{"id":598,"date":"2007-05-21T08:32:18","date_gmt":"2007-05-21T13:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2007\/ok-canadians-time-to-confess.html"},"modified":"2007-10-28T14:17:27","modified_gmt":"2007-10-28T19:17:27","slug":"ok-canadians-time-to-confess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2007\/ok-canadians-time-to-confess.html","title":{"rendered":"Ok, Canadians, time to confess&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Well, it&#8217;s time to get back to my question about <a href=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2007\/calling-all-canadians.html\">Canadians and conflict<\/a>. &nbsp;So far, no one has commented on my post from a couple of months ago on the topic. &nbsp;So, I would like to offer some ideas and see if you agree or disagree.<\/p>\n<p>To review, the basic question was,<b><i>&quot;What are barriers to peacemaking in the Canadian culture?&quot;<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p>It may seem a strange question for a country known for its peace-making. &nbsp;But every culture has its problems when it comes to resolving conflict, and here I&#8217;m mainly talking about personal conflict &#8211; one Canadian to another, or one Canadian to a non-Canadian.<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few things, somewhat inter-related, from the view of an insider:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Canadians are polite.<\/b> &nbsp;That&#8217;s a good thing, right? &nbsp;Well, <i>usually<\/i>. &nbsp;The problem is, Canadians are sometimes so polite that we won&#8217;t tell you when we disagree with you, even if you ask. &nbsp;I was talking with an American (USA) who had been working with Canadians for many years. &nbsp;He said bluntly,&quot;Canadians lie&quot;. &nbsp;What he meant was, they&#8217;ll all nod in agreement with your idea in the meeting, but afterwards talk amongst themselves about how dumb your idea was.\n<p>This causes trouble when interacting with cultures like the American culture. &nbsp;But what about among ourselves? &nbsp;The question comes up in many cultures &#8211; if everyone knows you&#8217;re lying (if everyone knows you&#8217;re just saying that to be polite), are you lying? &nbsp;I don&#8217;t think so. &nbsp;However, even between Canadians, everyone does <i>not<\/i> always understand that you&#8217;re just being polite, and that can cause problems.<\/li>\n<li>Second, and somewhat related, <b>Canadians don&#8217;t like direct confrontation<\/b>. &nbsp;That means that, if there already is a conflict, Canadians don&#8217;t want to come right out and address it. &nbsp;Avoid, ignore, side-step, even forgive. &nbsp;But work it out? &nbsp;No thanks. &nbsp;I realize this is true of many cultures, but I think it&#8217;s true in a unique way in Canada. &nbsp;While other cultures work things out indirectly, and some cultures deal with it head-on, Canadians are more likely to avoid it altogether.<\/li>\n<li>Finally, <b>Canadians are somewhat reserved and formal, compared to Americans<\/b>. &nbsp;This is not always the case, but I think in everyday life it still tends to be. &nbsp;This point I especially relate to Americans, because being neighbours this one tends to come up a lot (a whole other article could be written about cultural conflict between Americans and Canadians). &nbsp;An American who is simply talking normally and politely for him\/her can come across quite loud and rude to a Canadian. &nbsp;Conversely, to an American, a Canadian may seem unenthusiastic or somewhat <a href=\"http:\/\/onelook.com\/?w=inscrutable&#038;ls=a\">inscrutable<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><b>So what do you think?<\/b><\/i> &nbsp;Am I right on? &nbsp;Way off? &nbsp;Do you have sometime to add?<\/p>\n<p><b>In order to be polite, let me close by suggesting a few positives.<\/b> &nbsp;Every culture has its strengths and weaknesses, no doubt about it.&nbsp; From a Christian perspective, this relates to the Church, and its mission to share the Gospel in every culture. &nbsp;There&#8217;s a reason why Jesus didn&#8217;t say,&quot;Go and make disciples . . . unless you&#8217;re Greek or Canadian. &nbsp;Unless you&#8217;re a tax collector. &nbsp;Unless . . .&quot;<\/p>\n<p><b>No, we&#8217;re <i>all<\/i> needed in the Body.<\/b> &nbsp;The problem is, compared to believers in a lot of countries, Canadians <i>aren&#8217;t<\/i> going. &nbsp;I believe that Canadians have their own unique strengths to offer, particularly in fulfilling the Great Commission.<\/p>\n<p>For one, I think our culture is often <b>a good middle-ground between cultures<\/b>. &nbsp;In many ways we aren&#8217;t extreme one way or another, which makes it easier for us to relate to a variety of people. &nbsp;<b>Our reputation<\/b> around the world for peace-making and friendliness may open doors for us, but I think this middle-ground may be one reason for that reputation. &nbsp;Also, we have <b>an appreciation for other cultures<\/b>, and <b>an understanding of other cultures<\/b> that many countries don&#8217;t have. &nbsp;We have a lot to learn, no doubt. &nbsp;But our history and culture have given us unique training that other cultures don&#8217;t have.<\/p>\n<p>Like every culture, we have our strengths and weaknesses. &nbsp;Maybe understanding those strengths and weaknesses will help us grow, and appreciate other cultures more. &nbsp;Swim on out there and make a difference, beaver&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/CottrillCompass.com\/images\/beaver.jpg\" width=\"350\" height=\"232\" border=\"3\" alt=\"Beaver, symbol of Canada\"><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, it&#8217;s time to get back to my question about Canadians and conflict. &nbsp;So far, no one has commented on my post from a couple of months ago on the topic. &nbsp;So, I would like to offer some ideas and see if you agree or disagree. To review, the basic question was,&quot;What are barriers to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-missions","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ok, Canadians, time to confess... - Finding direction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2007\/ok-canadians-time-to-confess.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ok, Canadians, time to confess... - Finding direction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Well, it&#8217;s time to get back to my question about Canadians and conflict. &nbsp;So far, no one has commented on my post from a couple of months ago on the topic. &nbsp;So, I would like to offer some ideas and see if you agree or disagree. 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