“I knew it was Canadian Thanksgiving because it was on my calendar,” said Nora S. Abo-Sido ’13. “Other than that, I don’t know much about it.”

Though not entirely representative of the whole Harvard community, this general unawareness does hint at an unfamiliarity with Canadian culture that Canadian students say they have encountered among Harvard undergrads.

“I actually had someone tell me that my English was really good in my freshman year,” Hayley Margio ’10 of Halifax, Nova Scotia recalled.

“I don’t think people are as curious about Canada as they are about other countries,” said Amy Wang ’12. “People assume that I can speak French; so when I started French A, they had that puzzled expression on their face.”

Most of the Canadians interviewed expressed that their experiences of being stereotyped have made them more self-conscious of their nationality.

“[Since I’ve come to Harvard,] I’ve cut down from saying ‘eh’ every other sentence to maybe twice an hour,” said Rylie X. Zhang ’13 of Toronto.

But these differences seem to render Harvard’s Canadian community more patriotic about their nation. “Being in a different culture forces you to think about what you believe in as a Canadian,” said Torontonian Peter S. Grbac ’12.

“I’m very proud of my country,” said Jonathan K. Tam ’10, another Torontonian. “It symbolizes home to me... the sense of belonging, the sense that I want to go back after I graduate.”