Please and Thank You.

I suppose everyone has heard about how polite Canadians are. I had to laugh at myself this morning when I burped and then said, "Excuse me," to my dog.

Whenever I visit the U.S. people tell me I have a cute accent. I can't hear it myself of course. My daughters are told the same thing and we look at each other and wonder how we sound different than Americans.

Recently, I have noticed when we say, "Thank You," we say it like this:

"Thaaank Yeeew!" The Thaaank starts low and keeps moving upwards in tone. The Yeeew has a noticible dip in the middle and then an upward swing. We sound like Betty Boop.

Canadians are polite, but I have found Americans to be polite also. Whenever we travel down south, I would say 95% of the people we meet are polite and friendly. Not when they are driving of course. But I don't even expect polite drivers in Canada! That is just asking too much of any nationality!

I was once on a cruise from Vancouver to Mexico. It was filled with Canadian Real Estate Agents. They were all going on a trip to San Diego and then on the Las Vegas. I walked by a small bar one night and it was filled with laughter and clapping while someone was singing Karaoke as a pianist played.

My husband and I went in the bar the next night and it was empty. The pianist was taking requests so I asked for some Frank Sinatra songs. Then he asked me, "Where did all the Canadians go?" I told him I had heard they went to Vegas. He was very disappointed. "They were a lot of fun," he said and then sighed.

I guess he asked me because of my cute accent. He now knows a Canadian when he hears one.