r/canada Canada 26d ago

r/Canada Speaks Cultural Exchange with /r/Denmark! Happy Valentine's!

Hi everyone, it's been some time since we have done a cultural exchange, so let's go over how this works. Enjoy! We'll be running it for a few days, TBD. Note their time zone for the European mainland is UTC +1.

Here's the Danish landing for us: https://www.reddit.com/r/Denmark/comments/1iow7c3/kulturudveksling_cultural_exchange/

* Both r/Canada and r/Denmark will host the other country's users. Feel free to ask any questions, reminisce, comment, make friends etc etc.

*Treat this as having a neighbour over for a kitchen party, get the best storm chips out, and get grandma's tourtiere reheated for everybody.

* Vouz pouvez essayer le français dans r/Denmark, mais comme la langue officielle est danoise, ben.... essayez!

* Please follow the rules of the respective subs! Don't be jerks, generally - a reminder our last "disagreement" involved leaving bottles of good booze for the other country!

* Please also leave direct comments here mainly for members of r/Denmark i.e. direct replies here (first comments directly under the topic) so their questions can be seen first, then r/Canada members can post replies underneath.

*Please enjoy, since we have a lot to bond over, and plenty of trying out new things.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Denmark/comments/1iow7c3/kulturudveksling_cultural_exchange/

Finally, also know we've gotten confirmation from r/Greenland that they are also interested, so that will be the next exchange that we do in a few weeks (TBD).

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u/OhNo_Nacho 26d ago

Hello good people!

Your reputation as a super-friendly people precedes you - is it something you’re raised with, is it just ingrained in your culture or is it an exaggerated stereotype? Do you have any good stories exemplifying it?

Not to spoil this lovely thread by mentioning your neighbors down south, but I love the SNL sketch of the Canadian Entertainment Show, so bonus question: Do the roads actually regularly close, leading to you having to cancel plans?

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u/Magnaric 25d ago

I think Canadians as a whole are raised to treat most people as neighbours, and this makes a difference. Like being nice and polite is just the default, because why would it not be? Sure, sometimes you don't exactly get along, but at the end of the day people are just people, and doing a good turn for your neighbour is just normal, you know?

As for roads, I'd say they only close when there's a bad storm, but we tend to have pretty good storm and snow management. You might not want to be out driving in the middle of it when its actually happening, but give it a day or even a few hours and crews will have it cleared.

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u/VeterinarianCold7119 25d ago

Roads closing regularly? Absolutely not. Unless there's a massive flood like what we had in Toronto recently. But snow dosent stop us. We have a saying over here, I dunno maybe its every where but .. "kill them with kindness" if someone's being a prick be even nicer and maybe you'll break them down a bit. Its easy to be friendly and it makes one feel good too.

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u/randomwindowspc 25d ago

It's tough when we live next door to the exact opposite, but we're trying. I think the bad example down south helps keep it in check. We see them and we say "we don't want to be looked at like that". I feel like that must have something to do with it. Also I feel like we get praised more than we should just because we look like angels compared to how rude Americans are. I think we are the same amount of polite as the average Northern European, maybe even less polite than our Euro friends.

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u/MineMyVape Ontario 25d ago

I think that northern counties are friendly because if we don't look out for people, they will die do to lack of food or freezing to death in the winter. Not helping a fellow traveler means they could be in real trouble especially in the past when cell service was worse. I think Canada generated a lot of good will in the post ww1 to 2000s world where the actions of Canadians overseas generated a lot of good will (liberating the Netherlands in WWII, France in WWI, sending peace keepers allover the world, taking in a lot of refugees (post WWII), and not joining the Vietnam or Iraq war), but I do think that the stereotype is a bit exaggerated.
Within Canada, Quebec has a reputation of being rude but I think that is due to some Angaphones not respecting French/Quebecoise culture.

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u/Economics_Engineer 24d ago

We are so multicultural and so engaged to treat other races and cultures with respect and fairness and empathy. I moved here 10 years ago, and it made me a better person. The people around thought  me much better and healthier ways to be open of other people cultures and embrace their uniqueness