Canadian Things No One Understands | American Reacts 

Anyone who's been through the Canadian school system certainly knows about the 3 million islands up north. We had to colour them in enough times on that damn map every year, for 12 years.

Kraft Dinner is a staple of growing teens and students. Canada’s answer to ramen noodles

When asked in an interview, Conan cited as his 3 favourite guests: Norm McDonald, Harland Williams & Will Arnett because of their unpredictability and irreverant humour. All 3 happen to be Canadian.

As a Canadian I’m shocked that Americans don’t know that some US states make maple syrup too. Like Vermont even Michigan. It’s funny! But yes you haven’t lived if you haven’t had maple syrup taffy on snow! But like fresh snow!

French Canadian here 🙋‍♀ I'm a proud Canadian, I love this country. But I was born in Quebec and I'm also proud of that. I speak 3 languages, I live in Montreal, which is a VERY multicultural city, so I'm very open and susceptible to learning about different cultures. You can be from a Province (or State) and be proud of that area and still identify with the country you're in. I'm proud to speak 3 languages, it makes it easier to meet people and to learn even more languages and about other cultures.

Bagged milk really hasn't been a thing in Western Canada since the mid 80's. As far as I can tell it's more of a thing in regions of Eastern Canada.

As for Timmy's when the Brazilians bought it, they decided that Brazilian coffee was better. Bad mistake, McDonalds sign Timmy's old supplier and now has great coffee, in Canada that is.

Kraft Dinner and Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese are not the same. The ingredients, directions, and required additives are different. The box and noodles look the same, but that's where it ends.

Very important to put it into the container BEFORE you cut the corner though

Paper money feels like a seeing a old school style flip phone.

For the maple taffy on the snow, you have to reduce the syrup first or it won't work. Just regular syrup will have too much water in it.

Yes, its waterproof! Aussies have that type of money too. I think it's polymer.

You get 3 bags in a big bag and you have a container to put the bag in and cut the corner small so there's no spill.

JL Kraft was born and raised in Ft. Erie Ontario. He later moved to the US.

As a Canadian, I can confirm we do learn frech and English in our schools

Lots of Canadians grew up watching both UK comedies and American comedy. We brewed up a perfect balance. Also, Russell Peters had a great joke about Kraft Dinner (no longer politically correct)

If I had a million dollars I wouldn't have to eat Kraft Dinner... but I WOULD eat Kraft Dinner, I'd eat even more of it with really expensive ketchup.

In Elementary French is a mandatory class but becomes optional in Highschool.

When it comes to Canadian comedy... even Saturday Night Live has a heavy Canadian influence, including the producer and co-creator Lorne Michaels being from Toronto.

I live in Alberta, and we use regular cartons or plastic jugs for our milk. Not every province has milk in bags, but if they do, anything smaller than 4 litres is in cartons or jugs.

My kids have taken French since JK. My daughter is going to a French immersion school next year (gr7).

Most Canadians learn French in school; usually through junior high school, then in high school as an elective. Although, in some provinces French language classes may begin in elementary school. Also, parents can opt to send their English speaking kids to French immersion schools.

french Canadian here, I love my Country Canada, I speak both En and Fr and English is easy to learn compare to French, HOWEVER sometimes I do have to admit to have a bit of hate toward some anlo-canadian speakers(Ontario), but mostly/only when it is at work. I work in a supermarket, sometime have to receive merchandise and because the company closed the storehouse in Quebec, almost all our stock comes from Ontario now whit Ontarian drivers... that don't speak french or TRIES to speak it or learn basic words like "merci, bonjours, dix pallettes"/"thank you, hello, 10 skids" or even speak to you and just say "I don't speak French", "speak the real language"(that one really pissed me and others off at work). They enter, think they own the place and will yell at you if not served immediately(or ring 10 times in 30 seconds then yell), sometimes not even greet you back and then sit on their butt whit their phone speaking all the time without talking to you or even doing their own job, taking out the pallets from their vans for me to go store it correctly, or take their proof of delivery. However, I know that some people of my province don't want to do anything whit English and some, rare ones are hostile verbally toward english only speakers. But, those are mostly, From what I see, the older generation (60+).

Maple syrup on the snow is called the "sugar shack" or "cabane à sucre" in French. Most kids get to have this experience in elementary school. It was honestly always the highlight of the year.

Worth watching: Martin Short as Gimeny Glick interviewing Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin, Mel Brooks... Many others.

Rick Mercer, of the show called, " this hour has 22 minutes" his rants and interviews are classics..

When we had bag milk in Winnipeg back in the 90s. I remembered the bag leaking and if you tipped bag over too much the whole bag came out.

There's nothing weird about milk in bags. We got the idea from the cows that keep their milk in bags as well. Tim Hortons was late arriving in Vancouver. We already had a strong espresso coffee culture here. They are not the most dominating brand yet. I studied French & German in secondary school 50 years ago. The Thousand Islands are also in Canada, and the West Coast has tens of thousands of islands. Much of Atlantic Canada is an islands culture.

Kraft Dinner is NOT mac & cheese.. two different things, we have mac & cheese in Canada too... My mom used to make homemade macaroni & cheese, it was nothing like Kraft Dinner.

7:32 dude you should do a reaction to the insane artwork and technology in our bank notes. You would be impressed. Same with our passport in black light.

The reason some people think Kraft Dinner was invented in Canada is because J. L. Kraft was born on December 11, 1874, near Stevensville, Ontario, Canada, located just north of Fort Erie, to Mennonite parents Minerva Alice née Tripp (1848-1933) and George Franklin Krafft (1842-1914), a farmer of German descent. He was the second of eleven children. Chimo

Answers by a Canadian: Everyone learns French usually from grades 4-6 or 4-9 and you can choose to take it in high school or college/university but it isn’t mandatory. Only scientists and the Inuit (Northern Canada’s aboriginal people) are there. Yes, we do the maple syrup on a stick thing but mainly in Quebec and eastern Canada during the winter. Yes, the money is waterproof and basically indestructible unless you have a pair of scissors lol. It’s also very durable with cool designs and no it doesn’t smell like maple syrup. Kraft dinner is slightly different from the states. Personally I prefer the Canadian Kraft dinner and yes we call it that. We only have bags of milk in eastern Canada and it’s not very common. Most places in Canada have cartons of milk. We’re just used to the cold. Stereotypes: explained in video, too much for me to type lol. The Quebec people are stereotyped to be not the kindest French people, but usually they’re just very strong with their roots. There’s better opportunities to be famous in the states and since we relate with the Europeans and Americans, we are kind of hit in the crossfire so we pick up things. Poutine is great but it depends on where you get it. TIMMIES IS THE BEST!! It’s great and almost everyone would agree. Most of Canadian stereotypes come from Ontario and Quebec btw!! Thx for reading and if you have any questions I would love to answer them! ❤

I am sure someone else may have mentioned this already in the comments, but yes, learning French starts in kindergarten (I presume English is started in Quebec in kindergarten, but I do not know for sure or how long it's required to keep up the language classes once you get into high school). When you get to high school, you can then switch to another language if you like (I had friends who switched to either Spanish or German). When I was a kid I could sing our national anthem in both languages, not so much. And then, here in BC anyway, there are also French immersion elementary school where everything is French only. I think it's great when anyone can learn a second language.

Growing up my mom would wash out the empty milk bags and reuse them as vacuum seal food bags

Maple Syrup on a stick: Currently in St. Boniface, Manitoba (French area in the West), they are currently celebrating Festival du Voyager and everyone lines up at the Sugar Shack for the maple syrup on a stick.

The clear is so you can't photocopy it and you can't even rip it

In NB, the bags come in packages of 3, with 1.3 litres each

Theres a huge island in Lake Huron called Manitoulin Island and its got people living there. The great lakes are full of islands. Lake ontario has the thousand islands and many small islands will have one house on them. Theres one with a huge castle on it. Theres even an island called Toronto Island and no cars are allowed there

The maple syrup thing only happens in provinces that have maple trees. We used to tap trees in our back yard for fun when we lived in Ontario, and then boiled it to make the syrup, but you need to have a ton of sap to make one litre of syrup.

Milk in bags is practical. Cows carry it around in bags already. If their teats get chapped you rub them with a antiseptic salve called "bag balm". It's all bags man. If cows start walking around with cardboard udders we'll look into it.

Putting boiling syrup on snow isn’t a Canadian thing. It was done in America as well, especially in pioneer days. It is done when the sap is being boiled down into syrup. As a young girl in Wisconsin Laura Ingalls Wilder tasted this treat at a family party in the 1870’s. She wrote about it in her first book LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS. We Canadians may be known for doing this because much of the maple syrup consumed in North America comes from our maple trees.

About languages at school, I think both french & english are taught at school, but people forget their second language by lack of practice after leaving school. I'm in Montreal, which is fairly bilingual, so I 'm lucky to live in a city where I can practice both freench & english on a daily basis, but not everyone have the same opportunity. And about maple syrup, it's in eastern Canada & also northeast USA states (the maple forest doesn't care about border & border guards, it spreads on both sides).

We bought the original polymer bank notes from Australia. Our Royal Mint supplies coins to many countries.

Many many people still go to Tim Hortons although a couple say no but believe me they're always packed and so is the drive through

Milk cartons, as with 'paper cups' for coffee are plasticized on the inside, with polyethylene for cartons.

The perfectly cut milk bag is so real. Best feeling ever is getting the perfect milk bag hole size.

Worth Watching: SCTV Half Wits (every episode - Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Joe Flaherty, Catherine O'Hara from Home Alone...)

@10:10 No. You put the bag of milk in the pitcher first. Then you nip off the corner of the bag. If you cut off the corner first, you'll never get it in the pitcher without spilling half the contents.

In Ontario you learn French in school from JK-grade 9. You get about an hr a day. But you can take more in high school if you wish. Gr 9 is the first year in high school, and you have to take at least one gr nine credit of French. The exception to this is if your school offers Cree instead.

Haven't had maple syrup in the snow in my 30 years, but it is common to do homemade snow cones where i am, scoop a cup or bowl through the icy cold snow and then pour your favorite juice or pop in it and away you go! Wonderful treat

❤😂 a little edit on the bagged milk thing. 1) The bags are 1.33L, which means you get 3 bags for a gallon. 2) The bags pour better when you cut a little triangle from both top corners, and having a 2nd cut corner makes it easier to rinse out the bag before recycling. 3) They're easier to store in a cramped fridge than a carton or gallon jug (which we also have). Growing up, I also saw people poke tiny holes in a corner to use as a makeshift baby bottle. Just wrap the bag up in a heating pad or blanket, wait a couple minutes for it to warm up to body temperature, unplug and give the bundle to your baby. For warn out and sleep-deprived parents, it gives a little bit of a rest before you have to clean mountains of bottles, pacifiers, and clothes. It's also useful if you're prone to rescuing wild baby animals like I am! I don't always have tetra packs kitty formula, but I can always pick up a bag of milk at the store. I've nursed many a stray with a bag of milk (usually 12 kittens can each nurse once on a bag, or you can nurse 1 kitten a dozen times over the course of a few days. Refrigerating the leftovers between feedings, of course)

i grew up winters in sugar maple camp an yes we do eat maple toffee on snow! and i always add crushed salted peanuts on it! its the best thing ever!

We do the maple syrup on a stick in Ontario as well. We have places called sugar bushes where you can go to sample maple syrup products and it's a fun family outing.

The humor comes from almost dying for 3 months every year. We gotta learn to laugh.

Worth Watching: Norm McDonald - every interview with Conan and Letterman (full clips)

Here in Canada, we call Kraft Dinner KD…it’s even says KD on the box.

Try the deluxe Kraft regular elbow macaroni or Velveta shells. The cheese comes in a foil package in the box. It's much better than the dry powered cheese.

French in Alberta was offered in school as either a French Immersion program(all classes in French) or at least depending on your school was a mandatory class taught 1 hour per week up until grade 6. I did k-3 in the immersion program but moved to English schools for the rest of my education. In junior high and sr. high it was an optional class alongside Spanish.

I think a lot of Canadians grew up with homemade macaroni and cheese. I know I did. So when you say "I'm having Kraft dinner", another person would automatically know that it's not the more labour intensive homemade mac and cheese

One other thing about the waterproof money- it is also laser money. Shine a laser through the maple leaf-looking clear part (if I'm remembering right) and the money's denomination will be projected on the wall (or whatever).

Canada's notes are made of polymer, a durable plastic specifically made for bank notes

We don't get milk bags in the west anymore, but when we did my mother froze them, and so the milk stayed fresh for quite a long time. Also, some people live off the grid, so stocking up is important. A bag thaws out fairly quickly.

Diner kraft is mac and cheese but it has its own flavour. The cheese has a good cheap salty taste in a good way. A mac and cheese and a diner kraft for me are not the same thing being the same dish. In french the maple syrop on snow thing is called: "tire" d'érable. I don't know if it's a real french word or a slang but we don't pronounce it like a tire (wheel). It sounds more like "teer". When you eat more than 2 of those you become hot because of the sugar. You are forced to open your winter jacket.

I'm french from winnipeg manitoba and in our schools we had french classes every year starting from young age to high school. It was everyone that had to take it.

French is mandatory in school for a number of years in every English-speaking province. Also, French Immersion is very popular, where you learn French rapidly and have most of your courses in French for several years. It acts as a de facto enriched program for kids as the average intelligence level is usually higher than regular school.

Yes, this week in MB is the Festival du Voyageur. Many people will be eating maple syrup on a stick. Hé Ho!

As a Western Canadian I speak some french, school taught, some German, lived there for 3 years, sign language for a friend. So as a waitress I was called on occasionally for language issues. Always helpful. ❤

Maple taffy (tire d'érable in french) is mostly a French Canadian tradition. Maple syrup on snow is not something we do at home but I would say 99% of times it's done at the Sugar Shack another french Canadian tradition that is alive and well mostly in Québec once again. In fact it would be nice if you commented a video about the Sugar Shack traditions of Québec.

The islands - there are tons of islands in Canada, which goes hand in hand with the amount of lakes etc. The islands on Lake Couchiching in Ontario for example, have the odd cottage on them, or no buildings. There are islands on Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe in Ontario where people live all year long, which can be scary in the winter when you have to travel to the mainland for groceries etc. That's just a couple of examples.

most Canadians learn their second language in high school, but usually drop it after that. of course, there are exceptions, like in Québec or New Brunswick, where francophones are usually bilingual or in the case of Québec, most anglophones speak French as a second language (i am one of them). ps I live with a Québécois francophone who identifies both as Québécois and Canadian. He aways says he "loves" Canada, even though he only knows a few words in English (nous nous parlons toujours en français).

Born and raised in Ontario, Canada. We are taught Feench in elementary school, option in high school beyond grade 9(if I remember from years ago). French immersion is a choice as well, which is all French speaking in school. Ohhh all the islands!!!! Not only Canada makes maple syrup, but we do have the best! Def done syrup in snow! My daughters LOVE it. Lol. Aunt J's syrup isnt the good stuff. Waterproof money.....yep! I constantly forget bills in the washing machine. Also rainbow. Gotta love the red and brown bills. KD is bomb. Kraft Dinner is maacaroni and cheese but the brand is Kraft. And we all like it cooked a bit differently. Like how much your noods are, abit extra milk etc. I just bought a 4L bag of milk which has 3 smaller bags to put in your milk container. We also have cartons. I for sure drink the last from the bag. I cut both corners. Just like when you shotgun a beer......allows air so the bag doesnt fold over the container and spill. Look up "Canadian Driving Stereotypes" on Tiktok. Hilarious and true. Toronto is our New York.

In quebec in the 90s I recall learning english from 4th grade through college. Bilingual except from montreal were rare. Now french exams are easier and almost everybody is bilingual. English is the internet language.

Kraft can't call it "Mac n Cheese" here because it's has nearly no cheese content (false advertising rules). Hence why it's called Kraft Dinner instead.

Bagged milk is cheaper and is ok to freeze without the bags bursting

There are lots of islands in Canada, especially Ontario. Alot of islands are privately owned and may have a cottage or two on them.

I'm 66. I took French from grade 3 to grade 12, alrhough it was an elective after grade 10. This was in New Brunswick. Now I live in Montreal, and mostly speak English. 🙂 Quebec has had 2 referendums to separate from Canada. Borh failed. For me, Kraft Dinner lost it's appeal after the 500th box. Maple syrup on a stick mostly happens at a sugar shack. You don't do that in your back yard. Unless your family runs a sugar shack. And yes, poutine really is that good!

We sttarted learning french from grade one up. Required learning. Once we got to junior high, we had the option to go into french immersion and learn all subjects in the french language to become more fluent. Some do this, some dont.

Maple taffy is actually not the same thing as maple syrup, it's made in the same way, but you boil it down for longer so that the sugar to water ratio is higher, making it thicker. Normal maple syrup is not going to work too hot, it's not thick enough. But you can try to boil down maple syrup to make taffy. Not sure how well it's gonna turn out, though. As for bilingualism, it's true that it's higher in Quebec, but I'd also say younger generations are a lot more bilingual than older generations. I'm fluent in English as a second language, but my parents aren't, for example (though they do have decent knowledge of the language). That being said, I think this has more to do with American soft power and English being the language of the Internet than any Canadian policy, because I'm pretty sure younger generations in France also tend to have more knowledge of English than their parents.

The Canadian dollar bill remained in circulation until April 20, 1989, when the last Scenes of Canada $1 bills rolled off the press. They were also the last $1 banknotes that the Bank of Canada issued since it was to be replaced by the loonie, or the $1 coin, which began circulating two years prior.

One of the best reaction videos guys around but having read a lot of comments on his channel you will find that he never reads the comments or gets involved with discussion of the subject. Otherwise a great channel to follow.

As kids in Ontario it was not unusual for my folks to freeze the bag milk.( 3 bags in a bag)..just have to shake it up a bit when it's defrosted...

In southeast Quebec a lot of people are unilingual north of the St Lawrence River.

Im born and raised Canadian and I can say I have never seen a milk bag before in my life

Because I’m first native I refused to learn French in school. For a week they sent me to the office every day then the next week they just called my mom and told her and She told them we don’t need to learn French in our family and that was the end of that

In English Canada, basic French instruction begins about grade four and continues to the end of high school. Or you can opt for French immersion and begin your core instruction in French and begin English reading class in Grade 4. Kids end up bilingual by middle school.

French is mandatory for all students until grade 10. Then it becomes optional.

Maple syrup on a stick is done at sugar shacks and called "tire" in Quebec.

3 1L bags of milk in one bag

Maple syryp on a stick is amazing. To tasty! In Manitoba, we so it in February during Festival Du Voyageur...a huge winter festival!

What is it with people who seem to think they answer for the whole country? You don't. News flash, most places I've been to in Canada don't have bagged milk nor is it mandatory to learn French. We live in a very large country so something that may apply to your region will be different in another.

Here in Manitoba Festival du Voyager is happening and there will be hundreds of people eating maple syrup on a stick today. 🍁

Tyler, Tyler, Tyler. A large part of the U.S. is in the North, as well. We also don't have dollar bills. Remember the loonie? Bagged milk is an Ontario/Quebec thing. I've lived mostly in western Canada and have never seen bagged milk.

Tyler, we don't have $1 bills. They were replaced with the $1 coin called a loonie. We used to have a $2 bill but it too was taken out of circulation and replaced with a $2 coin called a toonie.

Dollar coins,not bills. 2 dollar coins as well. Loonies and twoonies

The plastic bills are waterproof and float, too!

Yes we do eat this, they are all delicious

Maple sugar on snow, maple taffy, is only really available in spring when the sap is running but there’s still snow on the ground at the sugar bush where the sap is being boiled down. You need the taffy to be hot, and boiled down a little more than syrup for it to be thick enough to pour when it’s hot and then turn semisolid when cooled on the snow. The trick is to start twirling your stick to pick up the taffy before it gets too stiff. Again, this has an extremely short season, and only available at a sugar shack where sugaring off is being performed. The sap starts running in the spring thaw, and typically only last a few weeks - it’s hard to predict from year to year, and global warming is impacting syrup production. The colder and longer the winter, the higher the production.

We have Canadian dollar coins not bills. Come on, Tyler. You know about Loonies and Toonies.

Kraft dinner is also called KD here in Canada

For many people in quebec, especially regions, montreal isn't considered for having quebecers value. Montreal was the immigrant city thats why its the only city in the province of quebec to have city parts which represents chinese, italian, jewish and others. In 1995 there were a vote to seperate quebec from the canada. The vote finish at 49.8%, because of montreal. Jacques Parizeau even said that was beacause of ethnic vote's. Thats why they don't speak french and some don't want to. There's people from mtl that had never been outside the isle. French quebecer from france lived outside, especially the east.When we speak to each others we mention always quebec. If we say canada in our head its more like: us and them. Except if we talk about laws and politics. We celebrate quebec June 24th but at the canada celebration july 1st in quebec its the day that people move (house and appartment). sorry for my english lol