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> Growing up in Canada, I remember asking my parents why it was okay to make fun of Americans, but not people from any other country. It's surprising to me how
by ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
> Growing up in Canada, I remember asking my parents why it was okay to make fun of Americans, but not people from any other country.
It's surprising to me how much the word "American" has been appropriated to just mean people from the U.S., when surely as a Canadian, you're also American (i.e. living in North America).
As a UK resident, it would be considered entirely incorrect to use the term "British" to refer to just the English and almost unthinkable for a Welsh person to also abide by that usage.
- aleph_minus_one 3y ago> It's surprising to me how much the word "American" has been appropriated to just mean people from the U.S., when surely as a Canadian, you're also American (i.e. living in North America). Also people from Middle American (Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, ...) and South American countries (Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, ...) are Americans. :-)
- ndsipa_pomu 3y ago> Also people from Middle American (Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, ...) and South American countries (Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, ...) are Americans. :-) I'd be inclined to refer to Mexico as North America, but then I wouldn't know which countries would be called Middle American
- qbrass 3y agoNorth America is everything north of South America. Central America is the land between Mexico and South America. It's also part of North America, and also part of Middle America. Middle America is Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean islands, Columbia, and Venezuela. The latter two countries are in South America, the rest is in North America. Middle America is also a term for flyover country in the US. Which is how it's almost always used in the US.
- D13Fd 3y agoIn the USA, “America” is a name of our country and “Americans” is the name for residents of the country. Canadians, Mexicans, and residents of South America etc are certainly not “Americans”. This isn’t anything new, and it’s not “appropriated”
- ndsipa_pomu 3y agoI understood America to be the name of the continent (i.e. The Americas) and "United States of America" to be the name of a country. What term would you use to refer to residents of North America or residents of both North and South America? ("United States of America" implies the existence of other, non-united states of America, which I interpret as all the other countries within the America continent)
- drstewart 3y ago>What term would you use to refer to residents of North America or residents of both North and South America? North Americans or North and South Americans This is also a concept people reference much, much less often than residents of America the country.
- ndsipa_pomu 3y agoThat leads to the strange paradox of South Americans not being American
- PrimeMcFly 3y agoNot strange at all in context.
- nirvdrum 3y agoI always thought it was a bit weird until I discovered people from the US are called "American" in other languages (e.g., German). I also think it's a little odd that we say US rather than USA, but other languages do that as well. I'm sure it's a chicken and egg situation, but changing the term now seems unlikely. I suppose the alternatives are just too much of a mouthful.
- ndsipa_pomu 3y agoIt makes more sense to me for other countries to not think about the specific countries/continents, but strikes me as odd for a Canadian to use American in that context (I don't mean it as a criticism, though). Similarly, I would understand a non-brit getting confused between the terms English and British, but I would be very surprised to see a Scot doing that. And yes, USian doesn't sound or look right.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- PrimeMcFly 3y ago> when surely as a Canadian, you're also American (i.e. living in North America). North America includes México at least geographically, so does that mean Mexicans are Americans as well? American means people from the US because the US has the word America in its name and other countries don't, that's all. > Welsh person to also abide by that usage. The Welsh don't like being called British?