoken for a bit and picked up a few key word differences.
I’ve heard it said that America and Great Britain are “divided by a common language.” I’ve had friendships with British people that consisted largely of “Hey, tell me about this snack food you have that I’ve just now heard of.”
That just doesn’t exist between America and Canada. We’re on the same page. We’re easily mistaken for each other…by each other. Talking to a Canadian about something we’re both interested in is an extremely similar experience to talking to another American.
Right. We talk about the same TV, Internet Social Media, same fast food chains, same mall stores, same big box stores, same types of houses and roads, car focused culture, same corporate culture, biggest trading partners etc etc. The differences are only as big as one state to another.