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

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).

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/viewtopic.php?id=10512) 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").

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

Last edited by TheVinster (2012 September 23, 3:36 pm)

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

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".

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.

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.

Last edited by Tzadeck (2012 September 23, 9:34 am)

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).

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?

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.

Last edited by undead_saif (2012 September 23, 3:15 pm)

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.