It’s been a while since I’ve managed to post anything… things have been crazy around here with the New Year 2012 Newsletter going out, Chritmas, blocks of the month, plus, I was under the weather last week, making a blog post difficult to get to. But I’m here now, so never fear.
What I have been thinking about lately is some of the differences in Canadian-English vs. English-English. Even just in the quilting world- what you call “wadding” we call “batting,” what you call “vilene” we call “interfacing,” and what you call “bond-a-web,” we call “wonder-under.” You come in looking for a reel of cotton, while I would go and look for a spool of thread. It makes working here a bit complicated, as often someone will come in looking for something, and I have no idea what they are talking about– even though at home I would have been able to help no problem.
There are many other differences as well. The big one that always gets me is when people ask me “are you all right?” Which here seem very similary to “how are you” but at home is usually only asked when the ask-er suspects that the ask-ee is definitly not-OK. It’s often used when someone hurts themselves, someone close to you dies, someone is crying etc. So whenever someone asks ”are you all right” in my head I am thinking “yes, I’m all right, do I seem like I’m not? Do I look that awful? Have I made some horrible mistake?” before remembering that, no, things are fine, that is just an expression, they are just saying hello. And then things go back to normal.
All of these different Canadian-isms mean that when I’m doing the e-news someone has to go through and English-ize my writing. It means that on the phone particulary there can be some interesting mis-communications. But it certainly makes things interesting.
Anyways, I’m back to work now. So later days!
Kathleen.
I think the Canadianisms are just charming and long may you continue to use them. I always read Kathleen’s post with interest but am slightly bemused by “later days”. Is that an equivalent of our “speak soon”?
Later days is similar to “Speak soon”…. though this particular phrase is more of a Kathleen-ism than a Canadian-ism.
As Kathleen’s father, there are many, many Kathleen-isms that are not used in Canada, except by her of course. Makes us just love her even more.
Kathleen will be demonstrating and talking about some of her favourite ‘tools of the trade’ tomorrow and saturday at our free Open House events. It will give you an opportunity to listen to her Canadian-isms.
I think its great having someone from across the pond working in the shop as quilting is real a way of life to them. My son lived in Canada for a while and he loved the way that a lot of Canadians put Hey at the end of almost every sentence. It certainly helped to differentiante them from their south of the border cousins. I met Kathleen yesterday and was amazed by her beautiful free motion quilting, it was truly inspiring hey!!!