I know that most of you have been brainwashed and kept in ignorance for most of your lives, but for the surprise of some people:




America is a continent, like Asia or Africa. I don't remember the Japanese identifying themselves as the country of Asia, so please keep some respect for the rest of Americans by not negating their existence. It isn't our fault that the founders of your country had no imagination when they named it.

Just think how would it be if someone created a new country and called it "Earth".

Person from -x country-: I'm from -x country-. Where are you from?

Person from United States of Earth: I'm from Earth.

Person from -x country-: No way, I thought you were Martian!


What disturbs me most is the consistent trend that makes it seem that it's precisely the most patriotic people who seem to be more oblivious to the name of their own country.


It's really interesting how so many people were outraged when this girl thought Europe is a country (and she knows they speaks French there), but at the same time, so many "Americans" don't know the name of their own country.

So, basically, you're unable to recognize that a word can have more than one use or meaning, or that a long onerous term can be shortened to make it more convenient to say. Good to see that on a language learning forum.

If you'd like to come up with a way of referring to the USA that's not a pain in the arse to say, by all means please do. I'm all ears.

Amer·i·ca
geographical name \ə-ˈmer-ə-kə, -ˈme-rə-\
Definition of AMERICA
1. either continent (North America or S. America) of the western hemisphere
2. or the Amer·i·cas the lands of the western hemisphere including North, Central, & S. America & the W. Indies
3. United States of America



Deal with it

Sebastian Wrote:girl thought Europe is a country (and she knows they speaks French there)

I though she was actually quite smart. After all she chooses to copy the boy's answer.

Inny Jan Wrote:

Sebastian Wrote:girl thought Europe is a country (and she knows they speaks French there)

I though she was actually quite smart. After all she chooses to copy the boy's answer.

In the K-ON! movie, Yui talks about how the turtle decided the group was going to go to London, instead England (where she wanted to go).

Daichi Wrote:

Inny Jan Wrote:

Sebastian Wrote:girl thought Europe is a country (and she knows they speaks French there)

I though she was actually quite smart. After all she chooses to copy the boy's answer.

In the K-ON! movie, Yui talks about how the turtle decided the group was going to go to London, instead England (where she wanted to go).

She said "London, instead of Europe", which is slightly more excusable, but still ignorant. Although I'm sure there are plenty of English nationalists for whom the phrase "London, instead of England" makes perfect sense..

Yeah, the topic of this thread is pretty pointless and is nothing more than semantics. This is similar to the UK/Great Britain definition debate.

Your other thread (http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=9969) about how rich people wage war against the poor is much better and I suggest anyone who likes debates to debate that instead of this (definitions of "America").

JimmySeal Wrote:If you'd like to come up with a way of referring to the USA that's not a pain in the arse to say, by all means please do. I'm all ears.

You just said 'the USA', is that not a suitable candidate? 'The US' would also satisfy OP's pedantry, while saving one syllable over 'America'. 'US' also works as an adjective to replace 'American'.
The only place it gets awkward is with 'American' as a demonym.

Sebastian's really going off on this political crap, isn't he.

Sebastian Wrote:but at the same time, so many "Americans" don't know the name of their own country.

Technically, the first letter of their country's name is T, not U.

Smelliot Wrote:You just said 'the USA', is that not a suitable candidate? 'The US' would also satisfy OP's pedantry, while saving one syllable over 'America'. 'US' also works as an adjective to replace 'American'.

This might just be my own idiosyncracy, but I think an initialism (and a definite article + initialism even moreso) is a lot more awkward than a single word. Maybe that's just me.

What are we supposed to say here in Japan? The word is アメリカ人. Should we say米国人?

People will probably think you're a bit goofy if you use 米国 and 米国人 all the time, but it's not such a bad idea either.

In my opinion, this is just another manifestation of the cultural imperialism inherent within our society. If you live in the US, you may think its no big deal, but if you were a Brazilian, say, and you turned on the TV to see people protesting against "American", you might think, "what the hell?"

On the other hand, we shorten People's Republic of China to just China, so it doesn't seem unreasonable to shorten United States of America to just America. Besides, all the other American countries already have cool names like Venezuela and Argentina,, they don't need "America".

No one in Latin America considers themselves to be "Americans".

shadysaint Wrote:In my opinion, this is just another manifestation of the cultural imperialism inherent within our society. If you live in the US, you may think its no big deal, but if you were a Brazilian, say, and you turned on the TV to see people protesting against "American", you might think, "what the hell?"

On the other hand, we shorten People's Republic of China to just China, so it doesn't seem unreasonable to shorten United States of America to just America. Besides, all the other American countries already have cool names like Venezuela and Argentina,, they don't need "America".

It's quite common for people to use only the most prominent part of a country's name most of the time. Nobody refers to Panama as "The Republic of Panama." They just call it Panama. The USA just has the unfortunate characteristic in that it has the name of the continents in its own name, and that creates this ambiguous result.

I went through a phase where I tried to go against the current and feel indignation at the use of "America" to refer to "the USA," but I eventually accepted that it's a pointless struggle. One of the reasons it's pointless is that there's almost no practical use of the word "America" or "American" to refer to all of North and South America at once, or all of the people in those continents. Do you ever have a need for an adjective to refer collectively to everyone in North and South America at the same time? I don't.

I think the respective countries of Europe and Africa may have enough unifying characteristics to merit the use of "European" and "African" to refer to people from those continents. The case for the use of the word "Asian" is shakier, and most of the time when people use that word, they're really just referring to countries that are predominantly yellow-skinned, ignoring the other half of the continent.
And the case for using "American" to refer to both American continents is even weaker than that. I really don't see the point in restricting that word's use to just that meaning, when people almost never have a need to use it that way.

kitakitsune Wrote:No one in Latin America considers themselves to be "Americans".

Well, I'm not sure about that. If you ever take a Spanish class and try to use "americano" to refer to people from the US, the teacher will likely correct you and tell you that that's a demonym for everyone from the American continents. So maybe people in Latin America consider themselves to be "Americans", but I still think a Brazilian wouldn't have the slightest confusion about seeing people protesting Americans on TV.

I am pretty sure that Canadians don't consider themselves "American." They seem to use the term "North American" a lot, but even then, most of the time they're just referring to the 2/3 of North America.

The reason people call people from the United States of America Americans is because "American" is the ***** demonym for people from the United States.

I remember thinking when I was 12, "Hey, isn't it weird that we call ourselves 'Americans' even though America really refers to two continents?" But then I grew up and realized how language works. If you have some pipe dream of a language that avoids linguistic and lexical ambiguity, work that out and then get back to us.

There are countless examples of ambiguous simplifications in language like this one, in all kinds of subjects. It's just people's nature to come up with these kind of things to make daily speech easier, and there will always be a minority that disapproves because it's not technically right. As a science enthusiast I dislike people in my country using "kilo" (which just means 1000) to refer to a "kilogram" all the time, as well as people using "weight" and "mass" as if they are the same thing.

It's best to just get over it, the reasons for creating these "shortcuts in language" are quite understandable. Daily communication is a practical way to convey things, not an art like literature. It's okay as long as the listener understands what's being meant.

kitakitsune Wrote:No one in Latin America considers themselves to be "Americans".

This is very much not true. The closest thing you'll find to that (at least in Spanish) is that "Americano/a" is (seldom) used as an adjective for things related to the U.S., and only when allowed by context.

In fact, you can find Latin Americans who'd say more or less what's in the OP (with varying levels of attachment to the topic).

Reviewed Wrote:In fact, you can find Latin Americans who'd say more or less what's in the OP (with varying levels of attachment to the topic).

I alluded to the same thing above, but let's remember that Spanish and English are two separate languages, and what's true in one is not necessarily true in the other.

JimmySeal Wrote:

Reviewed Wrote:In fact, you can find Latin Americans who'd say more or less what's in the OP (with varying levels of attachment to the topic).

I alluded to the same thing above, but let's remember that Spanish and English are two separate languages, and what's true in one is not necessarily true in the other.

That much is true, but I was referring (besides the "americano/a" thing) to that both in terms of language and in terms of... mentality? Point of view? Not-language?

Sebastion, I know that you have been brainwashed and kept in ignorance for most of your life, but for your surprise:

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader is fake.

Also there's a little thing called "de jure" and "de facto" that annoying people often have trouble with.

quincy Wrote:Sebastion, I know that you have been brainwashed and kept in ignorance for most of your life, but for your surprise:

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader is fake.

Also there's a little thing called "de jure" and "de facto" that annoying people often have trouble with.

Take it easy, no need for such words, just ignore this thread.

What is more annoying is calling east-Asian people 'Asians', at least USA has America in its name, there's no country in Asia that has Asia in it's name O_O
I would never get worked over ignorant people sayings.

about the spanish thing, I use gringo.

if it weren't for that I wouldn't mind not being american.
http://tallersurzaragoza.files.wordpress...-abajo.jpg funny stuff.

shadysaint Wrote:If you live in the US, you may think its no big deal, but if you were a Brazilian, say, and you turned on the TV to see people protesting against "American", you might think, "what the hell?"

I wouldn't say that, given that most people in Brazil don't care about this differentiation and call people born in the USA either American or North-American (note that norte-americano in our daily speech always excludes Mexico, and interestingly it also often excludes Canada), but there is a small handful of people who like to bring up this subject and say that we should call Americans "estadunidenses", which is a really awkward word, something like "Unitedstatesan" if that word ever existed. And these people dismiss the fact that Mexico also has "Estados Unidos" in its name.