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That very view is the problem. You hijack the entire continent and its name just because of the infamous US-American sloppiness.
Your China analogy sucks If China were called, say, the People's Republic of Asia and they thus referred to themselves as THE Asians, while saying the Japanese are not as Asian as they are, then your analogy would be correct. Basically, it doesn't matter. Most people simply play along as they know what is meant by Americans. But don't interpret that as the world's agreeing with your perspective, they do know that the US is just one of many American countries. They just don't care about it for the most part.
Totally agree. At the end of the day, the name really doesn't matter, it's just a denomination. But, I only wrote because I was considering interesting to see the internal, unconscious root of the question. And already I gave my reasons about the matter in the previous posts.
Estadounidense is the correct form in Spanish as per the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language, which is the last authority in the Spanish language.
I spent a year in South America....pretty much EVERYONE constantly called me the 'Americano'.
This is the first time I've ever heard the word 'Estadounidense'.
If this is important to you, please train your fellow spanish-speakers to start using correct Spanish. Once they start referring to me by your correct word, I'll start introducing myself as such to them.
I'm a polite person first, and not a politically anal angry person. Until the other becomes common usage in Latin America, I'm an Americano for the sake of simplicity and friendliness when meeting regular normal Spanish-speakers who might not be familiar with angry anal Spanish-speakers agendas.
I think the OP's students, and anyone else that thinks like them, really should get over themselves and realize they belong to the possibly <=1% of the world population that really cares. In my experience, Brits almost always call the US 'America' and everyone else calls the natural born inhabitants of the US Americans. Even Latin Americans and Spaniards say the world americano instead of estadounidense simply because it's shorter and simpler to say it that way
I spent a year in South America....pretty much EVERYONE constantly called me the 'Americano'.
This is the first time I've ever heard the word 'Estadounidense'.
If this is important to you, please train your fellow spanish-speakers to start using correct Spanish. Once they start referring to me by your correct word, I'll start introducing myself as such to them.
I'm a polite person first, and not a politically anal angry person. Until the other becomes common usage in Latin America, I'm an Americano for the sake of simplicity and friendliness when meeting regular normal Spanish-speakers who might not be familiar with angry anal Spanish-speakers agendas.
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The correct word as used in newspapers, etc, is "norteamericano" or "estadounidense".
On the street level thay might call you "americano", "yanki", "imperialista", "gringo pichiche", "güerito", "guiri", "capullo", etc.
The correct word as used in newspapers, etc, is "norteamericano" or "estadounidense".
On the street level thay might call you "americano", "yanki", "imperialista", "gringo pichiche", "güerito", "guiri", "capullo", etc.
I was called a 'norteamericano' quite a few times....otherwise 'americano' or 'gringo'. I was never called any of the others in my year in South America.
The only people who ever called me 'yanki' were Brits....who aren't aware that yankee refers to northerners within the U.S. (I am a northerner, so never bothers me, as southerners in the U.S. call us yankees as well), but a southerner would be floored to be called that. I always found it funny Brits weren't aware of the American usage of that word I didnt realize that some spanish-speakers took the Brit variation of that word either. Never encountered it in South America, might be a 'Spain influenced by many Brits in Spain' thing. I think Mexicans would be aware of the American interpretation of 'yankee' meaning 'northerner within the U.S.'
I believe you are in Spain, so you must have heavy Brit influence with that incorrect usage of 'yanki' word.
I was called a 'norteamericano' quite a few times....otherwise 'americano' or 'gringo'. I was never called any of the others in my year in South America.
The only people who ever called me 'yanki' were Brits....who aren't aware that yankee refers to northerners within the U.S. (I am a northerner, so never bothers me, as southerners in the U.S. call us yankees as well), but a southerner would be floored to be called that. I always found it funny Brits weren't aware of the American usage of that word I didnt realize that some spanish-speakers took the Brit variation of that word either. Never encountered it in South America, might be a 'Spain influenced by many Brits in Spain' thing. I think Mexicans would be aware of the American interpretation of 'yankee' meaning 'northerner within the U.S.'
I believe you are in Spain, so you must have heavy Brit influence with that incorrect usage of 'yanki' word.
Surprising you never got called Yankee down there, because when I was in Guatemala somebody shouted "Go home Yankee" at me even though I'm not American at all. I'd be surprised if Mexicans knew the word only applied to certain states because as you say, we don't make a distinction and use the word incorrectly. I think the word 'Yank' meaning any American is much more widespread than just our influence, unless we're talking influence from centuries ago. I imagine the word Yank goes back to a time when most of the US population/importance was centred on the northeast, so it's easy to see how different nationalities took the word to mean any American.
I was called a 'norteamericano' quite a few times....otherwise 'americano' or 'gringo'. I was never called any of the others in my year in South America.
The only people who ever called me 'yanki' were Brits....who aren't aware that yankee refers to northerners within the U.S. (I am a northerner, so never bothers me, as southerners in the U.S. call us yankees as well), but a southerner would be floored to be called that. I always found it funny Brits weren't aware of the American usage of that word I didnt realize that some spanish-speakers took the Brit variation of that word either. Never encountered it in South America, might be a 'Spain influenced by many Brits in Spain' thing. I think Mexicans would be aware of the American interpretation of 'yankee' meaning 'northerner within the U.S.'
I believe you are in Spain, so you must have heavy Brit influence with that incorrect usage of 'yanki' word.
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Not really.
American English is more important here.
British English does not have much influence here since it's barely intelligible.
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.
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.
Last edited by Manolón; 07-21-2011 at 07:20 AM..
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If China were called, say, the People's Republic of Asia and they thus referred to themselves as THE Asians, while saying the Japanese are not as Asian as they are, then your analogy would be correct.
Once they start referring to me by your correct word, I'll start introducing myself as such to them. 
