Did growing up Canadian make me a Sissy?

To catch up, try to read first Why are Canadians so nice?

Super Sensivel

Ragish

Pachdan

Wussy/Sissy/too sensitive

During the Olympics I met many interesting people from around the world. I had some beers and joked around with my new friends. But they kept making fun of me or were very direct with their insults. At first it was funny ( I think) and then not so much. I didn't really find it amusing. Then they said they were kidding. Do I not have a sense of "humor?" or are these people just mean.

I used to work in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia when I was 18 years old. I was a producers assistant for a Television show. My nick name: The White Whale or Barbeque Pork Jane. Why? Because I spoke bad Cantonese in a really really white/Canadian accent. And because I was both taller and fatter than every human being on the set. Also, I ate a lot of Barbeque Pork.( I was 5"9 and 125lbs) So nothing unusual over here.

It got me thinking " Are other countries rude or are Canadians too nice, is our " oops Im sorry" attitude turning us into sissys? ( For those of you who have met me in person, you will know that I am more sensitive than the average Canadian). It is well known that most Canadians apologize too often and try not to step over personal boundaries of other people. ( The other day, some guy with a bunch of buns ran into my elbow and dropped all his buns- then he proceeded to apologize to me while picking up his bread, I didn't even notice he was there until 30 seconds later)

It is well known that Canadians have a pay-it-forward policy. What does that mean? it means you are really nice to your neighbours and strangers, and in turn they will do something nice for some one else, and so on and so forth, creating a really nice society. This makes every body very courteous with towards one another. The goal is to change the world, one nice deed or attitude at a time. This is fully the Canadian outlook on things.

This "nice to everyone" attitude isn't universal in every country. Why should it be, its not very useful. In other countries, people like to " take the piss" out of each other for fun. This is common in Asia, Europe and Australia. Their means of joking around is to make fun of other people. Sometimes our niceness can lead us to be overly sensitive, thus unable to see the humor in having some one " take the piss" at us. No this does not mean to pee on some one. Click on the link for the colloquial definition.

I tried to take this approach a few days ago with my best friend Julia. I was trying to make a reference to dumb blond jokes. Sorry Ju, you're part of my poorly conducted qualitative research.

Julia: I'm thinking about dying my hair blonder
Jane:  If you do, no ones going to take you seriously.
Julia: Not funny.
Jane: Sorry, can we be friends again?

OK.a Jane FAIL.
It is untrue that one country is less polite than the other. It is just a culture clash. On the other hand, we find stupid things funny that no one else finds amusing, and the European/Middle Eastern/Australian/ Asian way of joking is completely different.