Watch Shawn Mendes teach Americans some Canadian slang

Following in the hallowed footsteps of Will Arnett teaching Canadian slang, and Lilly Singh teaching Canadian slang, Pickering’s favourite son (and global superstar) Shawn Mendes joined forced with Vanity Fair to answer America’s burning questions about Canadianisms. Like, who is “Timmies?” What’s a “Famous Players?” And the most classic of Pickering slang, “My guy, whose mans is this?”

For us Canucks watching this, especially those who live in the Greater Toronto Area, you will definitely get a kick out of the “Wonder” singer informing Americans with glee and gusto all about the Go Train, Ajax, and “Scarberia.” For Americans watching, you will definitely learn a little something about your favourite neighbours, and it will enrich your life. Especially if your future travel plans involve travelling on Durham Region Transit wearing a toque whilst eating a Beaver Tail. (Disclaimer: we do not encourage travelling at this time since it's currently a pandemic.)

“One of the best moments ever was when I was like 17, and Drake took a photo with me, and captioned the photo with me ‘Pickering Gawd,’” Shawn begins with a double-double Canadian anecdote. “It really meant a lot to me. And Pickering.”

Pickering slang gets top billing during the 6+ minute segment, where Shawn goes into detail about all the Americans he’s confused when he’s asked for a “two-six,” or the “washroom,” but his love of his hometown and home country shines through.

“I love being Canadian! I love these words that we use!” he exclaims as he defines some of our most endearing colloquialisms, such as:

The Go Train: “The GO Train is basically the train that you can take from Pickering to downtown Toronto. If you wanna go see a Leafs game, or you wanna go see a Blue Jays game, or you wanna go see Drake at the Scotiabank Arena, it's whatever you choose.”

Famous Players: “Famous Players is the theatre in the Pickering Town Centre […]I think I might've had one of my first kisses in that Famous Players!” (Whoever she is, she’s a lucky lass).

That’s Jokes: “So funny. ‘That's jokes’ is basically exactly what that sounds like. ‘That's hilarious! That's jokes’[...] The saying ‘That's jokes’ is pretty jokes.”

Beaver Tail: “A Beaver Tail is the most famous Canadian pastry. You can get them in Ottawa, and they sell them on the side of the road, and it looks like a Beaver tail, but it's just a pastry, and you get cinnamon and sugar put on it.”

Where: “That's what people say when you tell them that you're from Pickering, instead of saying Toronto, and that's why I say Toronto, but that's why it's good to be bringing up Pickering.”

Timmies: “'Timmie’s is another way of saying Tim Horton's […] That's like something my mom would say, she would say, ‘Hey, I'm passing by Timmies, do you want some?’ And I always say yes. Tim's is a long-time old friend of all Canadians.”

Scarberia: “A way to say 'Scarborough.' A lot of people will say Scarbs too. No one says you're from the ‘brough,’ though.”

Whose mans: “It's really when if you're in a public place, and your friend is being weird or doing something uncomfortable, or something really obnoxious, maybe you'd just be like, ‘Whose mans is this? Whose mans?’ And you kind of disassociate from being with that guy, 'cause he's being weird. […] It's funny, I think, to Canadians.”

Shawn also explained that he is probably a "snowbird" himself considering he was in Miami at the time he filmed the video segment. “I'm dying to get back home to that cold weather!” he exclaimed. We have it on pretty good authority that he'll be making the trip back to Canada in the very near future—in fact, he told etalk exactly that this week.

This cute Vanity Fair segment comes on the heels of Shawn completing his #TheWonderResidency that saw him performing in clubs and venues that had been closed or affected by the global pandemic. The residency included performances on late night talk shows, including a special performance on The Late Late Show with James Corden (weeknights at 12:30 a.m. ET on CTV) on Monday.

It was also with James Corden that Shawn played a physically-distanced game of "Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts" where he read out his private text messages between him and gf Camila Cabello. After how long they’ve been together, we’re pretty sure she’s also fluent in all these Pickering-isms too.