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I would guess some Latin American origins. They have a very persistent meme culture that is upset that, in English, when you say “American”, you mean “from the
by devilbunny 2y ago
I would guess some Latin American origins. They have a very persistent meme culture that is upset that, in English, when you say “American”, you mean “from the United States of America”. Whereas, at least in Spanish-speaking countries, they have a different mental model of the world’s landmasses and the entire western hemisphere is “America”. Not North or South as separate continents; it’s like being “European”. So, while in, say, Argentina, I might be careful to call myself “estadounidense” (my Spanish is poor, please forgive spelling and suffix errors), it’s
really not an issue in our southern neighbor, which is the Estados Unidos Mexicanos (United Mexican States) so, “estadounidense” applies equally to them. And yes, I have spent time in Mexico City, and nobody got in my face for saying “soy Americano”. Most of the visitors are going to be from other parts of Mexico or from the US, with a significant minority of Canadians.
- kennysoona 2y ago> I would guess some Latin American origins. It's generally white people thinking they are solving a problem, honestly. Even if some people don't like that 'America' tends to refer to the US rather than something general to the continent or one or both of the continents, it doesn't really matter - there is never any ambiguity. The contexts talking about something the US is doing vs the continents are pretty much always crystal clear.
- javier123454321 2y ago> And yes, I have spent time in Mexico City, and nobody got in my face for saying “soy Americano”. Oh but you can basically guarantee there's an inner eye roll everytime you call yourself Americano. Estadounidense works, as Estados Unidos Mexicanos is largely not in use, and Mexicano(a) is the prefered term. It's not a different mental model, it's just a mis translation. In Spanish saying "soy Americano" translates to 'I am from the Americas'. That's why the preference is to just use Estadounidense. It effectively means that US people are wrong if they say 'soy Americano' in Spanish, and Latin Americans are wrong for saying 'I am American' is wrong in english.
- devilbunny 2y agoI can live with inner eye rolls when I fuck up their language if they can live with the inner eye rolls when they fuck up mine. I'm even entirely open to gentle, friendly correction. I've gotten this in France; it was said with a smile, not a snarl, so I appreciated it. Like I said, nobody got in my face about it.
- javier123454321 2y agoYou seem very worked up about this. Glad no one mentioned. Just letting you know it's a mistranslation.