24 Canadian Taboos: Avoid Making These Mistakes in Canada! How to be Polite in Canada 🇨🇦

hi everyone would you like to learn about Canadian taboos in English welcome to Jen's juju my name is Jen and I am Canadian and today I want to do a commonly requested lesson following my Canadian slang video and that request is to make a lesson about Canadian taboos hopefully you will find these taboos interesting as well as provide a useful resource for you to think about when you're coming to Canada the taboos included in this lesson might not be taboos just for Canada and could also be considered taboo in many other places as well but I tried to include things that are specifically taboo in Canada things that you should avoid saying or doing when in my country the first thing is when you are talking with someone there are certain topics that are best to avoid things that you shouldn't talk about with people unless they are very very close friends or family these topics include things such as sex religion politics and money those are topics that in general you don't usually talk about with people who you are not close to because it can easily cause arguments however as a Canadian there's another thing that I would like to add to this list of taboo conversation topics and that is the fact that Canadians absolutely hate being compared to Americans please when you are speaking with Canadians do not compare Canada to the United States do not compare Canadians to Americans that is something that the majority of Canadians absolutely hate also very taboo Canada does not have Eskimos and we also do not have Indians these two words are actually very offensive and shouldn't be used instead there are other good words that we can use to discuss these a Burridge groups of people the most common expression that we would use is First Nations people because they were here first when you meet somebody for the first time in Canada it's very common to shake hands with that person if someone reaches out to shake your hand and you don't shake their hand in return it is considered extremely rude also when you first meet people common questions such as Oh what do you do and things like that are appropriate however from my experience in different Asian countries there is one specific question that you should not ask people in Canada but that is very common in Asian countries that people will ask each other when they first meet and that question is about your age asking somebody how old they are is considered extremely rude in Canada if you're talking to a child maybe it's fine because the child might be excited I'm 10 years old but once you become an adult like me I find it rude if you ask me how old I am that's not a good question when meeting people in Canada another thing which I feel is common in most countries but not all is that when you are talking to someone it is polite to make eye contact with them please look them in the eyes I find it uncomfortable if I'm talking to someone and they look away or look at their shoes look at their hands look down I find that a little bit odd and some people might even find it rude so when you're talking to someone in Canada it is polite to make eye contact with that person I want to talk about a couple of gestures that are considered rude in Canada as with most countries showing somebody the middle finger or giving them the finger is rude so if I go like this that is a very rude symbol in Canada and you should definitely avoid doing that another important gesture that you should do however is if you yawn maybe you are tired you can't control yawning if you yawn huh it's very rude you should cover your mouth when you yawn and if there's people here you should also kind of turn away from them yawning towards someone is considered very rude so please turn away and cover your mouth speaking of covering your mouth if you sneeze please sneeze into your elbow also in Canada when you sneeze to be polite you should say excuse me same as if you accidentally fart or burp or cough after you've done this bodily function it is polite to say excuse me oh sorry excuse me if you don't say that people might consider you a little bit rude also if you are near somebody and they sneeze it is polite to say bless you for example excuse me bless you well thank you in terms of gestures connected to table etiquette it is considered very rude to put your elbows on the table when you are eating dinner or eating any meal don't put your elbows on the table also common sense I think but when you are eating don't talk with food in your mouth and don't chew with your mouth open another gesture which can be considered rude is pointing directly at someone if you point at someone it can be seen as rude so if you want to gesture toward someone that way the best thing to do is gesture like this with your palm up towards the person like this so how are you versus how are you Canadians are known for being polite some Canadians consider this a stereotype but compared to some other places where I've traveled I do feel that there is a certain level of politeness and common courtesy in Canada for example saying please and thank you and sorry is very much appreciated and is often heard more in Canada than is in other english-speaking countries one very interesting thing about sori is if there are two people walking and this person bangs into the other person they will actually both say sorry so in Canadian English of what a lot of Canadians do is they use sori as a way to apologize to someone but sometimes sori can also be used as a way of indicating to the other person that they have done something that you want them to apologize for so when someone bangs into me I say sorry and they also say sorry in Canada people sometimes swear and use offensive language but they generally do that with close friends or people who are close to them in Canada it is considered very rude and a big taboo to swear in front of people who you don't know swearing in front of a stranger big no swearing in front of a child is a huge taboo just you don't use offensive language in front of children in fact on Canadian TV on every TV channel what will happen if there is a swear word is that either the swear word will be censored it'll be beeped out or at the beginning of the program there will actually be a warning and the warning usually says something like this program contains course language viewer discretion is advised which basically means they're swearing in this program so if there's children now's the time to get them to leave the room or turn off the TV in Canada it is considered rude to talk loudly on your phone when you are riding public transportation I have heard many people do it in Toronto specifically but in smaller towns not as much so generally if you are riding public transportation you can text someone or talk quietly sorry I'm on the bus I have to call you back that's okay but yeah so what are you doing tonight on a crowded bus with many other passengers we don't need to hear your conversation considered rude for you to be speaking loudly in general and especially rude for you to be speaking loudly on a cell phone in that situation in Canada if you eat in a restaurant there are a couple of things you need to be careful of that can also be seen as taboo when you have finished your meal and you are getting ready to pay please remember to leave the server a tip tipping is important in Canadian culture to show the waiter or waitress that you enjoyed their service you don't have to tip if you're just getting like a $2 coffee at Timmy's Tim Hortons but when you're actually in a sit-down restaurant and someone has been serving you please give them a tip generally somewhere between 15 to 20 percent is considered normal you should also turn your phone off if you are in a place such as a restaurant or a classroom or a theatre places like that people will consider it extraordinarily rude if your cell phone starts ringing and disrupting them from their activities if someone invites you to their house for dinner there are three really appropriate gifts that you can bring as a gesture to say thank you for having me for dinner you could bring flowers you could bring wine or you could bring them something like a box of chocolates or something small like that those are appropriate gifts and they're called hostess gifts so if someone invites you for dinner please bring something to the dinner with you something small like that flowers and wine are usually the best choices speaking of being invited to someone's house if you are invited to their house for dinner then you should show up on time or a little tiny bit late but no more than 15 minutes late for dinner because that is considered rude however if someone invites you to their house for dinner and you show up early that's also considered rude because maybe the host isn't ready for you yet maybe they haven't finished preparing things however if you're invited to someone's house for a part teehee and there's many many people coming and it's a more casual laid-back situation you still definitely shouldn't come early but being a little bit later even a little bit more than 15 minutes late is generally considered acceptable if you are going to someone's house for dinner or for a party if you're going into someone's house for any reason there's something we do in Canada that most people in other countries do as well which is to take off your shoes when you enter someone's house when you visit someone's house please make sure you take off your shoes before entering if you but in front of someone in the line that's very slang but in front of someone meaning to push your way into the line budge your way in or jump the queue as my British friends would say that is extraordinarily rude you need to find the end of the line and wait your turn in the line follow signs if a sign tells you to do something do it if it says no smoking don't smoke if it says give this seat up for elderly or pregnant people move and give that chair to someone don't continue sitting there when there's an elderly man standing if a sign says please keep your dog on a leash keep your dog on the leash please follow the signs be polite and you shouldn't have to worry too much about life in Canada and thinking about too many taboos I think the majority of taboos and things that I talked about for this video that many people really wanted to see the majority of things that I thought about are taboo in most places around the world so using common sense and being polite will get you really far during your time here in Canada and now it's time for question of the day today's question is please tell me about some taboos in your country let me know about those taboos in the comments below thank you so much for watching this video if you enjoyed it you might also enjoy my Canadian slang video or my playlist full of different videos about Canadian culture and Canadian holidays so be sure to check them out in the description below the video also if you haven't already please subscribe to Jenn's jugo so you don't miss any lessons and give this video a thumbs up please see you in the next lesson good luck with your English Studies everyone

Channel: JeN's Jyugyou / ジェンの授業

Views: 34,284

Rating: 4.9063168 out of 5

Keywords: English, English lesson, Canada, Canadian, Canadian taboos, taboos, taboo, Taboos in Canada, Mistakes in Canada, How to be Polite, Polite in Canada, How to be Polite in Canada, polite, do, don't, improve your English, English skills, good manners, manners in Canada, interacting with Canadians, avoid making mistakes in Canada, English communication, communication skills, English studies, Canadian Culture, Canadian Slang, act like a Canadian, Canadian English, how to, sorry, JeN, ESL

Id: ZNEnF-a_TRA

Length: 13min 39sec (819 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 26 2020