Why do Americans (not all, but lots of them) find these basic facts to be confusing? (home, safe)

[Al G]

I think we all complain about things that other people do or say, mainly because we were taught differently.
Different people from all over the world brought up and do things in our own way.
One thing that bothers me, but only me, and I know I can't change it, so usually I never coment.
But I will on here just this one time.
Why does the world it seems, always refer to Roman Catholics as 'Catholic' or 'The Catholic Chuch'. When actually the word Catholic means "Universal Christian Church" or all christians no matter there denomination. Hench; all Protestants, orthodox, or any other christians are 'Catholic' not just the church of Rome.

[almost3am]

Originally Posted by motownewave

Similarly, they refer to The Netherlands as "Holland", even though Holland is only part of the country they mean to refer to.

Go to google translate and select english to portuguese...then type "The Netherlands"

[violent by design]

Originally Posted by motownewave

First of all, they refer to the United Kingdom (made up of England, Scotland, Wales, and the Protestant chunk of the island of Ireland) as "England" even though England is (while the largest and seemingly most important) only a small portion of the UK.

I feel like you're kinda playing dumb though, you kinda answered this.

England is the biggest part of the UK, and it pretty much dominates the media there. When ever people see something from the United Kingdom it is usually related to what part of the UK? England. Also, England is really the only part of the UK that Americans learn about prior to the UK - ie fables like King Arthur and what not - we hear about the King of England in our stories, not the King of Scotland. Americans also have a hard time distinguishing what Britain is also. It's annoying, but the easiest way to explain it is that there aren't any tests in school that asks what is the United Kingdom. Scotland and Wales do not have good representation in their nation, and have very tiny global presence in general.

More so the UK's fault than anyone else', I mean actors are often referred to as English (or Scottish or Irish) as opposed to them all just being British. There is an English football team, not a British one. The cultural unity of the UK isn't all that great, the people aren't as Unified as they are in the US.

The typical American is not even aware of Northern Ireland I'd wager. It's another nation, Americans do not learn a lot about other countries political structures.

Similarly, they refer to The Netherlands as "Holland", even though Holland is only part of the country they mean to refer to. And why on earth are the Amish and Mennonites (who primarily are of GERMAN origin) given the name "Dutch" by Americans? I find this especially ironic since lots of the same Americans who speak of the "Dutch" (Amish/Mennonites) seem oblivious to the fact that the word "Dutch" is primarily the name of people from The Netherlands (again, "Holland" is only part of that country).

I'm not sure why the Amish are called the dutch, but people are aware of their German backgrounds in that part of the country.

I'm not sure how the Holland thing started, I think it was just slang started hundreds of years ago to call The Netherlands; Holland. It probably just stuck, I am not sure if that even started in America, as many countries refer to Holland when referencing the Netherlands.

And this REALLY gets on my nerves, but happens every day: Americans (even Hispanic ones who are fluent in both English and Spanish) refer to all people from Spanish-speaking countries (of which there are at least 20 of) as "Spanish" instead of as "Hispanic". This is very irritating (and sad) because parts of the USA (including Texas and California, both huge states) joined the USA after the USA won battles with MEXICO, which by then (over 100 years before World War II!) had already been independent from Spain for a long time, and Puerto Rico (now one of our own territories) became part of the USA after the USA fought Spain!

I think this is pretty self explanatory. They speak Spanish, hence they are called Spanish. Yes, Hispanic would be more useful to distinguish between those from Spain. I think more and more people use the word Hispanic as time goes by (I'm a millennial, Hispanic seems to be a more common term than just Spanish from my personal experience), similar by how less people call Native Americans; Indian vs older generations.

Americans do not hold animosity against Spain, so your statements about war and independence seems to be romanticized through the history books. To Americans, the Spanish-American war was a minor one.

Even worse, even though people of Hispanic origin can be of any physical race (white, black, Amerindian, or Asian, in the case of Filipinos), job applications and other important documents in the USA force Hispanics to pick "Hispanic or Latino" as their race, even though neither of those is neither a race nor an ethnicity. While the choice given may be the best choice for recent immigrants from Mexico, Puerto Rico, etc, this choice may alienate someone of pure Spanish or Portuguese origin who identifies as white, or black immigrants from Spanish-speaking Caribbean countries, or indigenous Mexicans who have assimilated into English-speaking Amerindian tribes, or Filipinos, etc.

This is true, though the concept of race is really silly and is generally confusing/inconsistent anyway. Not exclusively an American problem.

People from Spain and Portugal would pick White, Non-hispanic just like people from anywhere else in Europe. People from Spain and Portugal are considered "white" here (white Mexicans/Puerto Ricans/Dominicans generally do not identify themselves as white in the US even if they are "racially" white). My mother is a white Dominican, but she never looks at herself as white, and would be offended/confused if she was called white.

You're free to identify yourself as what ever you want though or just abstain from sharing that info.

And Americans refer to the whole of the former Soviet Union/USSR as "Russia", which could really cause offense if they said that to a Ukrainian, or a Kazakh, or a Bulgarian, or an Armenian, etc.

It would be offensive if someone exclusively said that the Ukraine and Russia are the same thing. But calling the USSR, Russia? The name of the country is Russia, the government name is the Soviet Union. The Russians controlled the Soviet Union, it makes sense. I don't think Bulgarians and Armenians care to identify them being oppressed under the Soviets (Russians), so I do not think they would be very offended by referring to the Soviet Union as Russia.

Similarly, Americans substitute the word "Jew" for "Israeli" (noun) and "Jewish" for Israeli (adjective). While certainly the majority of Israelis are Jews, this mixup could cause offense to an Arab (whether Muslim or Orthodox Christian) who lives in Israel and identifies as Israeli, or to an American Jew who strongly disagrees with the actions of both Israel and Palestine, or to an Israeli of Jewish blood who has rejected the Jewish religion.

I'm not aware of this. Jewish does not mean Israeli in the United States (I live in New York where there is a high Jewish population, so perhaps it is different else where) - though as you stated the Jews are the dominant ethnic race in Israel (especially excluding Palenstine). Americans are generally aware that there are Christians and Muslims in Israel from what I have gathered.

There are hardly any Jews in the Americas, I suppose lack of exposure could be one thing. But generally speaking when Americans want to refer to Jewish people, they call them Jews not Israelis (I've never heard someone call a Jew an Israeli, I have heard the opposite, calling an Israeli a Jew, but more times than not I think the politically correct choice is used). Perhaps it is different in Latin America.

I do not mean to hurt the feelings of anyone who has made the above mistakes, but it really is in the best interest of society for people to stop making these mistakes.

A lot of these mistakes just come from lack of exposure. America is on the complete opposite side of the world, and all of these questions revolve around countries from the Eastern Hemisphere. People all over North and South America tend to have similar misconceptions - it isn't that crazy, we're an ocean apart.

Europeans are not very knowledgeable of places in the Americas other than the US, Europeans do not even know a lot about Africa and it is a continent right next to theirs. Having minor misconceptions about Euro-centric places isn't a very big deal, I feel like similar to how people from the US think the world revolves around them, I feel like Europeans have a hard time realizing that being worldly is more than just having knowledge of European civilizations.

Most of these things are almost glorified slang, every country has stuff like this.

[cattledog69]

Originally Posted by violent by design

I'm not sure how the Holland thing started, I think it was just slang started hundreds of years ago to call The Netherlands; Holland. It probably just stuck, I am not sure if that even started in America, as many countries refer to Holland when referencing the Netherlands.

Well i found some info on it and it appears that Holland evolved from the name Holtland and means Wood Land. First mentioning of the name whas in 1064. The old Holland was a piece of land that is now North Brabant and Utrecht provinces. But what probably caused the name Holland to stick with everyone, was that the old Holland was the most important district, or Province of the old "Seven Provinces" of the Netherlands during the 80-year war between Spain and the Netherlands.

[LINative]

Originally Posted by motownewave

First of all, they refer to the United Kingdom (made up of England, Scotland, Wales, and the Protestant chunk of the island of Ireland) as "England" even though England is (while the largest and seemingly most important) only a small portion of the UK.

I am guessing because of history and tradition. Also the size of England versus the other British countries.

The original American colonies began to be settled by the English in the early 1600s. This is before the Act of Union in 1707 when England and Scotland joined together to become Great Britain. It is not hard to understand that the Americans continued to call the mother country "England", especially since England is where the power really lay. Even today, England has more people then the other countries (Wales, Scotland and ALL of Ireland) combined.

In other words, the Kingdom of Great Britain was formed in 1707 of England and Scotland (Ireland only joined in 1801). But for Americans, by far the most important relationship was with England itself. That is where most of the first settlers came from, where the government and the Crown were located.

So today in the United States, Queen Elizabeth II is often referred to as the "Queen of England" or often just "The Queen". We rarely hear of her as "Queen of Canada", even though Canada is right next door.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by LINative

I am guessing because of history and tradition. Also the size of England versus the other British countries.

The original American colonies began to be settled by the English in the early 1600s. This is before the Act of Union in 1707 when England and Scotland joined together to become Great Britain. It is not hard to understand that the Americans continued to call the mother country "England", especially since England is where the power really lay. Even today, England has more people then the other countries (Wales, Scotland and ALL of Ireland) combined.

In other words, the Kingdom of Great Britain was formed in 1707 of England and Scotland (Ireland only joined in 1801). But for Americans, by far the most important relationship was with England itself. That is where most of the first settlers came from, where the government and the Crown were located.

So today in the United States, Queen Elizabeth II is often referred to as the "Queen of England" or often just "The Queen". We rarely hear of her as "Queen of Canada", even though Canada is right next door.

In Quebec, where she is legally the head of state and therefore "our" queen, Queen Elizabeth II is referred to as "la reine d'Angleterre" (the queen of England) probably 99% of the time.

[Chris Meyers]

I find this post pretty inane. Any 'debate' about Sematics by itself is just ridiculous. People say things differently, everywhere. There is no right or wrong. You've clearly posted the way you think is correct in the original post, but thats just you.

[LINative]

Originally Posted by cattledog69

Well i found some info on it and it appears that Holland evolved from the name Holtland and means Wood Land. First mentioning of the name whas in 1064. The old Holland was a piece of land that is now North Brabant and Utrecht provinces. But what probably caused the name Holland to stick with everyone, was that the old Holland was the most important district, or Province of the old "Seven Provinces" of the Netherlands during the 80-year war between Spain and the Netherlands.

I was wondering why we call the Netherlands "Holland". Your guess sounds pretty good.

[LINative]

Originally Posted by Acajack

In Quebec, where she is legally the head of state and therefore "our" queen, Queen Elizabeth II is referred to as "la reine d'Angleterre" (the queen of England) probably 99% of the time.

Exactly. And its not just North Americans, I could swear I have heard British actors and politicians call Great Britain just England.

Probably for a number of reasons. Besides historical reasons we still have this, the English make about up 84% of the UK population

Population
England - 53, 012,000
Scotland -- 5,295,000
Wales ----- 3,063,000
N. Ireland - 1,811,000

Uk Total - 63,181,000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogr...United_Kingdom

[Sickandtiredofthis]

The one that particularly irks me is the one where they assume that the UK means England.
I always end up saying I am from Ireland when I go over there even though that kills me.. I would rather they think I am Irish than English.