Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in English
By FREYA BARNES Published: 14:32 BST, 6 April 2025 | Updated: 14:36 BST, 6 April 2025
A British woman who moved to Canada has revealed the one everyday English greeting which will get you some funny looks from Canadians.Poppy, 30, moved from Nottingham to the city of Kelowna in the south of Canada’s British Columbia province in August 2024 with her partner Jordan, 34, and their three children.She has since been documenting their new life on social media and has started a series on her TikTok account in which she talks about the things she wasn’t prepared for.In one of those videos she told of how asking a Canadian if they are okay will illicit an unusual response.’You don’t ask people if they’re okay – don’t do it,’ she said.Poppy then explained how English people often greet each other with this question but if you greet a Canadian in the same way ‘the looks you get are crazy’.However, she was unaware of this before she moved and so learnt the hard way when she met her new colleague at work.When the woman introduced herself, Poppy replied: ‘Hi, are you okay?’. Poppy (pictured), 30, moved from Nottingham to the city of Kelowna in the south of Canada’s British Columbia province in August 2024 with her partner Jordan, 34, and their three children In one video she told of how asking a Canadian if they are okay will illicit an unusual responseBut upon asking her this she said the woman’s ‘whole demeanour changed’ and she looked offended before looking her up and down and saying ‘Yeah?’ with an air of confusion.After a five second ‘awkward silence’, Poppy asked if everything was okay to which her new colleague replied ‘Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?’.She had no idea why the woman reacted in that way until her Canadian friend explained ‘you can’t say that to Canadians’ because they interpret it as an insult.Poppy went on to explain how the question can have a different meaning in certain social situations when you are in the UK.As an example, she said if someone is ‘being weird’ you may raise an eyebrow and respond ‘Are you okay?’ as a way to highlight their strange behaviour. Canadians are familiar with this usage of the question but don’t use it as a greeting and so will only ever take offence.Her friend told her she should greet people with terms such as ‘How’s it going?’ or ‘How you doing?’.Signing off her video, Poppy said: ‘That was weird but yeah I would say that was my first culture shock when I moved to Canada.’
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I’m a Brit living in Canada and I was shocked to realise people don’t understand this everyday English greeting
