Guy, just fuck off and die, mmmkay?

Music: Still SVU (it�s a marathon or something)
Mood: ow, my brain!

Now, before I start this rant, I�d like to say: I know a lot of nice Americans. (I know, it sounds suspiciously like, �I�m not a tool of the patriarchy/racist nazi/ignorant homophobe but . . . .�) I know that not every single asshole American I meet isn�t representative of the rest. Unfortunately, it�s the assholes that you tend to remember.

Today, I got at least four puzzled looks when I spelled my name and said �zed� instead of �zee.� When I caught myself and corrected the mistake, all four of these assholes looked at me like I was a complete retard.

Then, when I pointed out that I was from Canada, two of them asked me to say, �aboot.� So, I said it � the way I always say it � �about.� The first kind of went, �oh,� and realizing that she may have offended me, made a joke about it. I bantered back with tales of sled dogs being our primary form of transportation in the Great White North and probably reinforced a whole bunch of Canadian stereotypes that float around in the ether down here. We laughed and the atmosphere went all jokey. (Even if I was being asked to perform like a trained monkey.)

The second, however, proceeded to correct me, telling me that I was pronouncing it wrong. (And he was dead serious. I know dry humour. I love dry, snarky humour. I excel at it. This wasn�t that.)

O_o

Actually, guy, I�m the one who is from Canada. This is how I speak. Unless you�re from the East Coast (Cape Breton, Newfoundland, etc.) � or French is your first language � our accents aren�t that different from yours. Having most of our population near the border is probably one of the reasons for the similarity in accents.

In fact, my accent is so generically North American that I had to make sure that I displayed my Canadian flag decal (made mention that I was Canadian and not American) at all times when I was in Britain because when most people hear a North American accent they assumed that we were, in fact, an asshole American and some even treated me as such. (YOU, however, are definitely an example of the �asshole American� that gives everyone a bad name.)