I just have to share this because when I read the headline on CBC News this morning, “slimes” made me think of something to do with Dragon Warrior, when in fact it turns out in my new local vernacular it has a lot more to do with Peppa Pig. Who knew?
One of the more surprising aspects of coming to Canada from a primarily Anglophone country is that even if English is your first language, you still need to take an IELTS test rather than just checking a box. Welcome to a fair and merit-based immigration system, that truly treats everyone the same! On a similar note, one of the more surprising aspects of speaking, reading, and most of all, writing English in Canada is gaining an awareness of just how divergent Canadian English may be from whatever dialect you’ve grown up with.
This fun write-up in today’s news on a linguist’s crusade to get some specifically Ontarian slang into the Canadian Oxford Dictionary has taught me at least two things. One, I still have plenty to learn despite changing my cell phone region to correct “centre” and “favourite,” and two – there is a Canadian Oxford Dictionary of English! I just added one to my Amazon wish list, to help solve any family linguistic dilemmas more complicated than our kids always correcting me on how to pronounce the final letter of the alphabet.
Eat your heart out, Merriam-Webster. 😇
This Ontarian Life 