I’ve noticed this on a few occasions, especially when meeting a large group of people. They don’t ask what you do for a living, but rather who in the group you know, and how you know them. And sometimes the answer revolves around school.
It’s subtle.
“We’ve been friends since” elementary, secondary or university.
Elementary school is grade school in the States. Secondary is high school. Thwre are public and private schools for both, as in the States. Canadians, however, make a strong distinction between “college” and “university” while in the States, the words are interchangeable. Granted there are differences, research dollars and athletics being two examples, but the distinction is glossed over. Or replaced entirely by the name. Missouri. Michigan. Harvard. Princeton. Middlebury. The U.
That is not the case in Canada.
College, in Canada, often refers to a technical college, what the States commonly refers to as community college. University is more in line with what we think of: academic research institutions.
The choices for university seem limited, relative to the States. In Chicago, for example, you have five big institutions: Northwestern University, Loyola Chicago, DePaul, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois-Chicago. And then there some independent law schools, meaning they aren’t directly attached to a university like Loyola or DePaul: The John Marshall Law School and Kent. And then there are the more niche colleges, like Columbia.
In one city, that’s a fair amount of options. And well respected institutions.
That is not the case in Vancouver. The University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University and BCIT make up the big options. The others seem to be the same as or similar to for-profit institutions in the States.
There doesn’t seem to be quite the rivalry either. I can’t recall seeing athletic fields or a football stadium so that might have something to do with it.
Elementary. Secondary. University.
That’s how they do it in Canada. Fairly linear progression, no?