An Analysis of our Upstairs Neighbors
Canada is one of the United States’ closest neighbors, however, often times we are ignorant as a society to the cultural differences of our upstairs neighbors and believe that we’re more similar than we actually are. Even though the United States and Canada are very culturally similar in many ways. However, despite these similarities, there are still many cultural differences, especially in American and Canadian college cultures. My interviewee is Bobbi Uhl, a Canadian freshman on the women’s golf team at Longwood University.
This topic is important and relevant because, as our closest and most similar neighbor, it is assumed that Canada is essentially the same as the United States in a wide variety of aspects. However, this is quite the opposite. To put this into perspective, think about how culture varies from state to state, or even within the state of Virginia! Culture in Northern Virginia is immensely different than culture in places such as Richmond or Norfolk. Northern Virginia and Richmond both reside within the same state, but if cultures can fluctuate and differentiate to that extent within the same state, imagine how much they differentiate between two different countries, regardless of how similar the two countries may be.
When I asked Uhl “What was the hardest part of coming to America and adjusting to life here?” compared to her previous life in Canada, she gave a plethora of responses and examples. She explained that the people in Virginia were very similar to the people that lived in her hometown of Erikson, Manitoba. This was because she Erikson was located in the countryside of Canada, much like how Farmville, Virginia is also located in the countryside, so it seems like the country subculture between the two countries is similar. “It feels like home here, so I don’t notice very many differences in terms of the people,” says Uhl. She did state, however, that the adjustment from the imperial to the metric system of measurements was quite difficult at first.
When I asked her to focus more on the differences she noticed in the two societies after explaining the definitions of “power distance” and “industriousness”, Uhl stated that she believed that Canada had a lower power distance than America, due to the fact that she felt like Canadians were not as reliant on their government or did not seem to be as “tightly strung” about it as Americans were. She also commented on the fact that she believed that Americans were definitely more industrious than Canadians. “Yeah, Canadians have a great work ethic and everything… but I feel like Americans are just a lot more… what’s the right word? Stressed… about their jobs, lives, futures, and so on.” Uhl believes that Canadians have a tendency to be more laid back than the average American.
After conducting my interview with 19-year-old Manitoba resident, Bobbi Uhl, along with additional research, I have come to the conclusion that while, on the surface, Canadian and American culture is very similar, we have a different concentration on power distance and industriousness. American culture seems to have a higher power distance and value industriousness more than Canadian culture. Additionally, during my research, I also found that a common pet peeve among Canadians was that they don’t like it when Americans, or people from any other countries, assume that they’re also from America. They recognize that our cultures are similar, but they don’t like being lumped in with a group of people that they are not a part of! For future reference, it is always a good rule of thumb to be able to spot the subtle differences, such as accents, mannerisms, and so on, before jumping to a conclusion!
