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Not really.
American English is more important here.
British English has lost a lot of influence during the last 10 years. Most Spanish trying to practice English are incapable of any communication with English visitors due to their usage of dialectal English.
Not saying that some English speak good English, but they are hard to find among the hordes of Liverpoolians, etc.
Way back people sent their offsprings to England or Ireland to learn English, now they pack them to Canada or the US. Everybody in Spain knows that Yankees were the Northeners since Gone with the Wind or before, you might be surprised by the fact that the Average Joe here knows more things about the US than about Spain.
The word Yankee is used extensively in Spain since before the Spanish-American War (1898). A word always in the mouth of commies, liberals, etc. "Yankilandia", "Yankee Imperialism", etc.
Many before, taking into account that Spain was a faithful ally of the Confederacy.
In Latin America, the word Yankee is used extensively by politicians. Any Castro speech has 100 references to Yankee Imperialism, Chavez, any populist politician. ¡Fidel, seguro, a los yankis dales duro
British say "Yanks", "Colonials", etc.[/quote]
I am becoming convinced. In fact, I think people from New York City should be called 'Cityers' since New York refers to a whole state, not just New York City.
I've been in every country in Latin America, and lived in five of them, and not one person has ever told me that he is an American. Their country has a name, and they call themselves by the name of their country (with justifiable pride). So do we. .
I spent a year in Ecuador. Ecuadorians consider themselves Americans just as much people from the USA (whom they simply call people from the United States).
The problem you are encountering simply stems from the fact that we do not have a proper label while people from other American nations do (at least those who speak Spanish; I am uncertain about Brazilians). For them, people from the US are estadounidienses... United Staters, if you will.
I didn't read all 5 pages, because it's a dull & lazy argument ... often brought up by dolts who aren't smart enough to find any of the thousands of legitimate reasons to bag on us Americans
We live in a nation called the United States of America. Not uncommon for nations to have their makeup put in with their names.
This is a nation founded on united states, called America. So we get United States of America.
You can take that a step further to the United Mexican States .... Canada is a little more complicated with the federal dominion of Canada / Canadian Confederation and the whole british tie-ins
If you want to chastize someone from the USA for calling themselves American make sure you chastize the person from the UMS for calling themselves Mexican.
There is also a difference between country & continent identifiers. Us Americans are also North Americans. Our Brazlian friends are South Americans. However, both can feel free to shorten that as well to being American when speaking from a continential view (as someone would identify with being Asian, European, African, etc)
I'll try to make it fairly easy to see how most nations have their name and organization in their titles.
Kingdom of England
United Mexican States
United States of America
Kingdom of Norway
Peoples Republic of China
Republic of Mozambique
Federal Republic of Germany
Republic of Chile
There are probably some outliers (maybe Japan as an example) .... but I think having this split shouldn't be crazy enough of a concept for people to grasp that people from the United States of America will call themselves American just as people from the Italian Republic will call themselves Italian
I spent a year in Ecuador. Ecuadorians consider themselves Americans just as much people from the USA (whom they simply call people from the United States).
We wouldn't want to cause confusion with Mexico - after all, they are also United States
Would it make everyone happier if we were the Republic of America and called ourselves American?
I spent a year in Ecuador. Ecuadorians consider themselves Americans just as much people from the USA (whom they simply call people from the United States).
I bet if a South American asks a thousand people in Ecuador "What is your nationality", with no loaded context, not a single one of them will say "American".
At the airport, do all the Ecuadorians arriving on international flights queue up at the line below the sign that says "Ecuadorians" or the sign that says "Americans"? If you ask someone in Quito for the American Embassy, I bet they'll direct you to the USA Embassy. If you ask for a cinema that shows American films, or a bookstore with American books, I bet they won't send you to one that only shows Argentine and Mexican films or sells books in Spanish.
Unless they are incredibly stupid or just itching for a fight, they know dam well who is an American and who is an Ecuadorian and what the difference is.
And they say Americans are geographically ignorant.
There are only two continental land masses. One of them is barbell-shaped comprised of what, for convenience, is called North America and South America. The other is triangular, and is comprised of Africa and Eurasia. Geographers, Zoologists, Ethnologists, Geologists and Historians subdivide them in different places into different regions, according to where it is convenient to draw demarcation lines according to theneeds of their discipline. For example, to an ornithologist, North and South America are divided at the isthmus of Tehuantepec, in Mexico.
How many continents there are and what they are called is a stupider argument than what Americans call themselves.
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