Dear (probably great minority of) Americans:

[GirlinContempt]

It's that time of year again.
If it was say, 60 degrees where you live, and about two hours north someone told you it was 5 degrees, might you not think about that for a second?
Canada isn't that far away. Maybe think about Celsius VS Fahrenheit for a second.
If there is no mountain of snow in North Dakota, two hours north there probably wont be either. Nor will you find ski hills, because amazingly, it's still the prairies.
When I say US dollars, don't ask me what other kinds there are.

With love and warm regards to everyone (which is most people) who aren't that silly,
-Aly

[SPKrazy]

1. LOL

that's pretty funny

but hey, having lived in Oklahoma where people asked me if there were cowboys and Indians runnning around (which I guess technically there are)

or if we still use outhouses

or on and on

regional stereotypes suck

:hi:

[GirlinContempt]

2. I could have gone on and on and on

Like the time some americans from Minnesota came up here (5 hours away) in AUGUST looking to SKI.

IN AUGUST. On the PRAIRIES. Only FIVE HOURS NORTH. And they were AMAZED. Frankly, so was I.

[ghostsofgiants]

3. Hahaha!

[SmileyBoy]

5. People think we still use horses and buggies in Fargo.

And that the entire place basically looks like a scene from Little House On The Prairie, but in the year 2006.

And then they come up to see that we're a dynamic, growing city with a booming tech sector, and they're just shocked.

[GirlinContempt]

9. Wait

fargo isn't one big heritage museum?

[SmileyBoy]

10. No, but we have quite a few heritage museums.

And three Applebee's. :(

[thefool_wa]

24. Horse and buggies?

Hell, anyone should know that you at least have wood chipper technology - I saw the movie :)

[thefool_wa]

21. OMG!

I see dumb people!

They're everywhere!

AND THEY DON'T KNOW THEY'RE DUMB!

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. I think it's wonderful

that so many Canadians have learned to speak, read and write English so well.



You seem to find some words tough to spell, though — like "flavor" and "check."

[GirlinContempt]

6. die plzkthnx

[Oeditpus Rex]

11. ...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:



:thumbsup:

[SmileyBoy]

8. Hell, I'm American, and I refuse to use "Americanized" spellings.

flavor
color
check
realize
favorite
labor
Any word that ends in "ize"

Are all bastardised (ized) American spellings, which are technically NOT the correct English spelling.

That's where I differ from almost all Americans.:D

[Oeditpus Rex]

13. I did the 'u' thing and the 'ise' thing

throughout my 20s. Then I got back into journalism, where it's kinda frowned upon.

I'd tend to agree with you, though — the Brits (and, subsequently, the Canadians) have had it right all along.

[SmileyBoy]

14. We don't wanna be like anyone else.

That's why we SUCK!!!

:D

[thefool_wa]

23. Those are just anti-Anglicization

true American bastardization is using:

aks instead of ask

libary instead of library

and putting "r" on the end of any word that ends in a vowel.

(wow, so our international stereotype really is the redneck - how pathetic)

:banghead:

[ChoralScholar]

40. The spelling of nearly every word in every language is

a bastardized version of an earlier one - or a bastardized transliteration of another language.

What's so wrong with language progress?

[Spider Jerusalem]

41. Yeah, me too...

the "ize" instead of "ise" ending bothers me because, let's face it, "Z" is a strange letter in English. And British/Commonwealth spelling, where it differs from American, tends to be closer to French (which, considering that it's mostly from words derived from Norman French, makes more sense than the American way of doing it, which obscures the history of the words).

[Floogeldy]

7. They say it may rain.

Weather. My favorite subject! :)

[leeroysphitz]

12. What time is it in Canada right now?

:evilgrin:

[GirlinContempt]

15. So my brother started working for a company that deals with Americans

who phone in orders. At some point he had to tell a guy to call in the next day, and said the call center opened at 8am.
The guy asked "Is that American time?"
Brother "What?"
Guy "American time, you know. Like in america."
Brother "Yeah, sure fine. American time" *rolling his eyes*

[ghostsofgiants]

22. Man, hilariously dumb Americans are the only redeeming quality of working at a call center.

[thefool_wa]

26. You smile when you say that

For every Canadian taking calls from this country there is an American who could be but is currently without a job (at least that was the figure I saw when the outsourcing giant I work for bought us all from Nextel then moved 80% of the jobs north) - I know we can all be a bunch of dumb hicks sometimes (myself included), but show a little respect.

That being said, those of whom you speak are just as dumb when we talk to them. O H M Y G O D! I had no idea how many truly challenged people there were in this country until I started working in a call center.

At least the Canadian call centers have the virtual semblance of being in America (same language - no huge social barriers) The company I work for actually moved our internal help desk to Bombay India. There are a few real bright people I talk to there, but the most of the rest are chronic slackers just like in any other call center and when you add a language barrier it makes them more frustrating to deal with than any customer I talked to in two years taking calls.

Sorry - wasn't planning an outsourcing rant but there it is...

:banghead:
(^ doing that alot tonight)

[GirlinContempt]

27. Actually

The biggest call center in Canada, Canadian owned, outsources jobs to the U.S.

I could just as easily complain that my Canadian company is taking jobs away from Canadians, no matter who their contracts are with.

[thefool_wa]

31. That's interesting

Any idea what the name of the company is?

That really seems economically counter-intuitive based just on the exchange rate, but since I work in the industry I can't help but be fascinated by the depths of its insidious evil so if you have more info lay it on me.

Ultimately, though, its not where the jobs go its that they are contracted out in the first place. I have this whole long rant about the "evils of outsourcing", but I will spare you (since it is late, bed is near, and not time or place) - suffice it to say I do not begrudge or blame our neighbors to the north. You guys are just in a position to import that which has been made an exportable commodity, seemingly all over the world.

If you have info on that company, please post a link or whatever you might have, I am truly interested.

(glass half empty: I'll bet it has something to do with the economic ramifications and recoupment of trade imbalances that was a part of NAFTA - there is no way a company would willing send its jobs to a more expensive market in a country with an unfavorable exchange rate)

[GirlinContempt]

33. Convergys

They started in my city, and quickly became I believe one of the largest overall customer service companies. They handle some of the biggest names in tech support and customer service. While there are still centers in Canada, they shipped off many many contracts and many new centers south of our boarder because in some places it was actually cheaper. Fewer regulations, less taxes, and lower wages in some states. I don't have any links that talk about this, I just used to work for that company, lost one of my contracts to a new american center, which was fine. And they were upfront about it.
http://www.convergys.com/index.html
Contracting out these jobs makes perfect sense, though. One company who's entire focus is phone support or service can do a way better job for the company and the end user/customer than a multifaceted business trying to accommodate that aspect of a growing business. FedEx, for example, just can't handle all of that. Not as smoothly and effectively as someone they pay to do it. American, Canadian, whoever, contracting out makes sense for them.

[thefool_wa]

35. I am actually very familiar with Convergys

We share our Sprint contract with them, but I did not realize they were Canadian.

While I understand the economic facts involved in outsourcing, there is an underlying deceit to the whole gig. It is two fold.

First is fixed labor value. Contracting your customer service for a single billable rate insures that you will never have a workplace with any degree of career longevity for the workers. If the rate Convergys can charge Sprint for their call center labor is never going to change, what benefit is there in encouraging good employees to stick around and do more in the industry than just take calls until something better comes along. This also reduces the quality of your product as the percentage of quality workers drops relative to the pay scale (my company has already done away with annual raises completely for our production staff - what's worse? I work in Workforce Management, an overhead billed job in a labor-for-profit industry. I am like an unwanted step child and they make sure and remind me of that every once in a while).

The second problem is the loophole that so many of the contracting companies reap the benefits of. The contracts I have had experience with are drafted in such a way that payment of the contract is dependent on meeting performance goals each month. This seems logical until you consider that the contracting company 100% of the time retains the rights to define and re-define performance goals on a regular basis. I have watched them swing metric goals based on our ability to meet them just so they know we will come in below and the contracting company gets all of its customer service that month for free.

There are few things in the working world more debasing than knowing your being set up for failure by the people you work for. At least I still get my paycheck either way.

(you coaxed the rant out of me - sorry ;) )

[GirlinContempt]

45. What I really can't stand

(and I'm not talking about you, because I don't know where you stand on this) is when people bitch to me about outsourcing, but then support policies that create the environments in other countries for this low-wage abuse to begin. Free trade being a giant one. I've talked to many many people who don't want American (or Canadian or British or Whatever) jobs outsourced, but they love free trade, and they don't want to pay more than $4.99 for their new whatever at Wal-Mart/Target/Zellers, and always bitch about prices. Like, duh, lets not support the destroying and manipulating of foreign economies, you can keep your job, and deal with fair prices based on fair wages for everyone.

[Elidor]

47. America: Canada's Mexico

:D

[ghostsofgiants]

32. Ummm...I'm not sure I get your point.

I mean I get the gist of you hating outsourcing. Understandable.

But how am I being disrespectful? You admit that there are some horribly stupid people calling call centers, so that can't be it. Is it because the dumb calls amused me? Dumb Canadians would have amused me just as much as dumb Americans, but the topic of discussion here is dumb Americans and I happened to deal with plenty on a daily basis. The other calls varied between boring/standard shit and rude. The dumb ones at least gave me some entertainment. (The rude ones did sometimes as well, when they were really over the top, but that was kinda rare.)

[thefool_wa]

36. Sorry

I was razzing, you didn't offend me (I guess I forgot a smiley in there somewhere - my bad). Just trying to play the part of the offended nationalist for a laugh.

Dumb calls are dumb calls - I've taken so many in my life I wouldn't know where to begin telling stories and we would be here the rest of this already too late night.

;)

[ghostsofgiants]

37. Ahh, haha.

It's all good.

Psshh, too late? It's 4:42 AM here. What time is it in American time? :P

[thefool_wa]

42. With the un-favorable exchange rate

I think it is actually tomorrow here...

:rofl:

[hfojvt]

29. If the American lived in Denver or Indianapolis, say

that would be a different time than Manitoba.

[GirlinContempt]

30. Well, of COURSE it would be

But, AMERICAN time?

[hfojvt]

39. Sure, Canada's metric

should have a hundred minute hour and a ten hour day.

So to convert American time to Canadian, you first convert to military time, then divide by 24 and multiply by ten. So 8 AM would be 3:33 in Canadian.

[XemaSab]

16. Dude

this makes no sense.

Respectfully,

XemaSab

[GirlinContempt]

18. That's cause you're a surfer

[BreweryYardRat]

17. So, how many hockey players are in your family?

;)

[ghostsofgiants]

25. Including somehwat extended family, there are at least 15 that i can think of in mine.

[thefool_wa]

19. Dumb American Story

Let me start by saying I am an American and am thoroughly ashamed of my friend/co-workers actions in the story about to be relayed.

I was on travel in Orillia, ON with four of my co-workers from the call center where I work in Washington state. We had passed through customs (well, all but one of us, but that is a whole 'nother story) and were waiting for our baggage when my friend looks at me and says, "I really want to get one of those luggage carts, but I don't have any Canadian money."

In a true moment of kindness all Canucks should be proud of, the gentleman behind her returning to his homeland proffered up a Loonie (I believe that is what you call the gold dollars). She turns to him with a big appreciative smile and says, "Wow, that's so nice. Here," she says reaching in her pocket, "At least let me give you a real dollar."

I hung my head and said, "Sarah! We are IN CANADA. He gave you a real dollar." I sometimes still don't believe it to this day, but she said it. Not only that, the crowd was packed in around us pretty tight and more than a couple locals in the group heard her faux pas. Most grumbled something derogatory about Americans.

I think, sometimes, there is a good reason why the rest of the world despises us.

:banghead:

[GirlinContempt]

20. ROFL

Well most people I know don't DESPISE you, when stuff like that happens we just smile at you like the inappropriate relative at thanksgiving dinner :D ;)

But seriously, I'm sure here in Canada we come into contact with a huge number of Americans who're normal, nice, pleasant people, and we might not even know where they're from. It's just the crazy stuff that sticks out in the mind.

[thefool_wa]

28. tru dat

I try and be as nationalistically inconspicuous as possible when I travel abroad. So far that has included only the aforementioned trip to Toronto and then on to Orillia. And, as you know, I was foiled by one of my companions.

I like to thank of myself as normal nice and pleasant. However, I am sure should I ever traveled to Europe, I would stick out as american no matter what I do.

In Canada that's alright. Hell, you guys are really just Americans without guns and that makes blending in easier. (I kid :) )

[RetroLounge]

34. You're Canadian?

:shrug:

RL

[ghostsofgiants]

38. You didn't know that?

[RetroLounge]

44. Of course I knew that...

my phone bill proved it...

:hi:

RL

[asthmaticeog]

43. I don't get it.

:shrug:

[GirlinContempt]

46. You wouldn't

:P