Understanding Cultural Differences: Canadians vs. Americans. A Look into Canadian and American Cultural Traits with Free Listening Comprehension Activities and free Mp3
Understanding Cultural Differences: Canadians vs. Americans
Understanding Cultural Differences: Canadians vs. Americans
Listening comprehension is a crucial skill for mastering English, and practicing it with relevant and engaging content can make the process enjoyable. Below is a listening comprehension activity based on a conversation about cultural differences between Canadians and Americans. This activity includes multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-gaps, drag-the-word, and true/false exercises to help you understand and retain the information from the transcript.
Listening Comprehension Activities
Instructions:
- Play the audio clip for the students.
- Have students listen carefully to the clip.
- After listening, provide the students with the transcripts
Listen to the MP3 audio file and complete the following exercises
Transcripts
Check your answers with the transcript provided
Interviewer: Okay, Mike, I was wondering, you’re from Canada, and you have lived in America, and we work together, and in our company, everybody is American but you. So, how would you say Canadians are different than Americans?
Mike: To be honest, just to start, I’ll say that Canadians and Americans, I think, share a lot more similar qualities than they do differences. I mean, I think Canadians have a lot more in common with Americans than they do even with English people who are from Britain, who were the original sort of Canadians, I suppose, a few hundred years ago. So in that way, I think that like again, just to preempt it by saying we’re very similar. However, there’s definitely some differences, I think, between Americans and Canadians. First of all, I think Canadians in general are maybe a little bit more humble. Not to put this in a negative way, but they’re not as willing to engage in an argument or to argue over a point, I think, as most of my American friends will want to debate and get to the bottom of a topic. Canadians would rather just sort of back off and say, you know, you’re right, that’s fine, great. But again, and I can’t speak for all Canadians because it depends on your personality too, but just to generalize, that’s one difference. Also, I would say that Americans in general tend to be a lot more business-like and maybe even a little bit more conservative in just in the way that they, in the way that they, I guess, view relations or view discussions with people. Canadians tend to be a little bit more liberal, a little bit more free and easy going. Again, I’ll preempt that by saying that all of the Americans that I work with, I think, are quite liberal and not conservative thinking at all. But if you want to generalize culturally, then I think those are probably a couple of differences between the two cultures or people in the cultures.
Interviewer: Yeah. Anything else? Any other differences?
Mike: Well, I think one thing that Americans tend to point to with Canadians, and it is true to some extent, other than our love of hockey, is a sense of humor. I think Canadians in general tend to have a, I wouldn’t say unique, but they just tend to look at, I guess, look at things with a little bit more of a bit of humor to it and I think the main reason for that is because it’s so bloody cold in Canada.
Interviewer: Oh, fair enough. Thanks Mike.
Mike: Sure.
Engaging in listening comprehension exercises like these helps improve your understanding of spoken English and sharpens your listening skills. By exploring cultural differences through conversations, you can also gain insights into different ways of life and perspectives. Regular practice with varied content will enhance your proficiency and confidence in English listening and comprehension.
DOWNLOAD THE PDF FOR FREE
Also check out these listening exercises
