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Bingo. They are self-hating, most either live abroad, too, or are if the "world citizen" mentality.
In my view most of the people making a fuss about this entire issue are conservative Americans who still believe the US is special and the world envies it whatever, when in fact people outside the US don't give a rat's ass about US Americans calling themselves Americans. People abroad tend to be good at geography, they have an objective view of the world, a country is just a country...
From my time on this forum it seems to be almost entirely people from the USA that have a problems with being called American.
If I had a problem with being called "American," which I don't, the Portuguese government solved it for me in 2004. On my previous Residência cards my nationality had always been described as "Americano." But suddenly in 2004 I became a "Norteamericano".........well, yeah, but... So, I returned to the government agency and explained that my nationality was now that of entire continent, and it wasn't the actual country that issued my passport, etc.
The lady behind the desk looked at the card and then at my passport, then at the card: And she came up with, "It (my country) is in North America, yes?"
"Yes," sez I.
Handing the card back to me, she reassured me, "It's all right then, it's over there."
Well, yes, but...and then I gave up. And I remained "Norteamericano" for years after that.
Finally last time around I pointed out the error again, but to a new clerk. We went through the same rather circular argument as before until I pointed out that North America hadn't issued my passport.
She gave me a look brimming with motherly solicitude, "You really would rather be Americano, wouldn't you?"
I wanted to protest that I loved North America, and that some of my best friends were Canadians - in fact the majority of my relatives are, and I eat Mexican food even when I am not in the company of Mexicans just to keep fresh the ties that bind, but........and then I decided to shut up might be the best course.
But now when I look at it, I get the guilty feeling that I have given the Canadians and the Mexicans, etc. the finger. And maybe I was the only person in whole world who had an official government document stating that his citizenship was "Norteamericano." Makes me feel bad now that I gave it up. I catch myself sometimes wondering if next time I might ask for my "Norteamericano" citizenship back again....besides I would have dual citizenship!
I beg to differ. Even though I recognize that many people in Latin America use "americanos" to refer to US people, the word "americanos" is also used in a "panamerican" sense. I've heard that a lot. Usually the context tells you which of the two meanings is being used.
There are even songs which use "americanos" in this panamerican sense.
In fact, these bad translations can, in specific circumstances, mislead the audience.
For example, I was once reading a book by Isaac Asimov translated in Spain, and in one part Asimov mentioned about Native Americans of the American Southwest. The literal translation was "indÃgenas del suroeste americano". I had always thought he was referring to the natives of Peru and Bolivia's highlands. Only very recently did I realize he was referring to the US (after several readings through the years).
If I had had access to the original from the start, I would've understood it from the beginning.
If I had a problem with being called "American," which I don't, the Portuguese government solved it for me in 2004. On my previous Residência cards my nationality had always been described as "Americano." But suddenly in 2004 I became a "Norteamericano".........well, yeah, but... So, I returned to the government agency and explained that my nationality was now that of entire continent, and it wasn't the actual country that issued my passport, etc.
The lady behind the desk looked at the card and then at my passport, then at the card: And she came up with, "It (my country) is in North America, yes?"
"Yes," sez I.
Handing the card back to me, she reassured me, "It's all right then, it's over there."
Well, yes, but...and then I gave up. And I remained "Norteamericano" for years after that.
Finally last time around I pointed out the error again, but to a new clerk. We went through the same rather circular argument as before until I pointed out that North America hadn't issued my passport.
She gave me a look brimming with motherly solicitude, "You really would rather be Americano, wouldn't you?"
I wanted to protest that I loved North America, and that some of my best friends were Canadians - in fact the majority of my relatives are, and I eat Mexican food even when I am not in the company of Mexicans just to keep fresh the ties that bind, but........and then I decided to shut up might be the best course.
But now when I look at it, I get the guilty feeling that I have given the Canadians and the Mexicans, etc. the finger. And maybe I was the only person in whole world who had an official government document stating that his citizenship was "Norteamericano." Makes me feel bad now that I gave it up. I catch myself sometimes wondering if next time I might ask for my "Norteamericano" citizenship back again....besides I would have dual citizenship!
The Portuguese don't really care about those things, they care about Brazil, and that is pretty much it as far as America is concerned. To them there is no difference between the US and Canada, they only seem to differentiate between anglophone and Latin America.
Is this actually a topic of discussion? Nobody, absolutly nobody I have EVER talked to in my life has ever said anything about this.
EVER.
People from Canada are Canadians, people from the US are Americans, people from Mexico are Mexicans, and people in South America are Whatevercountrythey'refromians.
When Canadians make a point to set themselves apart and say "No, I'm not American, I'm Canadian." Beleive it or not......it's not because we hate you, or of course, that we're envious. It's because people from other parts of the globe CANNOT tell us apart. That goes for Americans not knowing Canadians are Canadians, and Canadians not knowing Americans are Americans when visiting eachother's countries as well.
I'm still surprised when I hear people say that Christopher Columbus discovered America and they actually think Columbus discovered the USA.
Do they even know that the man didn't even stepped foot on the continental USA?
Do they even know that the Spaniards had established their colonies almost 2 centuries before the 13 colonies were settled?
Do they even know that Florida was a Spanish colony for most of history and that Columbus didn't even put a foot there?
Actually, the first European to set foot on the present territory of the continental USA was probably the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon. The REAL discoverer of (The United States of) America. We celebrate the date of of that discovery with a holiday, which we call Easter, but the date of discovery was probably Saturday, April 2, 1513, a date that de Leon would have called Pascua Florida (Easter of the Flowers), according to the Spanish ecclesiastical calendar. Hence, the name Florida for what he thought was an undiscovered new island.
The first European to set foot on the North American continental land mass was probably John Cabot, an Italian sailing under the British flag, in 1497, who discovered the shores of the St. Lawrence River in Canada and claimed the land for King Henry VII..
The problem with this thinking is- "Europe" is a continent and "Americas" is not. We don't call Europeans and Asians "Eurasians" do we? So if Germany decided to rename itself the "United Germans of Eurasia" and the people "Eurasians", would it make sense for Europeans and Asians to be upset?
Haven't you read my previous post? America is thaught to be a continent in many countries across the world, even some competitions adopt this name such as the soccer championship cup called "libertators cup of America" which is similar to it's European counterpart "Uefa champion league". So there is America Cup of soccer aswell.
Last edited by Don_Caballero; 12-30-2012 at 12:03 PM..
No one really cares, don't Brazilians call themselves Brazilians...?
Only Europeans seem to identify be there continent, not all of them but some. and I find it kind of stupid, lol.
No, It's Americans who think in Europe as an homogneous land of people, where everybody call European to eachother, lol It couldn't be further from the truth.
A dutchman , Serbian, Irish and Estonian person have nothing in common between eachother, and I'm sure they would firstly identify by their own regions within their respective countries and then by their nationalitie/ethnicities. The British people might be an exception to the rule, considering most of the time they don't even think themselves as Europeans on the broader sense but instead like "brits", thats why we have always the british people talking about how they are going to visit "Europe" when they go to the continent.
Thats the biggest difference between the US and Europe, An average american citizen could easily move to another state and quickly adapt in matter of weeks/months without major issues. On the other hand every european country is a different world (language, cultures, peoples, history).
Last edited by Don_Caballero; 12-30-2012 at 12:10 PM..
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