Comments

1

For someone who lives in Seattle I have sadly hardly ever gone up to Canada. At the start of 2020 I intended on changing that. You can probably guess how well those plans worked out.

2

Agree this is a great show. I do think you may be citing the wrong cultural difference at one point though. The difference between Canadian and American "roughnecks" that you cite is likely due more to the difference in expectations between Asian immigrant families and the average North American family than it is to differences between Americans and Canadians.

What many Asian families would consider unacceptably bad behavior is well within what most of us 3d, 4th, 5th or more generation American kids did as a matter of course. The stories of bad childhood/teenage behavior I hear from my Asian-American relatives would mostly be things that our parents would hardly have noticed and would surely have forgotten about by the time we were out of high school.

3

I should point out that my comments above may apply equally to any number of immigrant communities, not just Asians. I believe the important difference is that many kids from families that have been here a few generations have a greater sense of entitlement and don't feel the same pressure/need to excel (that comes directly from my own experiences growing up in a fairly privileged suburb - a lot of us were lazy and entitled).

If your parents dropped everything and moved to North America to start over for you, it's easy to see how you would have a greater appreciation for family and a bigger sense that you ought to accomplish something.

4

"Canadians are the bonobos [sex] of North Americans. The US citizens are the chimpanzees [violence] of North Americans... " --CM

Omg -- I'm fucking Canadian. eh?
damn -- if only the trumpfster
hadn't Built That Wall.*

*Canada Paid for it!

5

Our shared border--largely political and minimally ethnic or geographic--is so impervious! Culture, which is to say, created condition, apparently really, really matters. This was a very thought-provoking post, Charles.

6

Wow, I've heard Canadian culture characterized in a lot of different ways before, but more erotic? That's a new one.
but good place to drop my only Canadian joke-
Q. Why do Canadians prefer doggy-style?
A. Because Canadian women like to watch hockey too.

7

If you don't know what a 'poop needle' is - you need to watch this show. Worth it just for that.

9

yeah, Chas, why
don't you Marry Cana-
da you Love it So Much?

@6 -- I love them Canucks!
getting More Canadian
by-the-Minute here.

10

I was under the impression that "Umma" just means "Mom" and "Appa" just means "Dad". Their legal names, although seldom uttered on the show, are respectively: "Kim Yong-Mi" and "Kim Sang-Il" (following the "surname, given name" convention of Korean names).

11

Thanks for the kind words about the country I live in. We also have many, many, many problems with the usual fun stuff (racism, fascism, a toxic billionaire class quietly corrupting politics and media), but you know those things.

It's nice to be a bonobo!

12

I also love Canada. I have been there a lot from east to west . Wonderful people. I wish they would let me live there but apparently they don't want me. What I really wish though is that if Charles missed it so much he would move back there and we'd never have to read one more piece of crap from him again. Charles Mudede. Ick.

13

really?! you think Canada is like that.
I realise we all think somewhere else is always cooler or better but Vancouver!?!? I use to live in Vancouver and use to think Seattle was cool to visit but not anymore! Why?
It is not the Seattle I used to know anymore and Vancouver is not the Vancouver I used to know also.
Vancouver's love affair with it's own Vancouverism has erased it's history and the worst part is, everyone that has moved here to live the Vancouverism dream seems to not give a damn about it's past history.
Charles, escaping Seattle to enjoy Vancouver is ironic since Vancouverism (which there have been books written about) is and has been the model for many large cities to reinvent themselves. The reason you leave Seattle is because Vancouverism helped created the new Seattle: Condos, worse homelessness, no social housing, more overpriced condos, depression, lets shop and try to pay a massive mortgage on that condo 50 stories up a tower built over a mall with "rapid transit".
Many think Vancouver is liveable and amazing but it isn't it is extremely generic and expensive with a few expensive fun things to do.
Some even think it what Jane Jacobs would have wanted a city to be but that is just falsely applying a stamp of approval on a city for her. She is not around to give an opinion.
That hockey you are going on about created two riots where people really showed what they think of Vancouver, it was a place they came to to trash. Vancouver has an identity Developers want you to believe is great through "Branding". You know "branding" that concept that was trendy when Vancouverism was created, they coincided together in the late 80's early 90's and still is happening.
I am really surprised that you would fall for such a capitalist concepts that have been applied to Vancouver to erase it's past and reinvent it.

The way I see it: All that is gone in Seattle, Vancouverism helped eliminate.

14

Oh ya I forgot. we are just as messed up. We gave you the stupid Yellow Proud Boys!

15

“who run a convenience store in Toronto I visited by accident in 2019, Moss Park”

The store is in the neighborhood of Moss Park, but it’s actually called “Kim’s Convenience.” It was formerly known as “Mimi Variety,” but the owners were persuaded to change the wording on the signage so exteriors for the series could be shot there. The show became a hit and its fame turned into a bonanza for the store, so they kept the name.

I am also a big fan of the show (and not just because they find every possible opportunity for Simu Lee to take off his shirt.) It does require a modest level of willing suspension of disbelief, though. Mr. and Mrs. Kim would probably conduct their private conversations in Korean. And the notion that even an assistant pastor (which, last time I checked, was still Amanda Brugel’s character’s title) at a Korean Protestant church would be anything other than Korean is suspect. But if it were to happen anywhere, Toronto would probably be the place.

16

"What I really wish though is that if Charles missed it so much he would move back there and we'd never have to read one more piece of crap from him again" --@screech

great idea. hmmm. but what if Chas Moved there and they* Exported his Writing down over the Border? to tS? then what would you do? OR -- you could move to Antarctica. I hear it's Nice there in the Winter. or was it summer. Good luck, screech!

*why on Earth won't even Canada take you?

17

It's no Beachcombers, but it's not bad.

Most of your TV shows and movies are still being filmed in Canada, only a few in the States.

18

@8:

Oh, they'd take him - Canadians are a very welcoming people, as I know from first-hand experience - but why would he need to relocate, given he has the best of both worlds within easy grasp? As my Canadian kin are fond of saying, "why buy the whole cow when the bag of milk is so cheap, eh?"

19

@17:

It's not most by a long stretch - roughly 70% of all television & film production for the U.S. market is shot in the States - but it is a significant minority.

20

@15 Simu Liu. Not Lee.


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