The Quirky Canadian Customs and Habits That Outsiders Find Baffling (3 of 5)

Apologizing when you did nothing wrong

“I’m sooo sorry, eh?” Even people who have never been to Canada are familiar with the stereotype that the folks up here apologize excessively, but they end up being surprised when they discover it isn’t a mere exaggeration. They genuinely say sorry even when they weren’t in the wrong. The barista hands a customer an iced latte when they asked for it hot. The customer apologizes as they point out the barista’s mistake. If you’re on the outside looking in, you might wonder why the customer is admitting fault when, in fact, it’s a request for the barista to correct the situation without the customer being a jerk about it.

Casually switching back and forth between metric and imperial

As noted earlier, Canada officially converted to the metric system in the 1970s, and as a result, the road signs are in kilometers, temperatures are measured in Celsius, and gas is sold in liters. And yet it’s still more common to express body weight in pounds, quantities in cups, and short measurements in inches (i.e., snow). This habit leaves American brains in a twist.