America is not just North America you know. It’s a whole ass continent. America isn’t a country, the US is. So when you say America when you actually talk about only the US, it’s as is you were talking about Mexico, Canada, Brazil… as well as the US. Which is… dumb? False? Erroneous?
People who are adamant about “America is too confusing” are very rarely in agreement with “Afro-Eurasia”, such that if someone says “Colombians are American”, they’re unlikely to say “French people are African” or even “Afro-Eurasian”.
It’s a cultural/language thing, rather than an objective one. There’s no reason that (most) English speakers who don’t call Peruvians “Americans” are any more incorrect than Peruvians who don’t say “Spanish people are Africans” are wrong. But it’s become a whole thing on the internet to say that “USians are dumb and wrong” for not having the same language concepts as other cultures. There are just different numbers of continents taught in different cultures.
But as a tourist, does anyone from outside the US say “I’m American” when they’re asked where they’re from? Canadians at least sure as fuck would never say that.
Nobody is saying it’s too confusing. They’re saying “stop claiming that word for yourself”.
Your examples are incorrect. The equivalent would be if France was called The United States of Europe, and used the word Europeans to refer exclusively to themselves.
Then, naturally, Germans would stop using the word European to refer to themselves because others would think they were referring to France (The United States of Europe in this example).
People regularly talk about Europe when they actually mean the EU or the other way around. I think that’s the closest there is, and it’s also annoying.
The USA is one of the few countries on earth to use a continent name as part of its country name. Yet you don’t see too many people saying South Africa should refer to the entire southern part of the continent.
People also don’t seem to have a problem with using “US”, which overlaps with Mexico aka EUM (or USM in English). Like I said, it’s mostly a language and cultural divide. Are you advocating that Canadians or Mexicans should say they’re American, even if they don’t want to? In the English speaking world no one other than the USA says American.
I’d say US/USians, as America is more than just the US. America is composed of more countries like Canada, Mexico, Brazil…
You can downvote me all you want, it doesn’t change anything.
No idea why you’re getting downvoted for this very valid point.
Now why would they be referring to Mexico?
America is not just North America you know. It’s a whole ass continent. America isn’t a country, the US is. So when you say America when you actually talk about only the US, it’s as is you were talking about Mexico, Canada, Brazil… as well as the US. Which is… dumb? False? Erroneous?
Literally a hate crime 💀 good looking making sure nobody got confused
The US could mean Mexico though.
How?
Probably referring to Mexico’s official name, Estados Unidos Mexicanos.
Thanks! I never knew it had a longer official name.
People who are adamant about “America is too confusing” are very rarely in agreement with “Afro-Eurasia”, such that if someone says “Colombians are American”, they’re unlikely to say “French people are African” or even “Afro-Eurasian”.
It’s a cultural/language thing, rather than an objective one. There’s no reason that (most) English speakers who don’t call Peruvians “Americans” are any more incorrect than Peruvians who don’t say “Spanish people are Africans” are wrong. But it’s become a whole thing on the internet to say that “USians are dumb and wrong” for not having the same language concepts as other cultures. There are just different numbers of continents taught in different cultures.
But as a tourist, does anyone from outside the US say “I’m American” when they’re asked where they’re from? Canadians at least sure as fuck would never say that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent?useskin=vector#Number
Nobody is saying it’s too confusing. They’re saying “stop claiming that word for yourself”.
Your examples are incorrect. The equivalent would be if France was called The United States of Europe, and used the word Europeans to refer exclusively to themselves.
Then, naturally, Germans would stop using the word European to refer to themselves because others would think they were referring to France (The United States of Europe in this example).
People regularly talk about Europe when they actually mean the EU or the other way around. I think that’s the closest there is, and it’s also annoying.
The USA is one of the few countries on earth to use a continent name as part of its country name. Yet you don’t see too many people saying South Africa should refer to the entire southern part of the continent.
People also don’t seem to have a problem with using “US”, which overlaps with Mexico aka EUM (or USM in English). Like I said, it’s mostly a language and cultural divide. Are you advocating that Canadians or Mexicans should say they’re American, even if they don’t want to? In the English speaking world no one other than the USA says American.
South America, North America, and North North America
South America is America too…