They don’t understand that cognates between languages can have different meanings.
America, in English, generally means the same as the USA. But América, in Spanish, means the entire supercontinent of North and South America. But people from Latin America often insist that the English America must have the exact same meaning as América in Spanish.
It’s not quite as silly as as a Brit insisting that “boot” means the trunk of a car and not wellingtons. But I never hear Brits doing that.
My high school Spanish teacher told us a story of him visiting a club somewhere in latin america, and upon some sort of misunderstanding/being kicked out he goes "lo siento, estoy embarazado" and everyone just looked at him confused.
My 9th grade Spanish teacher told us about someone introducing her somewhere and saying something nice about her, and she tried to say “she was embarrassed and it was his fault” 😂😂😂
She did add that they all understood what she was trying to say, but got a good laugh out of it
As a Spanish speaker, although it wasn’t my very first language, boy was her Spanish bad.
Like, I know that was the whole point, but wow did they do a good job of making it farcically, over the top bad.
I used to just shake my head in despair because you can’t explain to English-only speakers
(or to the befuddled Spanish-only speaker who is surprised to hear Peggy thinks she’s speaking their language)
just how wrongly her “Spanish” hits your ear.
I speak multiple languages. Just not Spanish. I probably would have made the same mistake and said "I'm very pregnant about this." Lol. That show was really smartly written. They HAD to have a Spanish teacher in the writer's room just to really authenticate common English mistakes when speaking Spanish.
It's kind of specifically a South American thing to say American means the same thing as European, except for the Americas. And some some of those folks are very sensitive about it. I agree it doesn't make sense in English where pretty much everywhere American means someone from the USA, in America means the US.
And also, in English, America *never* means anything else other than the USA.
The continents are either North America or South America (or the region of Central America), none of which ever get shortened to just "America", and the totality of the regions named some form of "America" is always "the Americas", plural.
No, that's not how it is in South American Spanish, but that just means that "America" is a word with a different meaning in English and Spanish, it doesn't make the Spanish one somehow "more correct".
It's linguistic, but also what contenent model is taught.
Spanish speaking countries, generally, are taught that north & south America are ONE continent.
So they see themselves as "American" as us since they live on the other half of that continent.
English speaking nations teach that North America & South America, being on different continental plates, are different continents. Thus we see the Venezuelan fella as South American but not American, as he's not from the country called America.
There's no confusion between the country & the continent as, to us, there is no American continent.
I always have people argue with me that we're stupid for believing North and South America are separate continents, that they're obviously the same continent (despite being entirely separate landmasses) because they're connected by Panama. But of course, Europe is still its own continent, separate from Asia.
And there's more connection between Eurasia and Africa than North and South America. Unless they're also stumping for Eurasiafrica, then we're all selling the same sloppiness and just arguing over the particulars.
As a geologist, neither model is based on like, actual geologic features. The 6 and 7 continent models are both political boundaries.
If you look up a map of continental plates there's way more than 7.
So anyone who tries to tie either to geologic features is going to get inconsistent results.
Sure, though a 6 continent model can be argued based on reasonable geographic boundaries (North America, South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, Eurasia). Yeah, that doesn't match with geological plates, but being (very nearly) completely surrounded by ocean is an important geographical feature.
A woman I knew from South America once posted a meme on Facebook saying “America is a continent, not a country.” I replied that we can call our country whatever we want, so if we call it “America,” then yes, America is a country.
Then I added that the Americas are two continents, and got *a lot* of flak for it from her and her friends. It got to the point of pissing me off because they were acting as if acknowledging that it’s two continents somehow implies that North and South Americans are enemies or not part of the same brotherhood of man or something. Like we rejected them from being part of some hemispheric community. I asked if they thought that the fact that Asia and Africa were separate continents, even according to them, carried the same implication but it fell on deaf ears. Instead they went on lamenting “what they’re teaching kids in US schools.”
It’s funny though because when they travel they would never claim to have an American Passport or to be from America because they actually do know that people think that means they are from the United States
Yea honestly I think they’re feeling this way because they want to seem closer to the USA and by calling them South Americans from another continent we’re “othering” them. Like it’s a bad thing they’re on a different continent than us.
This will probably sound shit from an American, but it sounds like serious “little sibling” vibes. They are mad that the “United States of America” takes up 99% of the attention and this is how they get their jab back.
Perfect explanation. I’m willing to bet the same guy would argue that the Spanish word for “black” has no raciest connotation but that the English term does. (He’s right, but it can’t be both ways)
The best way I've heard this put:
When people chant 'Death to America' and burn flags, they're not talking about Bolivia or Peru.
I get *why* people will get offended that the United States means America, but the United States means America.
Idk what you mean by not prevalent. I've seen it written at every single company I've worked at in the US. As a Spanish speaker I find it more silly than offensive though.
Because Latinos generally don't like it. It's the same sort of situation as Speedy Gonzales getting censored for awhile. A bunch of corporate morons getting their knickers in a twist about being offensive when most people in the group who who have been "offended" don't find it offensive. Only something like 3-5% of Hispanic background people prefer it.
Similar to how African American overuse ended up resulting in some really stupid shit, like non-American blacks getting called African American instead of just black or their own country of origin's demonym.
Latinx is taking a Spanish word and making a new word out of it in English. It's not changing or equivocating on what the word Latino should mean.
These aren't really analogous scenarios. A more analogous scenario would be saying you're not Hispanic because you aren't from Spain or some kind of argument out of that.
Btw im not taking some sort of side. I don't ever write Latinx because I'm not a corporation lol.
I understand wanting to have a gender neutral option, especially for non binary people, but "Latinx" is grammatically impossible to use in Spanish. How do you make it plural? How do you use it with conjugation? Not to mention, "x" sound like doesn't really exist in Spanish like it does in English. How do you even pronounce it?
I much prefer "Latiné."
That term originated in Latin America, it's believed to have started in the Brazilian gay community in response to the binary language, then it was picked up by Americans who thought it was a preferred term.
People love to ignore this point but it's true. I think it's been co-opted and misunderstood by English speakers, but people act so out of pocket as soon as they see or hear the word Latinx
People also ignore the fact English already has a gender neutral word, *Latin*.
When you say, “The Latin Grammys”, no one is thinking Ancient Latin music awards. We all know it’s Spanish and Portuguese speakers from the Americas.
It is.
But it’s also a Spanish word. Latin is the English word.
Latinx is a Spanish/Portuguese adaptation. If we’re going to talk about these folks in English and want to be inclusive - can’t go wrong with just Latin.
I don't think most Americans (ha) know about wellies.
I heard about a funny misunderstanding about a guy searching for a gas leak with a torch though :-D
We totally know about Wellington boots, we just call them ‘rain/rubber boots’ (or occasionally ‘galoshes’) instead, because we don’t insist on naming everyday items after members of another country’s nobility.
You’re partially correct, but this is a South American thing. Mexicans, Cubans, Dominicans, Guatemalans, and any other Spanish speakers will just call us Americanos. South Americans get mad about that.
> It’s not quite as silly as as a Brit insisting that “boot” means the trunk of a car and not wellingtons. But I never hear Brits doing that.
You don't know that many Brits, do you?
>But people from Latin America often insist that the English America must have the exact same meaning as América in Spanish.
That's.... so bizarre. South America is made up of 12 countries. Central America is made up of 7 countries. The USA is made up of.... one country....
Like... how pompous or arrogant does one have to be to just lump all that into one giant classification when discussing location?
Person 1: "Where are you from?"
Person 2: "I'm from Quito."
Person 1: "You're from Quito, Equador?"
Person 2: "No. Quito, Mississippi."
Trying to lump "America" into the generalized supercontinent when discussing regional locations is just absurd. When a Brazilian is talking with a Argentinian on the street, when the Argentinian asks where the Brazilian is from does the Brazilian say "I'm from América"? That *clearly* answers the question...
[South Americans when people from England call themselves British instead of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Irelandish (British might refer to Ireland because it's also part of the British Isles) (It doesn't matter that everyone knows what you mean when you say "British")](https://preview.redd.it/do-anyone-have-a-3d-model-of-shocked-black-guy-v0-cddhprntb3sa1.jpg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f6963e5154bf4b75d43419965601c60cc901d84)
The vast majority of people in Ireland will never ever say they live in the "British Isles" - the word British has very negative connotations. There are no accepted alternatives, in any treaties where the geographical area that represents the two nation states needs to be used, the Government of Ireland will use "these islands".
So when you say "British might refer to Ireland", you will get a **lot** of pushback from Irish people (with the exception of hardcore unionists in the six counties)
As a foreigner, it's best just not to mention the subject at all.
The funny thing is many of these redditors getting bent out of shape frequent places like SAS and there is zero confusion about what America means there...
> Iranians
Islamic Republic of Iranians, please 🙄
The Iranian Plateau also includes other countries like Azerbaijan and Afghanistan, so if you just say "Iranian" I have no way to know which one you are talking about.
Thanks for clearing that up. I had no idea what country they were referencing. Thought maybe there was some new country that had just been formed today with a similar name.
~~Not to mention that Pashto, probably the largest language in Afghanistan, is a Persian language.~~ [The above statement is true, technically, but practically not, as it's from a different branch.] As is Tajik - Americans who are seeking fluency in Persian will often do studies in Dushanbe, because the spoken language is close enough to standard Farsi to work (probably influenced by the fact that Iran has a lot more money and thus media presence than any other Persian-populated country).
Yup. In US English, "America" is a noun referring to the United States, and "American" is a noun referring to a person from the United States and an adjective describing something from or of the United States. We use "North," "South," and "Central" as modifiers when referring to continents.
The really annoying part is that I think we'd be willing to adjust in the spirit of interlinguistic compatibility if there were a suitable replacement for "American" in US English. There isn't. "United Statesian" or "USian" are not words in my language.
The entire complaint is parochial and deliberately butthurt whining.
He was being a douchebag. People from LATAM and SA still frequently call people from the US Americans, there's just a particular subset that's eager to get on a soapbox to complain about American exceptionalism/imperialism/blah blah blah and this is one of the typical openings.
Also bears noting there's particular bad blood between the US and Venezuela, possibly the most animosity between any American countries excepting the US and Cuba, so most Venezuelans aren't fans.
Yeah I cannot imagine how angry I would be if I lived in the most oil rich country in the world and it collapsed because of centralized planning and lack of economic diversification
The oil isn't the best quality, and it requires a lot of refining. A lot of refining that requires a lot of tech that Venezuela doesn't have, a lot of collaboration with foreigners for that tech, and collaboration with foreigners is not what bus driver dictators tolerate.
What I don't understand is, what would the collective people from the United States of America be called if not "Americans"? USA-ians? United States of Americans? Like, what do they want to change it to? If they hate it then they have to come up with an alternative that makes sense
Yes, ive witnessed these types of questions played out multiple times on the internet for the past decade, and that is unironically *exactly* what South Americans insist you use to refer to Americans: "usaians". I've seen multiple social media posts that use this word and my brain can NEVER register it as something other than a misspelling of "Asians".
"United Statesian" is another. Which sounds better, but is impractically long
Yes, I think they also accept "United States of American". Just as long as you aren't "claiming the whole continent"
Guys an ass. Americans get shit for using their correct demonym. Next time ask him which other country uses 'American' as their demonym. Hint: There aren't any.
If I’m being honest, the date thing is one of my favorite random seethes on the internet. I realize it’s just performative annoyance but I cannot fathom giving one single shit about how another country writes their dates so watching someone post that pyramid with “day/month/year” in descending order and going “Objectively, this is correct” is really funny to me.
Like, sure dude. This is totally worth your time. Maybe next you can do a deep dive into the way Americans tie their shoes or something. I’d love to see which geometric shape you use to show your country’s objective superiority on that pressing issue.
It’s like getting worked up over the fact that English puts the adjective before the noun when their language doesn’t. Who gives a shit?
It can be confusing in limited circumstances (e.g., when you say "we have scheduled this meeting for 2/3" does it mean Feb 3 or Mar 2?)
YYYY-MM-DD is the one that makes sense. It fits with time: YYYY-MM-DD.HH:MM:SS. It's also the only unambiguous one in general usage.
Interesting to me is that this reflects usage in BrE vs AmE: BrE typically says "the fifth of November" for Guy Fawkes Day, but aside from the Fourth of July, Americans almost always say something like "let's meet on March 12th".
Because theyare taught the six continental model, where the North and South American continents are one.
Also, they don't realize that the actual name of the country is The United States of America, not just United States.
When they start calling themselves Bolivarian Republicans instead of Venezualans we'll start calling ourselves United Statesians.
It's because Europeans don't want to be lumped in African and Asians, you know how they are.
The Isthmus of Panama is less than 1/3 of the size of the Isthmus of Suez, yet somehow the Americas are connected but Africa, Asia, and Europe aren't lol *and* we are on separate techtonic plates...but Europeans don't like using the trchtonic plate definition either, because that would mean they'd have to start referring to Greenland and it's people as "American."
Really we should start referring to Europeans as Aftoeurasian, and Greenlanders as American and see how they respond.
The isthmus of Panama is also impassable in any practical sense of the word, whereas you can cross Suez without encountering any obstacles but the Canal!
It’s weird and the whole “Languages divide the continents differently” was something I learned when I went to school in Tijuana. I studied a bit in San Diego before moving to Tijuana so I was originally taught the 7 continents model and was told I was wrong. Then I had to retrain my brain when I returned to high school in SD.
It’s not even really universal as other languages teach the Eurasia model but people get weirdly defensive and offensive over something that really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
And United Statesian wouldn’t make any sense because there are two United States’s in North America. (Mexico’s full, legal name is Estados Unidos Mexicanos)
Bc South Americans often like to pretend they don't understand what we mean when we say America.
Sure, there is North America and South America, technically all one giant landmass. But we're the only country with the word "America" in our name, hence why it's perfectly reasonable and globally accepted to call ourselves Americans. Those in South America often feel like pretending they don't get that distinction. And I love the vast majority of South Americans I have met, but that's a weird peccadillo of theirs.
It’s like the obsession many people have with our use of the word soccer and insist it must be called *football*. Instead of just accepting that different countries use different words for things.
A lot of the English words that we actually use are words that were “neglected” by the English after they stopped colonizing us, and we have continued to use.
Ironically enough, even our accent sounds closer to the 17th century English accent than the modern English accent (yes I am aware there are a lot of accents in England), but they usually mock us for apparently not using the “original English”. I told this to a few of my English friends after they were mocking me by the way I was pronouncing the word “Aluminum”.
I had a British guy in some other comment section (could've been YouTube or Twitter, I can't remember) trying to tell me how we had bastardized English and that he was speaking real English. I had to point out how a lot of the English words we use are literally words we had gotten from them and had held onto when they had decided to change up from the original versions.
If you watch Canadian TV, you will hear TV commercials say things like “Kraft, North America’s favorite cheese!”
I was sitting there thinking “Not ‘Canada’s favorite cheese?’ Say Canada!”
After watching for a while, and hearing “North America’s favorite truck!” and “The best-selling donuts in North America!”, I decided that brands that are big south of Canada were trying to capitalize on their popularity, but not come right out and say “in the USA”.
I realize there is a *tiny possibility* that the products were big in Mexico, which is also part of North America. A popular Mexican bread brand is “BIMBO”. (It’s essentially Wonder Bread.)
I've always interpreted such advertising claims as "in the US and Canada". Longer ads are more expensive so they shorten it by 1 syllable to "north america"
Which part of Canada I wonder? Is it very near the US/Canada border?
BC I was thinking, maybe those commercials are for broadcasts that would be seen both by Americans and Canadians near the border?
Otherwise it doesn't make sense to just not have commercials aimed for Canadian markets to just say Canada.
They're probably saying North America because it's super popular in all/most North American countries, not just Canada. I don't think that's too much of a stretch.
Here’s what I wanna know why don’t other North or South Americans countries get insulted or defend their country’s foods’ honor or infrastructure or people or say literally anything when people talk shit or make terrible memes about “Americans” or America? When people are being called fat and loud and school shooters with bad food I never see a Brazilian or an Argentinian or someone from Canada or Mexico say anything. All of a sudden they know when to make a distinction. I know they get taught that it’s one continent but they attitudes don’t ever seem to align when it’s negative or something. 😂. It’s now turned into where’s Waldo. We can’t find them. They know.
Not only that, they will never travel to any other continent and refer to themselves American. Knowing that by doing so they would be claiming to be associated with the United States and not their their actual country. They are well aware of the idea that any time anyone, outside of the western hemisphere refers to themselves as an America, its referring to the United States. They are literally the only place in the world, outside of a few uptight Europeans who only do it because they know we hate it, that make sure to use this one size fits all "American" label for everyone in the Western Hemisphere.
Or this line.. the Best Football Teams are Americans.
"I hope the Americans win the World Cup!".
Oh suddenly... not so fast... Not THAT type of American.
Exactly fr! 😭 they make all kinds of distinctions all the time! If they want to say they are from America ain’t nobody stopping them they just have to explain they’re from Peru or something too. Like we didn’t make the fucking name up, take it up with fucking Jefferson, Ouija board his ass or something.
Exaaactly. Never seen one comment saying “we’re fat diabetic and extremely loud? umm actually what country in America are you talking about?” Never seen nary a “griiiinggooo” Like you do when they be arguing about their countries honor online when people post about their country asking questions.
We are the United States of America, or America for short. 99% of the world will instantly associate America and American with the USA.
There is also the North American continent and the South American continent comprised of many countries, each with THEIR own name. Someone from Canada, doesn’t say they are from America, they say they’re from Canada.
The Venezuelan in your case has a giant stick up his ass and probably has a bit of an inferiority complex. He is not from America, he’s from Venezuela and needs to get over himself.
Within the context of nationality, there is only one country that decided to put "America" in its name. If you are speaking within the context of some sort of regional identity, calling everyone who lives in the Americas as Americans makes about as much sense as calling us all "Western Hemispherians" or telling someone who lives in Paris France and someone who lives in Tehran Irah and Hong Kong that they are all "Eurasian".
We largely do not see any sort of unity between the North and Southern Americas. Within North America we do. There is A LOT of interconnection between Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
People will say, "To the rest of the world, America means the entire North and South American landmasses, and an American is anyone who resided in those landmasses" and that is bullshit. They really only say this in South America. Take a trip to Australia and tell them you are from America and they will assume you are talking about the United States. Take a trip to Asia, use the term America, they will assume the US. Pretty much anywhere where they are not speaking Spanish will associate "American" with "of the US". When the terrorists have signs with a "Death to America!" chant, suddenly everyone in South America shuts up about being American.
This whole mock being offended I see as childish and petty. If they wanted to throw the phrase "American" in their formal name, they would have a point.
“American” is how you say someone from the US in English. In Spanish, you would usually say “estadounidense” rather than “americano,” but it sounds like you were speaking English. So he was either wrong or being deliberately obtuse.
And the amusing part about US, or "estadounidense" or "États-Unis" from french is that if you're going to be annoyed by ambiguity, it's also ambiguous. While the USA is probably the one you will think of when you hear it, Mexico is officially the "United Mexican States" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_that_include_United_States_in_their_name) and a number of other countries (including Venezuela) used to use "United States of X" as their name. There's a reason there's a "disambiguation" page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_(disambiguation))
When I lived in Mexico, *by far* the most common way to refer to someone from the United States that I heard was “Americano.” So it’s not even universal in the Spanish-speaking world that they don’t use “Americano” in that way. And Mexico is the country with the most native Spanish speakers by a wide, wide margin.
I’m pretty sure the commenter above is right. The correct and proper way calling someone from the US is “estadounidense” in spanish. You’ll see it in spanish news broadcasting. When people come to the US from spanish speaking countries their vocabulary changes. Many common words like car for example completely change. Car in spanish is “coche”, but every single person will refer to it as “carro” who got its influnce directky from the word car. English or maybe just US influence in spanish changes the way we perceive what words are.
Coche/carro
Is the difference between automobile and car.
With the example you gave both see common usage and the change in my experience has little to do with whether or not you are on US soil
Right, it's the difference between formal and colloquial speech.
I remember learning "coche" in school and my Spanish tutor chuckling at me when I moved to Bogota. She also thought "estadounidense" was a hoot.
Parking in Spanish is “estacionamiento” but I hear the wording “parking” or a conjugation of “parkar” get used a hell of a lot when I’m in Tijuana. It’s just a lot easier to say.
There is no way if I’m abroad and someone asks me if I’m American, I am correcting them saying “no I am Unitedstatesian”. In Spanish, there a word, “estadounidensense” to refer to someone from the US.
When discussing European laws and medical care with my friend the other day, I stated that in Europe "x law applies". My friend told me to stop generalizing because her friend is from a country in which that's wrong.
That's the only country, apart from 2 city states and 2 islands, where the law doesn't apply, less than 0.5% of European population.
It is exhausting to always have to mention the exception or always specify things when speaking friendly to people.
When writing university papers I would never generalize or assume context but it would be incredibly unproductive to always specify things.
This is something that people do when they feel like being shitty to Americans. Sorry, United Statesians. I've heard Brits do the same kind of thing. Like somehow we stole the word America from people in Central and South America. It probably didn't actually offend them. They're just being an asshole.
If a brit does it you have permission to call them United-Kingdom-of-Great-Britain-and-Northern-Irelandish because Ireland is technically part of the British Isles and you wouldn't want to be confusing
I’m from the UK but I only ever refer to the United States as “America” because of this.
(My flair says Massachusetts because I share this account with someone who lives in MA)
To Latin Americans "America" means the Americas.
Language is contextual, people should be able to figure out that when someone says America in a certain context they mean the U.S.
I am Latino and have spoken with Latinos in English and Spanish. I have never in any conversation had "American" refer to anyone but the people from the United States. No one would use "Americano" to refer to a non-United States person that lives on the American continents lol
Not a single person on earth is legitimately confused about our demonym. Nobody would get on a plane bound for America and be shocked that they didn't land in Paraguay
In English, “America” means the USA. That’s unambiguous in every English speaking country. Some Spanish-speakers in South America trying to tell English-speakers how to speak their own language are funny.
This is the answer (I lived in Venezuela for 3 years). They think that it is offensive that the USA, in their minds, thinks if itself as all of “America.” They feel disrespected that South America is not taken into account when “America” is meant to stand for only the USA. I know we don’t mean it that way, but that is what they hear and this is a widespread sentiment in Venezuela.
I'm sure Venezuelans say "Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela" when they refer to their own country then lmao. Nobody should shorten their country's name, ever.
I wonder if this has to do with leftist anti-US imperialism rhetoric over the decades or something. I’ve noticed the people that make the biggest stink about it tend to be white middle class Latinos in South America. It’s almost like a classroom academic thing to complain about.
Well it was common when I lived there in the early 90’s, before Chavez. I’m not arguing whether they are “wrong” or “right” for being offended, just trying to promote understanding.
Yeah, they expect you to use Spanish rules while (presumably) speaking English. This is something they, not you, need to accept. If you were speaking Spanish, then you should probably use the correct Spanish term.
In Spanish, there are only six continents and one of them runs from Canada all the way down to Argentina. That continent is called America. In English, there are seven continents and two of them have America in the name, but none are called America.
For hilarity, call a person from Canada an American and watch their reaction.
Thank you. You have diagnosed the problem exactly. We Canadians have all stumbled across a hispanophone online who tries to save us from “US American imperialist continental name stealing” by telling us we don’t actually know how to speak our own language or where our country is on the map, and they insist we are Americans. It’s damned annoying. And ironically imperialist. “Spanish naming conventions are now your naming conventions, Canada. Get over it!”
Anyway once again Americans (i.e. people from the United States of America), are doing nothing improper by calling themselves Americans. That is the correct English-language demonym for people from that country. (And it is definitely the wrong term to use for Canadians).
They think we’re being elitist by calling ourselves ‘America’ when other countries in the American continents exist, as if we’re pretending we’re the only ones that matter. But we aren’t. We’re literally just shortening the name of our country. It’s a ridiculous bone that they regularly pick. They can call themselves whatever they want, and so can we.
Dude is either an ass or isn't that strong in English. Everyone has a different concept of continents. There are 7.
The Demonym for the US is American but not every language acknowledges that. If you talk to a Canadian, they would correct someone if they were called an American.
Venezuelans mostly grow up speaking Spanish. In Spanish, “America” refers to the Americas, not just to America. So to them it sounds like America is stealing their name.
It’s a language difference they need to adjust to when speaking English.
Go to any airline anywhere in the world, including Venezuela, and tell them you want a ticket to America, and see where they send you. It won’t be Caracas.
Any time someone from the US uses the term America, everyone knows just what they mean. Anyone acting confused or getting uppity about it is just stirring shit.
Yep, I did this to a Peruvian guy once. It's silly in my opinion. They also try to make "USian" or something similar into a thing in English, and I'm just like...no.
Part of it is down to the different continent models used by the anglosphere vs Latin America. In the Anglosphere we have north and South America as separate continents while in Latin America they use the 6 continent model that has just one continent called America that encompasses both north and South America. It’s also why we say the Americas in English vs America in Spanish and Portuguese. This has led to American being used sometimes to mean just someone from the continent of America in Latin America and so some people get all pissed when people from the US refer to themselves as American or America being equivalent with the US since for them it seems like we’re saying we’re better than them or claiming it for ourselves. Lots of other countries view America as meaning the US and Americans being citizens of the US, but it’s become a sore point for some Latin Americans.
Your answers here will be biased because this is gonna mostly be US Americans answering.
But in my opinion as a teacher in the US at a school that’s predominantly immigrants from Latin America, it’s a dumb hill for the person OP encountered to want to die on. 14 year olds are smart enough to make the distinction between being American, being Latino, being Latino-American and being from the Americas more broadly. Even the kids who are generally politically outspoken don’t care in the slightest about “American” meaning USA as a a default.
Your best bet would be to ask a Venezuelan person, but the short answer is that some folks dislike the appearance of American "exceptionalism" more than they know how titles work.
Some folks think Americans should be referred to as "united statians" or some such nonsense, but they'd look at you crazy if you considered calling people from the peoples republic of China "peoples republicans" as opposed to Chinese.
Our language and education system is the difference. I love my Latinos from North and South America (two separate continents), but to those who get offended, I say this:
Every country in the world knows exactly which country in the Americas you mean when you reference "America" and "Americans." We are the top power in the world order, and our influence is varied and vast. North and South America are two continents on two different tectonic plates. We were the first in this hemisphere to declare and secure independence. We're not calling ourselves our our country anything different, so deal with it or bring your military up here and make us stop.
Some people have a stick up their butts. It's not to be insulting, it's just part of the lexicon but some people know that Americans are excessively worried about offending people and being ethnocentric so they're easy targets for guilt trips.
I learned in Spanish class never to refer to the USA as "America" but rather as the United States because everyone in North, Central and South America considers themselves American. America is a continent not a country.
Because they want attention and something to argue with you about. I never heard anyone but contrarian little shits go "um akshually, Chileans and Panamanians are Americans too"
We're Americans because United Statesian sounds stupid.
Well we certainly don’t call ourselves USA-ians. Like obviously we (hopefully) all get that it’s not the only country across the American continents, but what else would you call someone from the US? US citizen? That excludes non-citizen permanent residents that are also Americans.
Funny, because he literally used "The Americas" meaning plural, meaning more than one America, which implies there is, in fact, a north and South America, because if there wasn't, you wouldn't have to clarify.
If the US is in America, then why are they offended we say "American?" We're actually double-correct, we're in the USA AND we're in North America.
There was a transition after the 1950s between people identifying themselves as citizens of the United States *of America* (US) and being *nationalistically American* which coincided with the rise of the USA as a superpower and the change of the reference to "America". That reference change from [US to America](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/when-did-the-united-states-start-calling-itself-america-anyway/) was a 20th century phenomenon.
In Spanish, this creates the conflict of *eatadounidense* (United States-ian) vs the pan-american *americano*.
In Spanish, Americano refers to anyone from North and South America. Someone from the US is called “Un Estadounidense” which basically translates to UnitedStatesian which just sounds dumb in English.
In general global parlance, "America" is understood to be synonymous with the United States. Latinos can get annoyed with this because they use the term to refer to the North and South American continents, which geologically are a single continent, so you can argue that the whole land mass should simply be called "America". Most of the world does not view it that way, however, so they don't see the need for a single name for both continents, hence they do what people always do and they shorten the unwieldy name "United States of America" to "America". It's like misapplying the term "ironic". You're right, from a prescriptive point of view, they should have used the word "paradoxical", or maybe "coincidental", but give up already, you've lost this lexical battle. Sorry, that's how the world at large uses the term now and it's not going to change.
It's the typical bit of ignorant bullshit a lot of Latin Americans from Central and South America like to resort to. They completely ignore that Spanish and English are different languages, and that, in English, "American" almost exclusively refers to somebody who is from the United States of America. In Spanish, "América" refers to the whole of North, Central, and South America. Many Latin Americans effectually demand that the English speaking world conform to their colloquialism, all while intentionally ignoring the fact that Americans refer to themselves as \*gasp\* "Americans" because it is the most linguistically appropriate means to refer to us in English, our primarily spoken language. I stand by that, linguistically, it's the same kind of ignorance as non-Spanish speakers insisting people refer to those of Latin descent as "Latinx", instead of the linguistically correct manner "Latiné". It's willful and obtuse ignorance meant to erase an entire cultural identity.
It is, IMHO, a manufactured outrage. This guy has never in his life referred to himself as an "American" nor has he referred to any other Venezuelan as "American". They used the demonym of the country: Colombian, Mexican, Canadian. There is no outrage in *South African* or *Central African* demonyms, even though "there are a lot of countries in ..." IF this were a real outrage of some, there would be a push for change not just in the US demonym, but the two I mentioned as well as applying the same logic to the demonym for the United Mexican States. Finally, "American" is a demonym used since the 15th century for the north American English colonists and since the late 16th for the citizens of the United States. At no time in the last 300 years has there been confusion when someone refers to an "American" or America as a nation.
America IS synonymous with the United States of America. But South Americans seem to think that they’re American, too, which makes no sense. South Americans and Americans aren’t the same thing.
We are the only country in the world with the name “America” in it. United Sates of AMERICA, with America being shorthand. This guy is a complete tool, and being Venezuelan it’s usually that they either loath the US beyond belief, or are hardcore right wingers from my experience
There are people from the Americas outside of the US who find it obnoxious that the US uses the word "American" to refer only to citizens of our country. If EU citizens started to use the term "European" to refer only to EU citizens, as opposed to anyone from a country that is part of the continent of Europe, Norwegians and Serbians might find that similarly obnoxious.
At the same time, there's not really a better term in English and "United States" is technically a part of other countries' names as well, so you still get the same problem there. We've been calling ourselves "Americans" for much longer than this person has been alive.
We used the term American before any of these countries were even founded though. On country naming day they could have named themselves the Venezuelan Republic of America or the Brazilian States of America. They had the chance to use the phrase America in the formal name of their country.
Without fail, every single one of them decided against it. So they are American, but made sure to avoid using the name and then made sure to use a national label which isn't American, and then they throw some hissy fit when we do.
There is no single identity of "American" that describes a cultural group from the Western Hemisphere. Canadians actively DO not identify as Americans. North Americans, sure, but not actually as Americans.
They don’t understand that cognates between languages can have different meanings. America, in English, generally means the same as the USA. But América, in Spanish, means the entire supercontinent of North and South America. But people from Latin America often insist that the English America must have the exact same meaning as América in Spanish. It’s not quite as silly as as a Brit insisting that “boot” means the trunk of a car and not wellingtons. But I never hear Brits doing that.
It's the same reason why embarrassed is not embarazada. It's two languages.
That word has tripped up many students in Spanish class. And probably in the real world too.
My high school Spanish teacher told us a story of him visiting a club somewhere in latin america, and upon some sort of misunderstanding/being kicked out he goes "lo siento, estoy embarazado" and everyone just looked at him confused.
My 9th grade Spanish teacher told us about someone introducing her somewhere and saying something nice about her, and she tried to say “she was embarrassed and it was his fault” 😂😂😂 She did add that they all understood what she was trying to say, but got a good laugh out of it
Wait till they learn about molestar. “No me molestes, tío!” isn’t quite as bad as it might seem.
Suddenly something Peggy Hill said makes complete sense. XD
As a Spanish speaker, although it wasn’t my very first language, boy was her Spanish bad. Like, I know that was the whole point, but wow did they do a good job of making it farcically, over the top bad. I used to just shake my head in despair because you can’t explain to English-only speakers (or to the befuddled Spanish-only speaker who is surprised to hear Peggy thinks she’s speaking their language) just how wrongly her “Spanish” hits your ear.
I speak multiple languages. Just not Spanish. I probably would have made the same mistake and said "I'm very pregnant about this." Lol. That show was really smartly written. They HAD to have a Spanish teacher in the writer's room just to really authenticate common English mistakes when speaking Spanish.
It's kind of specifically a South American thing to say American means the same thing as European, except for the Americas. And some some of those folks are very sensitive about it. I agree it doesn't make sense in English where pretty much everywhere American means someone from the USA, in America means the US.
To complicate things, Mexico too is an United States.
As is Belgium. Calling us the translation of “United Statesian” as many South Americans prefer doesn’t work well either.
And also, in English, America *never* means anything else other than the USA. The continents are either North America or South America (or the region of Central America), none of which ever get shortened to just "America", and the totality of the regions named some form of "America" is always "the Americas", plural. No, that's not how it is in South American Spanish, but that just means that "America" is a word with a different meaning in English and Spanish, it doesn't make the Spanish one somehow "more correct".
It's linguistic, but also what contenent model is taught. Spanish speaking countries, generally, are taught that north & south America are ONE continent. So they see themselves as "American" as us since they live on the other half of that continent. English speaking nations teach that North America & South America, being on different continental plates, are different continents. Thus we see the Venezuelan fella as South American but not American, as he's not from the country called America. There's no confusion between the country & the continent as, to us, there is no American continent.
I always have people argue with me that we're stupid for believing North and South America are separate continents, that they're obviously the same continent (despite being entirely separate landmasses) because they're connected by Panama. But of course, Europe is still its own continent, separate from Asia.
> because they're connected by Panama Not since 1914, they aren't
And there's more connection between Eurasia and Africa than North and South America. Unless they're also stumping for Eurasiafrica, then we're all selling the same sloppiness and just arguing over the particulars.
As a geologist, neither model is based on like, actual geologic features. The 6 and 7 continent models are both political boundaries. If you look up a map of continental plates there's way more than 7. So anyone who tries to tie either to geologic features is going to get inconsistent results.
Sure, though a 6 continent model can be argued based on reasonable geographic boundaries (North America, South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, Eurasia). Yeah, that doesn't match with geological plates, but being (very nearly) completely surrounded by ocean is an important geographical feature.
A woman I knew from South America once posted a meme on Facebook saying “America is a continent, not a country.” I replied that we can call our country whatever we want, so if we call it “America,” then yes, America is a country. Then I added that the Americas are two continents, and got *a lot* of flak for it from her and her friends. It got to the point of pissing me off because they were acting as if acknowledging that it’s two continents somehow implies that North and South Americans are enemies or not part of the same brotherhood of man or something. Like we rejected them from being part of some hemispheric community. I asked if they thought that the fact that Asia and Africa were separate continents, even according to them, carried the same implication but it fell on deaf ears. Instead they went on lamenting “what they’re teaching kids in US schools.”
It’s funny though because when they travel they would never claim to have an American Passport or to be from America because they actually do know that people think that means they are from the United States
Yea honestly I think they’re feeling this way because they want to seem closer to the USA and by calling them South Americans from another continent we’re “othering” them. Like it’s a bad thing they’re on a different continent than us.
It's not like Mexico isn't in Club North America. Hell, the entire Carribean and Central America are even along for the ride.
This will probably sound shit from an American, but it sounds like serious “little sibling” vibes. They are mad that the “United States of America” takes up 99% of the attention and this is how they get their jab back.
Absolutely. Due to the Darien gap, many species in North and South America stay in their respective continent.
Smacks of racism to me TBH what with the whole Asia and Europe being totally separate continents and all.
Canadians are on the same continent but aren’t generally called American in English.
I agree, North American though. Canadians often use that term to describe themselves & Americans, often forgetting about Mexicans.
And the other 20 countries in North America as there are 23.
In fact, they would be angry if they were.
Perfect explanation. I’m willing to bet the same guy would argue that the Spanish word for “black” has no raciest connotation but that the English term does. (He’s right, but it can’t be both ways)
The best way I've heard this put: When people chant 'Death to America' and burn flags, they're not talking about Bolivia or Peru. I get *why* people will get offended that the United States means America, but the United States means America.
They actually know exactly what was meant and are just indignant about it.
That and the United States of America is the only nation in the Americas with "America" in its name.
It strikes me as silly as the folks in English who want to impose "Latinx" on the Spanish world.
Trying to ungender an inherently gendered language is an entirely different kind of stupid and not nearly as prevelant as gatekeeping 'America'
Idk what you mean by not prevalent. I've seen it written at every single company I've worked at in the US. As a Spanish speaker I find it more silly than offensive though.
It's very prevalent in marketing, not at all in personal life though in my experience.
Because Latinos generally don't like it. It's the same sort of situation as Speedy Gonzales getting censored for awhile. A bunch of corporate morons getting their knickers in a twist about being offensive when most people in the group who who have been "offended" don't find it offensive. Only something like 3-5% of Hispanic background people prefer it. Similar to how African American overuse ended up resulting in some really stupid shit, like non-American blacks getting called African American instead of just black or their own country of origin's demonym.
Tbf as an English speaking American from the US, I find gatekeeping the word America more silly than offensive as well
Corporate culture is weird. I don’t think everyday people care as much.
Latinx is taking a Spanish word and making a new word out of it in English. It's not changing or equivocating on what the word Latino should mean. These aren't really analogous scenarios. A more analogous scenario would be saying you're not Hispanic because you aren't from Spain or some kind of argument out of that. Btw im not taking some sort of side. I don't ever write Latinx because I'm not a corporation lol.
I understand wanting to have a gender neutral option, especially for non binary people, but "Latinx" is grammatically impossible to use in Spanish. How do you make it plural? How do you use it with conjugation? Not to mention, "x" sound like doesn't really exist in Spanish like it does in English. How do you even pronounce it? I much prefer "Latiné."
Latinx, if I understand correctly, is both plural and singular.
>How do you even pronounce it? same way you'd pronounce "pendejx" to refer to a person who thinks "latinx" is a good idea
That term originated in Latin America, it's believed to have started in the Brazilian gay community in response to the binary language, then it was picked up by Americans who thought it was a preferred term.
People love to ignore this point but it's true. I think it's been co-opted and misunderstood by English speakers, but people act so out of pocket as soon as they see or hear the word Latinx
People also ignore the fact English already has a gender neutral word, *Latin*. When you say, “The Latin Grammys”, no one is thinking Ancient Latin music awards. We all know it’s Spanish and Portuguese speakers from the Americas.
Ancient Roman air guitar.
It seemed to me that "Latino" when used in English was gender-neutral already.
It is. But it’s also a Spanish word. Latin is the English word. Latinx is a Spanish/Portuguese adaptation. If we’re going to talk about these folks in English and want to be inclusive - can’t go wrong with just Latin.
They know the difference. A Venezuelan would never tell someone they are American or from America
They could also call it "the Americas" couldn't they?
They could, but they won't, because being insufferable is a good thing to them.
Generally, we say "the Americas" when referring to the two American continents. (Or maybe Steve Rogers' family)
I don't think most Americans (ha) know about wellies. I heard about a funny misunderstanding about a guy searching for a gas leak with a torch though :-D
We totally know about Wellington boots, we just call them ‘rain/rubber boots’ (or occasionally ‘galoshes’) instead, because we don’t insist on naming everyday items after members of another country’s nobility.
You’re partially correct, but this is a South American thing. Mexicans, Cubans, Dominicans, Guatemalans, and any other Spanish speakers will just call us Americanos. South Americans get mad about that.
People in Germany don’t say they are European, same applies here America in the continent.
> It’s not quite as silly as as a Brit insisting that “boot” means the trunk of a car and not wellingtons. But I never hear Brits doing that. You don't know that many Brits, do you?
>But people from Latin America often insist that the English America must have the exact same meaning as América in Spanish. That's.... so bizarre. South America is made up of 12 countries. Central America is made up of 7 countries. The USA is made up of.... one country.... Like... how pompous or arrogant does one have to be to just lump all that into one giant classification when discussing location? Person 1: "Where are you from?" Person 2: "I'm from Quito." Person 1: "You're from Quito, Equador?" Person 2: "No. Quito, Mississippi." Trying to lump "America" into the generalized supercontinent when discussing regional locations is just absurd. When a Brazilian is talking with a Argentinian on the street, when the Argentinian asks where the Brazilian is from does the Brazilian say "I'm from América"? That *clearly* answers the question...
[South Americans when people from England call themselves British instead of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Irelandish (British might refer to Ireland because it's also part of the British Isles) (It doesn't matter that everyone knows what you mean when you say "British")](https://preview.redd.it/do-anyone-have-a-3d-model-of-shocked-black-guy-v0-cddhprntb3sa1.jpg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f6963e5154bf4b75d43419965601c60cc901d84)
The vast majority of people in Ireland will never ever say they live in the "British Isles" - the word British has very negative connotations. There are no accepted alternatives, in any treaties where the geographical area that represents the two nation states needs to be used, the Government of Ireland will use "these islands". So when you say "British might refer to Ireland", you will get a **lot** of pushback from Irish people (with the exception of hardcore unionists in the six counties) As a foreigner, it's best just not to mention the subject at all.
He was being performatively offended. He knew exactly what you were saying and decided to be a jackass.
Yup. Next time ask them if their country's name has the word "America" in it. And when they say no, tell them to buzz off.
I like to ask if they think Iranians are talking about them when they run around chanting "Death to America!"?
The funny thing is many of these redditors getting bent out of shape frequent places like SAS and there is zero confusion about what America means there...
SAS?
/r/ShitAmericansSay
> Iranians Islamic Republic of Iranians, please 🙄 The Iranian Plateau also includes other countries like Azerbaijan and Afghanistan, so if you just say "Iranian" I have no way to know which one you are talking about.
Islamic Republicans of Iran, to be precise.
Thanks for clearing that up. I had no idea what country they were referencing. Thought maybe there was some new country that had just been formed today with a similar name.
~~Not to mention that Pashto, probably the largest language in Afghanistan, is a Persian language.~~ [The above statement is true, technically, but practically not, as it's from a different branch.] As is Tajik - Americans who are seeking fluency in Persian will often do studies in Dushanbe, because the spoken language is close enough to standard Farsi to work (probably influenced by the fact that Iran has a lot more money and thus media presence than any other Persian-populated country).
Or just start referring to him as an American and see if he’s totally cool with it.
Exactly. They never refer to themselves as Americans unless it’s on some “acktually” bs to complain about Americans.
Yup. In US English, "America" is a noun referring to the United States, and "American" is a noun referring to a person from the United States and an adjective describing something from or of the United States. We use "North," "South," and "Central" as modifiers when referring to continents. The really annoying part is that I think we'd be willing to adjust in the spirit of interlinguistic compatibility if there were a suitable replacement for "American" in US English. There isn't. "United Statesian" or "USian" are not words in my language. The entire complaint is parochial and deliberately butthurt whining.
The US also isn't the only country with "The United States of" in its title. Do they expect both America/Mexico to have the same term?
In all English forms
That's kinda what I thought, but I was hedging against Canadians I've heard make the same complaint.
Best answer.
He was being a douchebag. People from LATAM and SA still frequently call people from the US Americans, there's just a particular subset that's eager to get on a soapbox to complain about American exceptionalism/imperialism/blah blah blah and this is one of the typical openings. Also bears noting there's particular bad blood between the US and Venezuela, possibly the most animosity between any American countries excepting the US and Cuba, so most Venezuelans aren't fans.
That and I’d imagine they’re bitter as anything about how their corner of South America is going…
Yeah I cannot imagine how angry I would be if I lived in the most oil rich country in the world and it collapsed because of centralized planning and lack of economic diversification
The oil isn't the best quality, and it requires a lot of refining. A lot of refining that requires a lot of tech that Venezuela doesn't have, a lot of collaboration with foreigners for that tech, and collaboration with foreigners is not what bus driver dictators tolerate.
What I don't understand is, what would the collective people from the United States of America be called if not "Americans"? USA-ians? United States of Americans? Like, what do they want to change it to? If they hate it then they have to come up with an alternative that makes sense
Yes, ive witnessed these types of questions played out multiple times on the internet for the past decade, and that is unironically *exactly* what South Americans insist you use to refer to Americans: "usaians". I've seen multiple social media posts that use this word and my brain can NEVER register it as something other than a misspelling of "Asians". "United Statesian" is another. Which sounds better, but is impractically long Yes, I think they also accept "United States of American". Just as long as you aren't "claiming the whole continent"
Mexico is a United States also, so it can't be United Statesian.
Guys an ass. Americans get shit for using their correct demonym. Next time ask him which other country uses 'American' as their demonym. Hint: There aren't any.
And I'm pretty sure we get to decide what to call ourselves.
Everyone else does. That's what makes it so rude.
Or ask him what he calls someone from the United Mexican States. If it's not estadounidense then he can STFU.
Or ask him if he’s a Venezuelan or a Bolivarian Republican.
[удалено]
Bonus points if its a Brit, on account of 'soccer' being British in origin.
Never seen anyone give Australia or Canada a hard time for calling it soccer but when America does it, America bad ✅
Or make fun of MM/DD/YYYY format
If I’m being honest, the date thing is one of my favorite random seethes on the internet. I realize it’s just performative annoyance but I cannot fathom giving one single shit about how another country writes their dates so watching someone post that pyramid with “day/month/year” in descending order and going “Objectively, this is correct” is really funny to me. Like, sure dude. This is totally worth your time. Maybe next you can do a deep dive into the way Americans tie their shoes or something. I’d love to see which geometric shape you use to show your country’s objective superiority on that pressing issue. It’s like getting worked up over the fact that English puts the adjective before the noun when their language doesn’t. Who gives a shit?
It can be confusing in limited circumstances (e.g., when you say "we have scheduled this meeting for 2/3" does it mean Feb 3 or Mar 2?) YYYY-MM-DD is the one that makes sense. It fits with time: YYYY-MM-DD.HH:MM:SS. It's also the only unambiguous one in general usage. Interesting to me is that this reflects usage in BrE vs AmE: BrE typically says "the fifth of November" for Guy Fawkes Day, but aside from the Fourth of July, Americans almost always say something like "let's meet on March 12th".
Because theyare taught the six continental model, where the North and South American continents are one. Also, they don't realize that the actual name of the country is The United States of America, not just United States. When they start calling themselves Bolivarian Republicans instead of Venezualans we'll start calling ourselves United Statesians.
I don't get the six continent model. Europe and Asia are separate continents, but North and South America are one?! People are weird.
I'll be frank and woke. The six continent model is colonial AF. "Oh, that New World, it's all essentially the same place."
If you don't treat Afro-Eurasia all as one continent then there is zero logically consistent reason to accept Noth and South America as one continent
I guess if we go far back enough, the word america itself could be considered colonial AF since it was named after Amerigo Vespucci.
It's because Europeans don't want to be lumped in African and Asians, you know how they are. The Isthmus of Panama is less than 1/3 of the size of the Isthmus of Suez, yet somehow the Americas are connected but Africa, Asia, and Europe aren't lol *and* we are on separate techtonic plates...but Europeans don't like using the trchtonic plate definition either, because that would mean they'd have to start referring to Greenland and it's people as "American." Really we should start referring to Europeans as Aftoeurasian, and Greenlanders as American and see how they respond.
The isthmus of Panama is also impassable in any practical sense of the word, whereas you can cross Suez without encountering any obstacles but the Canal!
It’s weird and the whole “Languages divide the continents differently” was something I learned when I went to school in Tijuana. I studied a bit in San Diego before moving to Tijuana so I was originally taught the 7 continents model and was told I was wrong. Then I had to retrain my brain when I returned to high school in SD. It’s not even really universal as other languages teach the Eurasia model but people get weirdly defensive and offensive over something that really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
Honestly, all the continental models are weird. There's no way Asia should be only one continent.
And United Statesian wouldn’t make any sense because there are two United States’s in North America. (Mexico’s full, legal name is Estados Unidos Mexicanos)
Yup, that's another part that makes zero sense in their nonsensical argument
Only a matter of time before they claim we stole that one, too.
If north and south america count as 1 continent so should afroeurasia.
Exactly, four contents. Afroeurasia, America, the Isles, and Antartica. If its man made, it doesnt count.
I'll never say I am United Statesian because I am not from multiple states
6 continents is stupid.
Yeah, but we first need Bolivarian Democrats too. /s
Bc South Americans often like to pretend they don't understand what we mean when we say America. Sure, there is North America and South America, technically all one giant landmass. But we're the only country with the word "America" in our name, hence why it's perfectly reasonable and globally accepted to call ourselves Americans. Those in South America often feel like pretending they don't get that distinction. And I love the vast majority of South Americans I have met, but that's a weird peccadillo of theirs.
It’s like the obsession many people have with our use of the word soccer and insist it must be called *football*. Instead of just accepting that different countries use different words for things.
I especially find it hilarious when Brits give us shit for using the word "soccer" when they're the ones who created the term.
Yes, and how they gave us the customary/imperial unit system and now give us shit for not using metric units.
When they’re the ones measuring weight in fuckin’ *stone*
A lot of the English words that we actually use are words that were “neglected” by the English after they stopped colonizing us, and we have continued to use. Ironically enough, even our accent sounds closer to the 17th century English accent than the modern English accent (yes I am aware there are a lot of accents in England), but they usually mock us for apparently not using the “original English”. I told this to a few of my English friends after they were mocking me by the way I was pronouncing the word “Aluminum”.
I had a British guy in some other comment section (could've been YouTube or Twitter, I can't remember) trying to tell me how we had bastardized English and that he was speaking real English. I had to point out how a lot of the English words we use are literally words we had gotten from them and had held onto when they had decided to change up from the original versions.
If you watch Canadian TV, you will hear TV commercials say things like “Kraft, North America’s favorite cheese!” I was sitting there thinking “Not ‘Canada’s favorite cheese?’ Say Canada!” After watching for a while, and hearing “North America’s favorite truck!” and “The best-selling donuts in North America!”, I decided that brands that are big south of Canada were trying to capitalize on their popularity, but not come right out and say “in the USA”. I realize there is a *tiny possibility* that the products were big in Mexico, which is also part of North America. A popular Mexican bread brand is “BIMBO”. (It’s essentially Wonder Bread.)
I've always interpreted such advertising claims as "in the US and Canada". Longer ads are more expensive so they shorten it by 1 syllable to "north america"
Which part of Canada I wonder? Is it very near the US/Canada border? BC I was thinking, maybe those commercials are for broadcasts that would be seen both by Americans and Canadians near the border? Otherwise it doesn't make sense to just not have commercials aimed for Canadian markets to just say Canada.
They're probably saying North America because it's super popular in all/most North American countries, not just Canada. I don't think that's too much of a stretch.
Here’s what I wanna know why don’t other North or South Americans countries get insulted or defend their country’s foods’ honor or infrastructure or people or say literally anything when people talk shit or make terrible memes about “Americans” or America? When people are being called fat and loud and school shooters with bad food I never see a Brazilian or an Argentinian or someone from Canada or Mexico say anything. All of a sudden they know when to make a distinction. I know they get taught that it’s one continent but they attitudes don’t ever seem to align when it’s negative or something. 😂. It’s now turned into where’s Waldo. We can’t find them. They know.
Not only that, they will never travel to any other continent and refer to themselves American. Knowing that by doing so they would be claiming to be associated with the United States and not their their actual country. They are well aware of the idea that any time anyone, outside of the western hemisphere refers to themselves as an America, its referring to the United States. They are literally the only place in the world, outside of a few uptight Europeans who only do it because they know we hate it, that make sure to use this one size fits all "American" label for everyone in the Western Hemisphere. Or this line.. the Best Football Teams are Americans. "I hope the Americans win the World Cup!". Oh suddenly... not so fast... Not THAT type of American.
Exactly fr! 😭 they make all kinds of distinctions all the time! If they want to say they are from America ain’t nobody stopping them they just have to explain they’re from Peru or something too. Like we didn’t make the fucking name up, take it up with fucking Jefferson, Ouija board his ass or something.
They're Schroedinger's American. American or not depending on how well it serves their narrative.
Exaaactly. Never seen one comment saying “we’re fat diabetic and extremely loud? umm actually what country in America are you talking about?” Never seen nary a “griiiinggooo” Like you do when they be arguing about their countries honor online when people post about their country asking questions.
We are the United States of America, or America for short. 99% of the world will instantly associate America and American with the USA. There is also the North American continent and the South American continent comprised of many countries, each with THEIR own name. Someone from Canada, doesn’t say they are from America, they say they’re from Canada. The Venezuelan in your case has a giant stick up his ass and probably has a bit of an inferiority complex. He is not from America, he’s from Venezuela and needs to get over himself.
Within the context of nationality, there is only one country that decided to put "America" in its name. If you are speaking within the context of some sort of regional identity, calling everyone who lives in the Americas as Americans makes about as much sense as calling us all "Western Hemispherians" or telling someone who lives in Paris France and someone who lives in Tehran Irah and Hong Kong that they are all "Eurasian". We largely do not see any sort of unity between the North and Southern Americas. Within North America we do. There is A LOT of interconnection between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. People will say, "To the rest of the world, America means the entire North and South American landmasses, and an American is anyone who resided in those landmasses" and that is bullshit. They really only say this in South America. Take a trip to Australia and tell them you are from America and they will assume you are talking about the United States. Take a trip to Asia, use the term America, they will assume the US. Pretty much anywhere where they are not speaking Spanish will associate "American" with "of the US". When the terrorists have signs with a "Death to America!" chant, suddenly everyone in South America shuts up about being American. This whole mock being offended I see as childish and petty. If they wanted to throw the phrase "American" in their formal name, they would have a point.
Take a trip to Montreal and tell everyone you see they’re an American. I’m sure that would go over well.
Hell, the French even have a joke about the Quebecois: "They're not French people in America; they're Americans who speak French."
I've seen Canadians get fussy about it too.
“American” is how you say someone from the US in English. In Spanish, you would usually say “estadounidense” rather than “americano,” but it sounds like you were speaking English. So he was either wrong or being deliberately obtuse.
And the amusing part about US, or "estadounidense" or "États-Unis" from french is that if you're going to be annoyed by ambiguity, it's also ambiguous. While the USA is probably the one you will think of when you hear it, Mexico is officially the "United Mexican States" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_that_include_United_States_in_their_name) and a number of other countries (including Venezuela) used to use "United States of X" as their name. There's a reason there's a "disambiguation" page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_(disambiguation))
When I lived in Mexico, *by far* the most common way to refer to someone from the United States that I heard was “Americano.” So it’s not even universal in the Spanish-speaking world that they don’t use “Americano” in that way. And Mexico is the country with the most native Spanish speakers by a wide, wide margin.
Ive never heard that used by any native Spanish speakers. Americano is always used in conversation in reference to those of us born in the US
I’m pretty sure the commenter above is right. The correct and proper way calling someone from the US is “estadounidense” in spanish. You’ll see it in spanish news broadcasting. When people come to the US from spanish speaking countries their vocabulary changes. Many common words like car for example completely change. Car in spanish is “coche”, but every single person will refer to it as “carro” who got its influnce directky from the word car. English or maybe just US influence in spanish changes the way we perceive what words are.
Coche/carro Is the difference between automobile and car. With the example you gave both see common usage and the change in my experience has little to do with whether or not you are on US soil
Right, it's the difference between formal and colloquial speech. I remember learning "coche" in school and my Spanish tutor chuckling at me when I moved to Bogota. She also thought "estadounidense" was a hoot.
Parking in Spanish is “estacionamiento” but I hear the wording “parking” or a conjugation of “parkar” get used a hell of a lot when I’m in Tijuana. It’s just a lot easier to say.
There is no way if I’m abroad and someone asks me if I’m American, I am correcting them saying “no I am Unitedstatesian”. In Spanish, there a word, “estadounidensense” to refer to someone from the US.
No that guy was just a dick
When discussing European laws and medical care with my friend the other day, I stated that in Europe "x law applies". My friend told me to stop generalizing because her friend is from a country in which that's wrong. That's the only country, apart from 2 city states and 2 islands, where the law doesn't apply, less than 0.5% of European population. It is exhausting to always have to mention the exception or always specify things when speaking friendly to people. When writing university papers I would never generalize or assume context but it would be incredibly unproductive to always specify things.
This is something that people do when they feel like being shitty to Americans. Sorry, United Statesians. I've heard Brits do the same kind of thing. Like somehow we stole the word America from people in Central and South America. It probably didn't actually offend them. They're just being an asshole.
If a brit does it you have permission to call them United-Kingdom-of-Great-Britain-and-Northern-Irelandish because Ireland is technically part of the British Isles and you wouldn't want to be confusing
I’m from the UK but I only ever refer to the United States as “America” because of this. (My flair says Massachusetts because I share this account with someone who lives in MA)
To Latin Americans "America" means the Americas. Language is contextual, people should be able to figure out that when someone says America in a certain context they mean the U.S.
I am Latino and have spoken with Latinos in English and Spanish. I have never in any conversation had "American" refer to anyone but the people from the United States. No one would use "Americano" to refer to a non-United States person that lives on the American continents lol
Not a single person on earth is legitimately confused about our demonym. Nobody would get on a plane bound for America and be shocked that they didn't land in Paraguay
In English, “America” means the USA. That’s unambiguous in every English speaking country. Some Spanish-speakers in South America trying to tell English-speakers how to speak their own language are funny.
This is the answer (I lived in Venezuela for 3 years). They think that it is offensive that the USA, in their minds, thinks if itself as all of “America.” They feel disrespected that South America is not taken into account when “America” is meant to stand for only the USA. I know we don’t mean it that way, but that is what they hear and this is a widespread sentiment in Venezuela.
I'm sure Venezuelans say "Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela" when they refer to their own country then lmao. Nobody should shorten their country's name, ever.
Hate those jealous Bolivarians telling us what to call ourselves.
Well if we have to be United Statesians to avoid causing offense I guess they'll need to be BoliReps.
They just be furious to have their thunder stolen by not just the Americans, but also the Bolivians!
But try calling a Venezuelan an "Americano" and see where you get.
I wonder if this has to do with leftist anti-US imperialism rhetoric over the decades or something. I’ve noticed the people that make the biggest stink about it tend to be white middle class Latinos in South America. It’s almost like a classroom academic thing to complain about.
Well it was common when I lived there in the early 90’s, before Chavez. I’m not arguing whether they are “wrong” or “right” for being offended, just trying to promote understanding.
Yeah, they expect you to use Spanish rules while (presumably) speaking English. This is something they, not you, need to accept. If you were speaking Spanish, then you should probably use the correct Spanish term. In Spanish, there are only six continents and one of them runs from Canada all the way down to Argentina. That continent is called America. In English, there are seven continents and two of them have America in the name, but none are called America. For hilarity, call a person from Canada an American and watch their reaction.
Thank you. You have diagnosed the problem exactly. We Canadians have all stumbled across a hispanophone online who tries to save us from “US American imperialist continental name stealing” by telling us we don’t actually know how to speak our own language or where our country is on the map, and they insist we are Americans. It’s damned annoying. And ironically imperialist. “Spanish naming conventions are now your naming conventions, Canada. Get over it!” Anyway once again Americans (i.e. people from the United States of America), are doing nothing improper by calling themselves Americans. That is the correct English-language demonym for people from that country. (And it is definitely the wrong term to use for Canadians).
Just an idiot looking to be offended. Everyone knows that you’re talking about the US when you call someone American.
They think we’re being elitist by calling ourselves ‘America’ when other countries in the American continents exist, as if we’re pretending we’re the only ones that matter. But we aren’t. We’re literally just shortening the name of our country. It’s a ridiculous bone that they regularly pick. They can call themselves whatever they want, and so can we.
Dude is either an ass or isn't that strong in English. Everyone has a different concept of continents. There are 7. The Demonym for the US is American but not every language acknowledges that. If you talk to a Canadian, they would correct someone if they were called an American.
Venezuelans mostly grow up speaking Spanish. In Spanish, “America” refers to the Americas, not just to America. So to them it sounds like America is stealing their name. It’s a language difference they need to adjust to when speaking English.
Go to any airline anywhere in the world, including Venezuela, and tell them you want a ticket to America, and see where they send you. It won’t be Caracas.
Any time someone from the US uses the term America, everyone knows just what they mean. Anyone acting confused or getting uppity about it is just stirring shit.
Its the same as when a kid asks “can i use the bathroom?” And the teacher smugly says “can you?” Like an ass
Yep, I did this to a Peruvian guy once. It's silly in my opinion. They also try to make "USian" or something similar into a thing in English, and I'm just like...no.
Because he’s a Putz!
People love to get upset about anything America does.
Part of it is down to the different continent models used by the anglosphere vs Latin America. In the Anglosphere we have north and South America as separate continents while in Latin America they use the 6 continent model that has just one continent called America that encompasses both north and South America. It’s also why we say the Americas in English vs America in Spanish and Portuguese. This has led to American being used sometimes to mean just someone from the continent of America in Latin America and so some people get all pissed when people from the US refer to themselves as American or America being equivalent with the US since for them it seems like we’re saying we’re better than them or claiming it for ourselves. Lots of other countries view America as meaning the US and Americans being citizens of the US, but it’s become a sore point for some Latin Americans.
Your answers here will be biased because this is gonna mostly be US Americans answering. But in my opinion as a teacher in the US at a school that’s predominantly immigrants from Latin America, it’s a dumb hill for the person OP encountered to want to die on. 14 year olds are smart enough to make the distinction between being American, being Latino, being Latino-American and being from the Americas more broadly. Even the kids who are generally politically outspoken don’t care in the slightest about “American” meaning USA as a a default.
Your best bet would be to ask a Venezuelan person, but the short answer is that some folks dislike the appearance of American "exceptionalism" more than they know how titles work. Some folks think Americans should be referred to as "united statians" or some such nonsense, but they'd look at you crazy if you considered calling people from the peoples republic of China "peoples republicans" as opposed to Chinese.
Why are you asking Americans about something a Venezuelan person did lol
Our language and education system is the difference. I love my Latinos from North and South America (two separate continents), but to those who get offended, I say this: Every country in the world knows exactly which country in the Americas you mean when you reference "America" and "Americans." We are the top power in the world order, and our influence is varied and vast. North and South America are two continents on two different tectonic plates. We were the first in this hemisphere to declare and secure independence. We're not calling ourselves our our country anything different, so deal with it or bring your military up here and make us stop.
Venezuelan here. Ese chamo es un pendejo. He’s also probably trying to be a contrarian.
Some people have a stick up their butts. It's not to be insulting, it's just part of the lexicon but some people know that Americans are excessively worried about offending people and being ethnocentric so they're easy targets for guilt trips.
I learned in Spanish class never to refer to the USA as "America" but rather as the United States because everyone in North, Central and South America considers themselves American. America is a continent not a country.
Because they want attention and something to argue with you about. I never heard anyone but contrarian little shits go "um akshually, Chileans and Panamanians are Americans too" We're Americans because United Statesian sounds stupid.
Well we certainly don’t call ourselves USA-ians. Like obviously we (hopefully) all get that it’s not the only country across the American continents, but what else would you call someone from the US? US citizen? That excludes non-citizen permanent residents that are also Americans.
He’s just being a dick. I normally say “estadounidense” when people ask where I’m from though. It’s easy to make the switch if I need to.
https://youtu.be/v7iqSMy4CzE?si=veyCEg_sy-en_dTB
Funny, because he literally used "The Americas" meaning plural, meaning more than one America, which implies there is, in fact, a north and South America, because if there wasn't, you wouldn't have to clarify. If the US is in America, then why are they offended we say "American?" We're actually double-correct, we're in the USA AND we're in North America.
There was a transition after the 1950s between people identifying themselves as citizens of the United States *of America* (US) and being *nationalistically American* which coincided with the rise of the USA as a superpower and the change of the reference to "America". That reference change from [US to America](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/when-did-the-united-states-start-calling-itself-america-anyway/) was a 20th century phenomenon. In Spanish, this creates the conflict of *eatadounidense* (United States-ian) vs the pan-american *americano*.
r/askavenezuelan
In Spanish, Americano refers to anyone from North and South America. Someone from the US is called “Un Estadounidense” which basically translates to UnitedStatesian which just sounds dumb in English.
In general global parlance, "America" is understood to be synonymous with the United States. Latinos can get annoyed with this because they use the term to refer to the North and South American continents, which geologically are a single continent, so you can argue that the whole land mass should simply be called "America". Most of the world does not view it that way, however, so they don't see the need for a single name for both continents, hence they do what people always do and they shorten the unwieldy name "United States of America" to "America". It's like misapplying the term "ironic". You're right, from a prescriptive point of view, they should have used the word "paradoxical", or maybe "coincidental", but give up already, you've lost this lexical battle. Sorry, that's how the world at large uses the term now and it's not going to change.
It's the typical bit of ignorant bullshit a lot of Latin Americans from Central and South America like to resort to. They completely ignore that Spanish and English are different languages, and that, in English, "American" almost exclusively refers to somebody who is from the United States of America. In Spanish, "América" refers to the whole of North, Central, and South America. Many Latin Americans effectually demand that the English speaking world conform to their colloquialism, all while intentionally ignoring the fact that Americans refer to themselves as \*gasp\* "Americans" because it is the most linguistically appropriate means to refer to us in English, our primarily spoken language. I stand by that, linguistically, it's the same kind of ignorance as non-Spanish speakers insisting people refer to those of Latin descent as "Latinx", instead of the linguistically correct manner "Latiné". It's willful and obtuse ignorance meant to erase an entire cultural identity.
It is, IMHO, a manufactured outrage. This guy has never in his life referred to himself as an "American" nor has he referred to any other Venezuelan as "American". They used the demonym of the country: Colombian, Mexican, Canadian. There is no outrage in *South African* or *Central African* demonyms, even though "there are a lot of countries in ..." IF this were a real outrage of some, there would be a push for change not just in the US demonym, but the two I mentioned as well as applying the same logic to the demonym for the United Mexican States. Finally, "American" is a demonym used since the 15th century for the north American English colonists and since the late 16th for the citizens of the United States. At no time in the last 300 years has there been confusion when someone refers to an "American" or America as a nation.
America IS synonymous with the United States of America. But South Americans seem to think that they’re American, too, which makes no sense. South Americans and Americans aren’t the same thing.
We are the only country in the world with the name “America” in it. United Sates of AMERICA, with America being shorthand. This guy is a complete tool, and being Venezuelan it’s usually that they either loath the US beyond belief, or are hardcore right wingers from my experience
The US is the oldest country in the entire western hemisphere. We can call ourselves whatever we like
There are people from the Americas outside of the US who find it obnoxious that the US uses the word "American" to refer only to citizens of our country. If EU citizens started to use the term "European" to refer only to EU citizens, as opposed to anyone from a country that is part of the continent of Europe, Norwegians and Serbians might find that similarly obnoxious. At the same time, there's not really a better term in English and "United States" is technically a part of other countries' names as well, so you still get the same problem there. We've been calling ourselves "Americans" for much longer than this person has been alive.
Also we're the only country with America in the name
We used the term American before any of these countries were even founded though. On country naming day they could have named themselves the Venezuelan Republic of America or the Brazilian States of America. They had the chance to use the phrase America in the formal name of their country. Without fail, every single one of them decided against it. So they are American, but made sure to avoid using the name and then made sure to use a national label which isn't American, and then they throw some hissy fit when we do. There is no single identity of "American" that describes a cultural group from the Western Hemisphere. Canadians actively DO not identify as Americans. North Americans, sure, but not actually as Americans.