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Old 02-04-2016, 07:06 AM
 
Location: Somewhere
440 posts, read 373,516 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 415_s2k View Post
Seemed common among Latin Americans I knew in the States to refer to Asian people as "Chinos" or "Chinas" regardless of ethnicity, but Americans would almost uniformly refer to them as Asians, or mire specifically, East Asians, Southeast Asians, South Asians, etc if they didn't know their ethnicity or because they were referring to the region. We have considerable numbers of people from these places so we are somewhat more cognizant of these things than other places with no Asians where it isn't a pressing issue.


So, the English and French sources don't matter?


They are generally aware that there is an American continent (or two), there is a country that is called "America" as well, and have no issue differentiating between the two.


The US is the most influential of all nations in the Americas, certainly, but if its name or demonym was confusing to other nations and in other languages, why wouldn't they switch it to something else? This is just the way it's ended up.
The problem stems from the US because it has deviated from the way things really happened or at least it is not telling the whole story. It is surprising to see US citizens acting surprised when people tell them America is a continent; not a country. That immediately tells someone that there is piece of history not being told in schools.

There are sources in English that don't ignore these things, but unfortutanely, they don't seem to be used in schools in the US.

There is no country called America anywhere in the world; instead, there is a country whose name makes reference to a group of united states located somewhere on the American continent. The OF part makes is clear.

The history of the US, however, seems to acknowledge the issue because there have been attempts to give the terriroty its distinct own name.

Last edited by Haukur; 02-04-2016 at 07:17 AM..
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Old 02-04-2016, 08:12 AM
 
Location: Metro Phoenix
11,054 posts, read 16,747,040 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Haukur View Post
The problem stems from the US because it has deviated from the way things really happened or at least it is not telling the whole story. It is surprising to see US citizens acting surprised when people tell them America is a continent; not a country. That immediately tells someone that there is piece of history not being told in schools.

There are sources in English that don't ignore these things, but unfortutanely, they don't seem to be used in schools in the US.
Oh my god... just when it seems like you are starting to make a modicum of sense...

You don't know jack about the US or its education system, and evidently don't know many, if any, actual Americans. We are taught that there are two American continents, and this is about as common knowledge as it gets.

Maybe if you try really hard, and go into a sub-dump, poor rural area or somewhere like Detroit, you'll be able to find some kid who can't read who doesn't know America is a continent, but I imagine the same goes for Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, etc.

Quote:
There is no country called America anywhere in the world; instead, there is a country whose name makes reference to a group of united states located somewhere on the American continent. The OF part makes is clear.
And it clearly makes sense to English speakers, or we would have used different, disambiguating words instead.

Quote:
The history of the US, however, seems to acknowledge the issue because there have been attempts to give the terriroty its distinct own name.
Not really. These were passive, niche attempts, generally by individuals; there has been no collective attempt to do so because it's unnecessary.
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Old 02-04-2016, 09:37 AM
 
Location: So Cal/AZ
924 posts, read 758,261 times
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The United States is a "Federal Republic" Within the Americas, Please End Thread!
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Old 02-04-2016, 10:30 AM
 
Location: Somewhere
440 posts, read 373,516 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 415_s2k View Post
Oh my god... just when it seems like you are starting to make a modicum of sense...

You don't know jack about the US or its education system, and evidently don't know many, if any, actual Americans. We are taught that there are two American continents, and this is about as common knowledge as it gets.

Maybe if you try really hard, and go into a sub-dump, poor rural area or somewhere like Detroit, you'll be able to find some kid who can't read who doesn't know America is a continent, but I imagine the same goes for Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, etc.


And it clearly makes sense to English speakers, or we would have used different, disambiguating words instead.


Not really. These were passive, niche attempts, generally by individuals; there has been no collective attempt to do so because it's unnecessary.
So the fact that a German cartographer officially named the New World America never made sense to you?

We wouldn't be having this discussion if the US taught their kids America is a continent; not a country. I may not know much about the educational system in the US, I don't have to in the end, however, one can infer, given the facts, that kids are not taught that America is a continent, who named it so, etc.

America is one; not two or three. Do you consider East Europe and West Europe two continents?

There have been many attemtps to give the US territory a proper name as a nation during history with people coining fancy names like Freedonia, Usonia, etc. Are we denying this? This is the very acknowlegement that the US is lacking a proper name.

The English language cannot be isolated from the issue to justify the usage of America and American the way the US does, In fact, especially for conventions and other formal situations the US has to switch to other terms to disambiguate and not cause issues with the rest of America.
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Old 02-04-2016, 11:03 AM
 
Location: Seattle area
9,182 posts, read 12,052,983 times
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No such thing as one America.
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Old 02-04-2016, 12:30 PM
TKO
 
Location: On the Border
4,153 posts, read 4,249,261 times
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Asia and Europe are two continents yet one land mass. Never mind whatever is implied by leaving out Africa, which is attached as well. North and South America are two separate land masses yet clearly one continent. I'm so confused.
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Old 02-06-2016, 10:27 AM
 
Location: Somewhere
440 posts, read 373,516 times
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America is one; not two or three. North, Central and South are regional references within continents. Note that the word America is always there as it was first applied to the sourthen hemisphere when the northern hemisphere was still unexplored.
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Old 02-07-2016, 12:49 AM
 
Location: London, UK
4,091 posts, read 3,666,715 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Haukur View Post
America is one; not two or three. North, Central and South are regional references within continents. Note that the word America is always there as it was first applied to the sourthen hemisphere when the northern hemisphere was still unexplored.
Nope, America is 2 continents. You have the North American continental plate and the South American continental plate. There was a time when America was considered one continent (i.e. Olympic rings) but that notion has moved on since then.

What America is, is one landmass connected by a thin land bridge just like Africa and Asia.

In any case, from Baffin Island to Tierra del Fuego, people have the right to call themselves Americans if they so wish without any objection. Something the US population might struggle with.
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Old 02-07-2016, 01:26 AM
 
2,639 posts, read 1,977,044 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Neuling View Post
And because USA is just a description rather than a proper name, it is much harder to make an adjective and noun out of it. With the other American countries you have proper names where you just add -ian at the end, but since USA is not a real name, one can't say USAian or whatever. .
How about United State-ian?
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Old 02-07-2016, 05:20 AM
 
2,590 posts, read 4,509,844 times
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I've never heard of Canadians getting mad about it but I do see a lot of Central and South Americans griping about it. A lot of it is just wannabe "anti-colonialism" and whatever the anti-American fad of the day is from kids who still act like it's the late 1800's. These are little Che wannabes who are in denial about experiments like Venezuela. Instead of trying to fix their countries' problems they just blame them all on a country that, although doesn't have a spotless record as far as colonialism, has done far more good than bad, especially when compared with other powers.
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