Learning Canadian.

You might wonder why I decided to write a post on this because Canadians speak English right? (Or French, though I haven't encountered any of those yet) Well yes, you would be correct in thinking that. However, people out here have several words that they use on a regular basis, some more than others, that completely flew over my head when I heard them. So I thought for the sake of my family and friends, and any of you reading this, I would share these new found phrases just in case I pick them up and try to bring them back to the UK. And with two Canadian housemates, I feel this may well be a possibility. 

We will start with 'Eh'. Apologies for the poor picture, I was in a rush and as you can see, the woman who was trying to eat her lunch peacefully in Toque, did not particularly like being involved in the photograph. But anyway, eh is the word here that is pretty much added onto the end of every sentence and can mean a million and one things. I'd say, most of the time I've heard it, it's an alternative to saying 'isn't it' ie. 'It's a nice day today eh'. But depending on the inflection you can pretty much use it to mean anything.

Easy peasy. A toonie is a two dollar coin. Makes sense. Just like how I say 'fiver' instead of five pound note. I like it. The money here is cool, it's indestructible. It doesn't rip, it doesn't get wet, it's awesome I love it! The coins confuse the hell out of me though, there's just too many varieties, I can't be dealing with it. It's a good job tipping absolutely everyone is a necessity here!

So a toque, as well as being the name of the restaurant I took these photos in, is also a hat. Despite what it says on the sign above, from what I can gather a toque is a hat that is woolen and has some kind of tassle/bobble on it. Toque. It has a nicer ring to it than 'bobble hat' I'm sure you'll agree.

Now Deke is primarily an ice hockey term. This is a sport which I am trying to get into so il adopt the terms and pretend I know what I'm talking about. It's basically an abbreviation of decoy, so in ice hockey, you pretend you're going one way and actually go the other. Simple eh. You can also use it more broadly to mean deceiving someone, or talk about taking a detour, ie 'I'm going to deke into the store on my way home.'

So yeah, those are some of the terms I've learnt so far. I'm sure this list will only continue to develop over the coming months, I shall keep you updated and I shall sign off with some other fun/strange things I've discovered in the last few days...

- Maple smoked bacon is bloody awesome, we NEED it in the UK.

- You tip everyone, even the lady at the convenience store. It's just the done thing.

- Minus 12 degrees is warm and if you are walking a distance you will have to take a layer off.

- Shopping is hard. The price displayed is not the price you pay and things have different names. Hard.

- English tea is impossible to get your hands on. I've had to settle for Earl Grey. It's a hard life. 

- Pedestrians have right of way at most junctions, it's so strange. 

- Oh and crossing the road wherever you want is called j walking and it's illegal.

- Chips with cheese and gravy has a name. It's called Poutine. It's delicious.