Wich country has the best english speakers?

For all practical purposes, Canadians (with the exception of Quebecois) are Americans. They live in pretty much the same place, speak the same language, live the same way, and are mostly descended from the same people as Americans. I personally think of Canada as a whole bunch of big states up north with a cool accent.

<<I personally think of Canada as a whole bunch of big states up north with a cool accent. >>

That view would be taken as slightly(or maybe extremely) offensive to most Canadians, for me, I would say slightly offensive. You are mainly right, however, which was my point in my last post. It would be pretty hard to know whether you were in the States or Canada if you were just dropped into a random city in Northern North America.

(Except that you would see less fat people and no one would be wearing t-shirts with eagles or stars and stripes if you were in Canada :) )

I wish Canada was a wholly French-speaking country. It would have made life more interesting :-P

Red and Blue states refer to whether the state voted majority Republican (red) or Democratic (blue).

The US election actually does not give a single person the power, but a state instead.

For example, My parents are from a county that voted Blue overwhelmingly (that means they voted Democratic for John Kerry) but the state voted majority for George Bush (Republican) so Florida became a Red State and my parents' vote did not count.

>>For all practical purposes, Canadians (with the exception of Quebecois) are Americans. They live in pretty much the same place, speak the same language, live the same way, and are mostly descended from the same people as Americans. I personally think of Canada as a whole bunch of big states up north with a cool accent. <<

With one really huge difference: we can travel around the world with our flag on our backpacks and without getting beaten up.

(I hope Americans earn themselves this privilege too. Really soon).

"For all practical purposes, Canadians (with the exception of Quebecois) are Americans. They live in pretty much the same place, speak the same language, live the same way, and are mostly descended from the same people as Americans. I personally think of Canada as a whole bunch of big states up north with a cool accent."

Absolute nonsense. Both Americans and Canadians grossly underestimate how different the two countries are. Interestingly enough, for a reason that is very much related to this site--the two countries have very similar accents. Other than that, though, we're talking about two surprisingly different cultures. A close friend of mine is Canadian, and I often find that she "misreads" people's intentions in
America because of the startlingly different social codes between the two nations.

Also, the Quebecois are not a sheerly Canadian phenomena. Many of them travelled south to New England during the 19th and 20th centuries (actually, the small rural county I grew up in, where the ancestry is 40% French Canadian, still has some immigrants from Quebec to this day).

<<Both Americans and Canadians grossly underestimate how different the two countries are. Interestingly enough, for a reason that is very much related to this site--the two countries have very similar accents. Other than that, though, we're talking about two surprisingly different cultures.>>

I have some fellow-countrypeople who have emigrated to Canada, and based on what they have told me, Canada might be closer to the US linguistically, but otherwise it is closer to Britain, with the difference of being much more cosmopolitan due to its multi-ethnic character. Even New Englanders seem to differ culturally from the rest of the US, they seem to me to be more similar to Canadians.

Yo soy europeo y solo hablo español. De hecho vivo a tan solo cinco kilometros de Portugal y nunca he ido a este pais, ni siquiea conozco su cultura y su lengua. Y como yo hay cientos de personas mas en mi ciudad.

As far as New England vs. Canada, they are in some ways similar but in other ways not. In rather liberal states like Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont, you would definitely find that the combination of social reserve and socialist idealism very similar to Canada (in fact, the accent in the more educated pockets of those three states can often sound very Canadian).

However, in some parts of the region, particularly New Hampshire, Maine, and some of the more rural areas of the other states, there is a strong right-wing streak that is not dissimilar from the Southern US.

<<With one really huge difference: we can travel around the world with our flag on our backpacks and without getting beaten up. >>

LOL

I do agree that Nic underestimated the difference between the US and Canada. Being a citizen of both countries, I can tell you that when I am in Toronto, I can definitely tell I'm in Canada. You just don't see the ethnic diversity you see up there replicated here (save New York City, but that's a totally different vibe.) You have a feeling that people up there are just more accepting than here. Point being that gay marriage is legal there. I've had the pleasure of living in mostly liberal areas most of my life, so I didn't always see a great divide between where I lived and Canada, but after living in New Hampshire for six months, I can tell you: I know it when I see it. Glad I got out of there!

I personally think "American" isn't a good name for a US-citizens ...

US-citzens are americans to me, but Canadian , Mexican ... people too !

En realidad el nombre oficial de México es " Estados Unidos Mexicanos" (United Mexican States)

Tiffany:

I so enjoy reading your posts. I once thought that if I ever had to live in the USA it would be New England; for one thing it has Canada as a close neighbour. I am a little disillusioned about New England now after reading that remark about New Hampshire...I wonder what's the bother there then?

Have you ever been to Old Hampshire? I recommend it.....it's very pretty even though it's in the South of England! Just joking! In one of my projects I had to go down there and look around the home of Jane Austen in the wee village of Chawton...her house is still very much preserved as it was in her time in the late 18th/early 19th century, except that it now has streams of 21st century traffic going by the front door instead of horse drawn carriages! I wonder what she would make of that? Have the vapours I would guess. She is still my favourite female author. The assignment also involved a trip to Bath in Somerset, which is fantastic and is featured in some of her novels.

" Yo soy europeo y solo hablo español. De hecho vivo a tan solo cinco kilometros de Portugal y nunca he ido a este pais, ni siquiea conozco su cultura y su lengua. Y como yo hay cientos de personas mas en mi ciudad."

¿Viste aquí para aprender inglés? ¿Das una clase de inglés actualmente? ¿Nunca has dado tal clase? Lo que quiero decir es, ¿Por qué viste si sólo tienes la intención de hablar en español?