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Beijing — It may be Canada's greatest cultural coup in China since the days when students were required to memorize Mao Zedong's eulogy to revolutionary surgeon Norman Bethune.

When classes begin at thousands of schools across China next month, as many as 15 million children will get a dose of Canada in their classrooms every day.

Their textbooks will indoctrinate them with subtle but distinct references to Canadian holidays, Canadian weather, Canadian cities and Canadian variations of English words.

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Just as China fears too much US influence in the classrooms -- a US cultural invasion -- they have also preferred to deal with German engineering and technology consortiums, rather than Americans. But now that they are looking at closer ties to North America, Canadians are in the best position to bid against the German firms -- if we want the business.

P. S.:

Better yet, a German-Canadian consortium might be unbeatable.

[ 16 August 2004: Message edited by: Wilfred Day ]

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"Our standard is Canadian English . . . We see Canadian English as effectively international English, drawing as it does on British, American and other influences."

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Let's maintain our high standards.

[ 16 August 2004: Message edited by: Wilfred Day ]

Why so hard-nosed in Singapore? And what would the government prefer?

(I like Australian and New Zealand English too -- call it Anzenglish, though the Kiwis might not like that. New Zealand is to Australian somewhat as Canada is to USia.

Singlish = Singapore English, a dialect drawing on Chinese and Malay words and sentence structure. Didn't mean to hijack the thread with this, i just find the differentiation of dialects (even within a "universal language") interesting.

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Originally posted by Wilfred Day:
This is also good news for Canadian engineering and technology firms.

Just as China fears too much US influence in the classrooms -- a US cultural invasion -- they have also preferred to deal with German engineering and technology consortiums, rather than Americans. But now that they are looking at closer ties to North America, Canadians are in the best position to bid against the German firms -- if we want the business.

P. S.:

Better yet, a German-Canadian consortium might be unbeatable.

[ 16 August 2004: Message edited by: Wilfred Day ]

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Canada has several high tech companies doing business in the Chinese communist-interventionist economy. Their economy is absolutely booming while North America's is held back by right wing eltitists. China is producing around 400 000 new jobs every month. Singapore, socialist since the mid 1960's, also has a booming economy. Learning anything new is second nature for those people.

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Originally posted by 'lance:
I know the SCTV guys made it up out of whole cloth, and I don't care: if "take off, eh, you hoser" somehow makes it into international or Chinese English, I will be just that much happier, somehow.

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When I was a kid (mid to late 60's) we used to say "take off". A good substitute in those innocent days when if a ten year old said "Fuck Off", ye'd hear about it, and ye'd get the belt.

We also used to say "hoser" or "he got hosed, eh?" if someone got caught at something.

We also used the word "fish" in place of trick or tricked. A victim of a ruse was a "fish" who got "fished in." And probably hosed, to eh?

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When I was a kid (mid to late 60's) we used to say "take off". A good substitute in those innocent days when if a ten year old said "Fuck Off", ye'd hear about it, and ye'd get the belt.

We also used to say "hoser" or "he got hosed, eh?" if someone got caught at something.

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Well, I'll be damned. (skdadl? I think your line is "Perhaps not -- don't despair.") I could have sworn I read somewhere that Thomas and Moranis said they just invented that stuff. Perhaps they were blowing their own horns a bit, or perhaps they simply didn't remember using that slang as kids.

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We also used the word "fish" in place of trick or tricked. A victim of a ruse was a "fish" who got "fished in."

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This, I remember. Not necessarily calling someone a "fish," but definitely we said someone had been "fished in."

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That's a lovely idiom, 'lance.

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Well I'm not sure I find it lovely, but it's evocative, or something.

I prefer the sound of a lot of the New Zealand dialect, perhaps because it seems to be incorporating more and more Maori words all the time.

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The ostentatious use of "-our" spellings is reasonably recent, i'd say, a reaction to creeping Americanization.

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Perhaps so, though the BNA Act (1867) refers to "Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council." But as you say, people's insistence that -our spellings are important may be recent.

Incidentally, a few months back CBC-TV showed a very interesting, and entertaining, one-hour documentary on Canadian English. Apparently linguists are agreed that, apart from a few usages and changes of pronunciation, there's very much less creeping Americanization of Canadian English than you might think.

[ 16 August 2004: Message edited by: 'lance ]

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Originally posted by 'lance:
In Australia, calling in sick so you can go have a day barbecuing at the beach, or whatever, is called "chucking a sickie.")

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I've always hugely enjoyed the English (as in south-of-Scotland;east-of-Wales English) version of the old North Americanism "TGIF"...

Apparently in Old Blighty, it is referred to as "POETS" — "Piss Off Early, Tommorrow's Saturday"

[ 16 August 2004: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

POETS

It stand for "Piss on everything, tomorrow's Saturday"

Zahid—

look three posts up...

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Edited to say "D'oh!" 'coz I realized you probably did already see it... BLUSH

[ 17 August 2004: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

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We also used the word "fish" in place of trick or tricked. A victim of a ruse was a "fish" who got "fished in."

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Originally posted by 'lance:
I know the SCTV guys made it up out of whole cloth, and I don't care: if "take off, eh, you hoser" somehow makes it into international or Chinese English, I will be just that much happier, somehow.

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It stand for "Piss on everything, tomorrow's Saturday"

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