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Actually, many in Central/South America are offended when "America" is used to refer only to The United States-some down there see themselves as "America" too.
Actually, many in Central/South America are offended when "America" is used to refer only to The United States-some down there see themselves as "America" too.
That was my point. "America" is much more than the USA!
Why do so many in the UK ALWAYS refer to the United States as "America"? They must ALL be sooo terribly uneducated if they don't even know that America includes much more than the USA. It even includes Canada, which the British even used to rule? I mean how stupid can you get? These UK people are just sooooooooooo annoying I just can't take it. I could go on and on and on and on about this horrible insult to the USA, but what good would it do? The people in the Uk are simply HOPELESSLY STUPID!!!! LOL
It isn't an insult to me as an American(citizen of the USA) most parts of the world only consider the USA America get over it. People from Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America aren't thought of as Americans by most of the worlds citizens. You screaming about in you're post won't make a difference.
And I do know all of the above, only because, Like I said I go there a lot and have British friends. I saw what happened when someone once called my Welsh friend English. It wasn't pretty.
Did your friend give the miscreant a "Glasgow kiss" just to keep it all in the family?
All this offense taken when it could be assumed from the get-go, none was intended, simply shows the world is getting to be a very sensitive place indeed.
Perhaps that's an indication the world is much better off today if the only thing that gives folks figurative wedgies is someone referring to their country using a non- Oxford/Webster's dictionary approved format.
It isn't an insult to me as an American(citizen of the USA) most parts of the world only consider the USA America get over it. People from Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America aren't thought of as Americans by most of the worlds citizens. You screaming about in you're post won't make a difference.
My post was sarcastic but I guess it wasn't obvious enough.
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".
I brought this topic up on this forum once before and I was basically ridiculed for it by some of the Latin American forum members. Apparently where they lived, absolutely no Latin American people did this. In South Florida it is extremely common, especially by those of Caribbean origins (Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans).
In French you can call the Netherlands either "Hollande" or "Pays bas" which translates into the low country. I'm not sure if it's accurate. Also, the president is called "Hollande" while he actually is from central western France. That's all the more confusing.
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Originally Posted by Geggo
Most, if not all, people in Germany say Holland when they mean the Netherlands. This has been the case for centuries. Why change it?
And when people here go on holiday to England they might as well include Scotland and Wales and even Northern Ireland.
After all, the UK is dominated by England, both politically and culturally. No big deal.
Both right. Almost all Dutch people refer to their country as Holland when they are in another country. Within the Dutch language we use both Nederland as Holland. It kind of depends on the context, the tone of conversation and also just personal preference. It's both okay to use. It's only few people that go arguing about Holland being just two provinces (North- and South Holland) and are not representing the whole country. Who cares
We also use just England (Engeland) for that part of the country. And we speak of Scotland and Ireland separately. For the whole group we speak of Great Brittain (Groot Brittannië) or U.K. (Verenigd Koninkrijk) or when really official "Verenigd Koninkrijk van Groot Britannië"
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.
Most Italians call the UK "Inghilterra" (which means England) or Great Britain and few people bother learning the difference.
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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).
Most Italians also call it "Olanda" (Holland) when its correct name would be "Paesi Bassi" (aka Low Countries), nobody actually cares or gets offended.
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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!
Actually it's "Spaniard" if you are referring to a people who is from Spain.
Second, those territories (New Mexico,California etc) were annexed by the US in 1848, that means 97 years after the end of WWII, not "over 100".
Third, those territories had been part of Mexico since 1821 when the latter declared its independence, so I don't see how it can be said that they "had already been independent from Spain for a long time".
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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.
I am not an expert on American rules about race protocol, so I let others speak.
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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.
Bulgarians never were part of the Soviet Union.
It's common to refer to the USSR as "Russia", though modern countries are different from that.
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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 guess it's connected to the fact that Israel is a "Jewish state" so in it might be common for people little interested in the matter to confuse the term.
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Yep-I got it, and did pick up on the sarcasm.
