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

Question of the Day: Please tell me about some taboos in your country.

Being from Canada, I so appreciate you saying not to compare us to Americans. This drives me nuts. Canada and America are friends, not clones. We are not the same and should not be expected to be the same.

An addition when it comes to courtesy in Canada: holding the door open for others. It's not just "ladies first," you're meant to hold the door open for anyone behind you, and open the door and allow entrance first to, sometimes but not just women, but the elderly, women/men with children, those with their hands full, etc. Just letting the door close behind you when someone else is entering behind you is VERY rude.

One you forgot and I find folks from Asia don't realize. Personal space. Don't stand right tight behind someone in a line. Don't squish between people at a market stand. Don't stand so close when talking to someone, stand about arms length. I've told people to stand back and sometimes they do, but then find them getting closer again as the line moves. Maintain the distance.

In Canada, if u are have a full cart of groceries, it is common to let someone with only a few items go ahead of u. Also, we r very courteous when driving. Always let a driver turn in ahead of u. And ALWAYS wave thank you.

These taboos are common in most countries, whether in Europe or Asia... whatever you have said makes perfect sense and is just civic sense of an educated society.... I have been avoiding doing all these uncivilized habits all my life in my country India...

I really love canadian people because compared to europeans or others, they are very polite.

two rude things to include 1. eating at a table with your hat on 2. shaking hands with a glove on.

FYI, people with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) struggle with eye contact, so you cannot always assume the person is simply being rude. They could truly just be uncomfortable and struggle with that social behaviour which most people view as a “normal” and “polite” thing to do. In other words, it could be unintentional. Just something to consider, since this is what contributes to stigmatism.

In Brazil it's very rude to punch someone in the face.

7:02 as a Canadian myself i’m not even trying to get the other person to apologize lol, saying sorry is more of a reflex type thing.

As a Canadian, this is really helping me be a good person. Thank you

Great video. As a Canadian and an experiences traveller I would like to add the following: 1. NEVER NEVER NEVER make comments about somebody's weight. It seems to be more appropriate in other cultures but it is very offensive here and a quick way of making an enemy. 2. Never refer to anybody as a foreigner even if they are a non-Canadian. The term "foreigner" doesn't really translate well in Canada.

Keep in mind, there are so many immigrants here, everybody is different, so ask what is expected of you if you are really unsure. I think that's the one thing I find really useful.

Thank you for sharing this Jen! I'm visiting Canada in the next 2022 or 2023 with my family, In AB (Calgary) , so that I can continue my studies there. Thank you for the teaching once more and helping us to learn about you Canadians!! 🇯🇵🇨🇦

You Canadians are so polite, I really want to move to Canada 🥺🤲

As someone who has studied teaching English to foreigners, I applaud you and your channel. You are an invaluable resource. Brava!

I agree with most of these points. Another conversation topic that should be taboo is asking people their ethnicity the first time you meet. Canada is very ethnically diverse but that doesn't mean we all want to talk about it all the time, especially with random strangers.

As a Korean Canadian married to a Korean which made me leave my loving country, this video gives me reminiscence to all the times I spent in CA. Thank you for this amazing clip, it was a good flashback for me. :) And one thing I would like to add as a non-white Canadian, I love how we respect each others' "root-culture." I always felt comfortable sharing mine. It is a true "Mosaic" country. Again, thank you and thank you!! + now I crave for Iced CAPP because you said Timmy few times, (I haven't had it for more than 5 yrs and I really miss it :( )

This is one of RU-vid’s greatest videos . Very informative. Thanks a lot . You rock 👍🏻💕

98% of what is considered Taboo here in Canada is also considered Taboo in Brazil where I was born! I really liked this video👏🏼 Thank you!!

Jen you are an excellent teacher. Period. Exclamation Point!

The eye contact part never cease to amaze me. In my culture (Yoruba), it is the opposite of what she said; it is very rude to make eye contact, specifically with an elderly person while having a conversation with them.

You are a great teacher. I have been lerning English for more than forty years but I did not see a perfect teacher like you. If it is possible, I want to be your student as soon as posible.

Thanks , dear Jen for providing this knowledge .

Taboos in Italy: going into any small shop or store without greeting the owner as you walk in (you also say goodbye when you exit). Never order a Cappuccino after Noon...it is a breakfast drink and people will think you're either crazy or an American...or both. Don't be visibly intoxicated in public...especially in Southern Italy, where people will mistake you for a Northern European oaf...or an American. Don't wear shorts in church...Italians are fashionable even when praying. Don't be fat...unless you want everyone to know you're American. Don't go to a restaurant and get a table before 8PM...you'll look like a starving tourist with no sense. Don't ask about the mafia...especially in Northern Italy where it's not a thing. When you're at someone's house for dinner they will keep feeding you until you put your silverware crosswise on your plate. Nobody drinks cold milk in Italy, so don't ask for a tall, cold one....unless you're beer-drinking. People will sometimes cut in front of you in line...just keep your mouth shut. Never ask for condiments like mustard, mayo and catsup at restaurants...they will bring olive oil and vinegar to your table and that's it. Men like to dress sharp, so the only people with tennis, t-shirts and baseball caps in Italy are either Americans or people who just escaped a mental institution.

Great and nice video,love it.

Thank you Jen for this very illuminating informaiton.

Given the current pandemic, handshakes have completely disappeared as a greeting among the vast majority of Canadians. Since Canadians have now spent over a year actively avoiding handshakes, it is possible that nods and waves (pretty common now) may replace the handshake as a common greeting. We shall see. These tips also all apply in French speaking regions of Canada, although obviously it is more common to use French equivalents in those regions (e.g. "Pardon" or the more informal "S'cusez" (a contracted form of "Excusez-moi) - literally "I beg your pardon" (i.e. Sorry) or "Excuse me" - after a sneeze). There are no cultural differences across Canada on these things. Please be aware that there are some relatively minor cultural differences between English and French speakers regarding social distance, particularly with strangers. My explanation below explaining the reasons should not be misunderstood as this being a huge gap. There is simply a small cultural difference. Unlike English, the French language has two distinct levels of formality (a more distant and formal mode of address and a familiar and informal mode of address) built into the way one addresses a person. This is traditionally represented by the use of different pronouns (tu is the informal singular and vous is the plural or formal singular). While the formal "vous" has been slowly becoming old fashioned in Canada, the cultural norm of maintaining a more emotionally distant interaction with strangers as being a show of politeness has not completely faded and is much more pronounced than in English speaking Canada. It is literally built-in to French speaking cultures to have two different modes of social interaction - formal/distant and informal/close. This may cause people used to interacting with English speaking Canadians (who often smile a lot towards and often chat with strangers) to notice less smiles and overt friendliness among Canadian French speakers (or French speakers in general). A waiter or salesperson may not be very expressive (less smiling, less small talk, more to the point) because culturally, being too friendly would be acting overly familiar with you and thus rude. Acting familiar with a stranger has a stronger social taboo among French speakers in general. While French Canadians are very laid back compared to many other French speakers, that two-tier approach to formal vs informal interaction is still present in the culture (but less rigidly than in France). Centuries ago, English had a similar distinction but the formal/plural "you" replaced the informal "thou" so completely that modern English considers "you" to be informal. Also, French Canadians hate being compared to the French just as much as English Canadians hate being compared to Americans.

An extremely motivating video, Jen. Every country has their own taboo, but I suppose they certainly try to be polite in their own way. In my country the majority is similar to Canada. I was for few months in Labrador, and had connection with some First Nation (innus, in Labrador also called Montagnais). Nice experience to remember. Thanks for your successful lesson. 👍🍁

I enjoy the fun, and funny ways you use to teach. Very clear too. Thank you much.

Thank you jen. I like your program. It's useful for me as a beginner.

I fell in love with your country. What a high culture of human relations you have! I am delighted.

Putting your cellphone on the table while having a meal with somebody (unless you're waiting for an urgent call or text). Unfortunately, this has become common place though.

Thank you very much for the information, it is very helpful.

i love watching your videos and have learned a lot. Many thanks.

There are some differences but we have a lot in common! 🥳 For example, in Turkey, it can be seem rude to ask women about their age but it is not problem for men. We say that don’t ask women about their age and don’t ask men how much money they earn. One taboo in my country is that when someone offers food, even if we are hungry, we don’t accept it to be polite. If she/he imposes us one more time, we accept it and say thank you. Also, you said that don’t put your elbows on the table when eating and i found it really weird and interesting. It is not a thing that i care in my life. I will not forget it, if i go to Canada one day! 😁 Thank you for your effort and super videos! ❣️💪🏼

I love Canada, very helpful videos, you are best teacher, all the best, you are very nice, I'm Bangladeshi now in DUBAI

Thank you Jen, im brand new to canada, your lesson will defintely help me out. Thank you so much.

I like it as you pointed out in this video, highly appreciated.

The more I learn about Canada, the more I realise that it's more similar to the UK than the US in certain ways. (I used to think both countries were more or less the same tbh lol). A lot of these things are common etiquette in the UK as well, but one interesting exception is the shoe thing. It seems in many countries that the done thing is to take your shoes off when visiting someone else in their house. But here in the UK, you're expected to keep your shoes ON. Some people even wear shoes around their own home.

Being an American I can tell you all of these things are also considered basic curtesy here, except perhaps removing shoes. However, in America I think people are losing common curtesy and even though these things are expected and should be adhered to, they disregard them because so many people are very self-involved and entitled. You are more likely to see basic curtesy in Southern states than places like Los Angelas and New York. Coming from California and traveling through Arkansas I was pleasantly surprised when walking through a pretty crowded club that every young man stepped aside to allow me to pass and “Excuse me” and “Thank you” were always very natural parts of conversations.

I love the way you explain with examples!

Wonderful info. Thanks a lot.

Love you for talking about canada

Thank you so much for making this video, now i'll feel more sure not to make any mistake or bother the locals haha, greetings from Chile 🇨🇱 i love ur videos.

Thank you very much! This was really helpful. I'm moving to Canada soon so I'm planning to watch more videos like yours.

APPRECIATED THIS VIDEO. VERY INFORMATIVE AS WILL BE VISITING CANADA SOON.

Point 1 also applies for India too. Point 3 "Indians" sometimes depends on situation can also refers to the people from India as there is also South Asian diaspora in canada. Nice Video and 👍 to this video.

For me, Canada is a very safe country to live. I wish I could move to Canada soon 😊

Thanks for this useful video 😍

This was a wonderful video. You are an excellent teacher.

I’m surprised with the 3rd one about First Nations. I worked with a First Nation and she herself introduced me as ‘Indian’. I was new to Canada that time and Im from India. It took me a moment to understand she meant she’s a First Nation but b4 that I said “I’m Indian too”😂😂 then she explained ☺️ she’s a very good friend of mine till today. But idk why she wanted to be recognized as ‘Indian’ instead of ‘first nation’

#20 is so true. I don't know about the rest of Canada, but in Quebec people are inviting each other over A LOT. But you are expected to bring a gift to the host. It might be a wine bottle, fresh bread from the bakery, dessert, etc.

I really learned a lot with this video, I send you a big hug from Cancun, Mexico

Wow, this information is very useful since no one talked about this subject . . . Thank you so much!

I moved to Canada a few months ago and I wish I had watched your videos earlier. They are quite useful and informative. In my country, Iran, it is considered rude for men to go through the door first if they have a female company. (ladies first :))

Here, direct eye contact indicates honesty, openness, and having nothing to hide.

good job thank you for your advice

Thank you so much

As human being, I don't like to hear someone compares me with others. Period.

In my whole life, i've only ever encountered 1 person who thought being more than a few (less than 10) mintues late was acceptable. Of course, exceptions are made for weather or extenuating circumstances, but in general, Canadians expect you to be on time, not early or late. I was always taught that "socially late" people think too highly of themselves.

Thank you for this video

I'm from Brazil. Grew up in Rio de Janeiro, moved to São Paulo and now live in the chilly South. Many of Canadian taboos are the same here. We don't need to calculate tips because it's automatically inserted into the bill. The whole tipping people thing confuses me. We don't gift hosts, unless it's a special occasion like a Birthday party. Cariocas are chronically late for parties, so you invite people earlier than you expect them to appear, usually one to two hours later. I was actually shocked when someone appeared on time (meaning earlier). SP and Curitiba have a completely different set of rules, being on time is more important. We don't care about hours where you consume alcohol. I've drank many cold beers at lunch, especially during summer. Eating greasy or sticky food with your hands is considered unsanitary in Rio. If I pick street food, I'm using a napkin to get it, even if I wash my hands before eating. There's street dirt particles in the air or I spent time inside a bus with a lot of other people grabbing all kinds of handles, I don't want their dirt on my food. There's this foreigner legend that we eat street food with fork and knife, it's a blatant lie. But we pick frenchies and olives with toothpicks and the rest with paper napkins. Always. Getting food with bare hands outside of your house is disgusting. The correct way of greeting someone is handshake immediately followed by dry kisses on cheeks (some women actually kiss the air instead of touching the cheek). If you mistake the right number of kisses for each place, you will be flagged as "foreigner"and people will say "oh, you are not from here, right?" Lumping the many different cultures of Brazil into only Rio and Amazonas (we are as big as the States and just a bit smaller than Canada) will make people roll their eyes. But if you know basic geography and cultural differences people will fucking adore you for not being a foolish ignorant gringo. There's actually places where snows in Brazil and many parts of it have never seen the sea or a beach. NEVER EVER ask a Brazilian woman about a "Brazilian"(wax). They will look at you as if you grew 3 heads. It's a very degrading and sexist thing from the USA. We tend to think of hairless vaginas as a thing pedophiles enjoy, adult women have hair. What IS taboo and is removed only before hitting the beach is the area where pubic hair would appear outside the bikini. No one wants to see your pubes, so you shave it. By the way, Brazilian women aren't a monolithic group of gorgeous sunbathed sex crazed women. We have all skin colors, all hair colors and types and, of course, you have children and grandmothers. This stereotype of sexual tourism and "all Brazilian women are easy" have horrible consequences, from foreigners coming to teenagers just going to school and asking them "how much" to kid trafficking to feed the sexual tourism of idiots that think that "anything goes in Brazil". Women immigrants actually actively avoid saying that they come from Brazil because it gets immediately unsafe and men that until then treated them as people now start sexual harassment and even assaulting and raping for no other reason than this horrid stereotype. Being polite, using your words, not assuming you know more than locals and not being a sexist asshole is a sure bet anywhere in the world. By the way, many Brazilians study English and Spanish as secondary languages in school so if you think you can get away on speaking shit about people or the place you are in, you are fishing for a rude awakening. On the other hand, people will try to help you, even searching for someone that speaks English, French, German or Chinese in Rio or São Paulo. I can't speak for other capital cities, but touristic places will always have people that speak English.

Thank you for Guide .when this pandemic is end and flights to fly I wish I came to Canada .. and see your beautiful city .. thank you once again for your lovely videos 🙏🏻

Thank u very much for your good explanation...

So authentic...content..@ your voice melody so simple..clear...and lovely...

Hi Jen and I´m from Guadalajara, Mexico. one of the things that almost all of us do is when you leave a restaurant you say bon appetite ( provecho ) to the people that are still eating when you leave, or when people say your name for anything we don´s say "what" we try to say something nicer like "what can I do for you" or " at you service " ( mande ), or when you need to go to the washroom to do your stuff, we try to use a childish expression to refer of what we´re about to do "take a piss" ( pipi ) or something like that, one of the things that almost every Mexican hate is when "Americans" call themself´s "Americans", we all are Americans, they´re just North Americans, and when people say that we are the backyard of "America", drives us nuts.

Canada just seems hell of a country, joining soon

Thank u so much Jen ..Greatly appreciate for sharing your knowledge and Experience .. In my Country of Origin it's Considered a taboo if 🙏Namaste isn't reciprocated with the same gesture...

I like it so much because its extremely useful lesson thank you a lot dear teacher

can u talk more about Canada？l really like you

We Indians mostly bring fruits or sweets when we visit guests home or a patients.

Thank you for the education

It was so informative, recently I was being very curious about canada.I love the country actually.

wanna talk about the eye contact thing. It's considered taboo in most places but to be honest, I feel like it's something that's rooted in ableism. I'm autistic and I cannot really make eye contact a lot because well I just can't 😐 so when sometimes people are adamant about eye contact I just stare into their eyes and I cannot concentrate on the conversation one bit because all my effort is being taken up to make eye contact.

Everywhere I went in the U.K, Australia and NZ, all I got was ''So what part of the States are you from?''

Great video!

Another great video Jen.

I don’t understand why People in Canada don’t like to be confused with Americans. They have the Same language, culture, backgrounds, and history. When I traveled from US to Canada the only differences, that I noticed was more conveniences and better roads in the States. Canadians weren’t any more polite than Americans either. In fact their customer services was below average compare to the State. Many Canadians prefer working and living in the US. It puzzles me why Canadians don’t like to be called American.

Pregnant people? Why can't you say pregnant women?

Nice video thank you for such information 🎉🎉🎉🙏🙏🙏🙏😍

Thank you for this video it was very interesting

Thank you.

Thank you ❤

Very important knowledge

Very good class

Thank you so much! I wish I could go to Canada for a better life with my fam! And I was thinking about what I will not do to the Canada, since I don't wanna be a bad person Infront of a Canadian person and make them think that I didn't give them some respect.. THANK YOU!!🥺♥️

Hi , Thanks for taking about Canadian taboos.It will be useful for me.When I will visit my daughter in Canada.🙏🙏🙏

Amazing...👍

Thank you so much for your help.

A very well done video and accurate

I found it useful, thanks❤

Love to see ur video , as usual

Awesome, love you

Go Canada! Another excellent and informative video. Thank you. .

Thanks a lot for this important information ❤️

Cool!! Thanks!

WELL DONE GIRL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for this video. Canadian culture is very interesting.