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Forums - General Discussion - What do foreigners think of the United States of America?

PBBN43 on 06 March 2012
insomniac17 said:
PBBN43 said:

I have a lot of things to say about it (mostly negative stuff), but what annoys me the most is how they think that the entire American continent is theirs (and it's just one continent by all logical geographical definitions, the US, and to a lesser extent Canada, seperate the continent so that instead of making the sacrifice of saying "US and Canada" they can say North America, without realizing that Mexico is part of North America).
It's offensive and disrespectful to the other Americans to refer to the US as "America" and using the demonym "American" exclusively for them.

Edit: "Oh, and as a favor, let us know what country you're from." I was born in Brazil, went to live in Italy when I was 2, and I've been in Canada since 2010.

I personally disagree with this. The name of the country is the United States of America. The name of Canada is Canada. The name of Mexico is Mexico. Only one of these has America in it, and that is the US. Canadians, Mexicans, and Americans. It is not out of arrogance that we use the term American, but because the name of our country contains America. What would you recommend we use instead?

A demonym derived off United Stated could be less ambiguous, like "United Statesian". It doesn't sound good (especially in English), but it's more adequate. Although, perhaps it would be more suitable to not use a demonym as the US doesn't have a "proper" country name like the rest of the countries do. Lots of cities don't have a demonym and I've never seen anyone complain about that.

And if "It is not out of arrogance that we use the term American" how can you explain US citizens referring to the country as "America"? That seems arrogant to me.



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PBBN43 on 06 March 2012
insomniac17 said:
Netyaroze said:
insomniac17 said:

I personally disagree with this. The name of the country is the United States of America. The name of Canada is Canada. The name of Mexico is Mexico. Only one of these has America in it, and that is the US. Canadians, Mexicans, and Americans. It is not out of arrogance that we use the term American, but because the name of our country contains America. What would you recommend we use instead?


Here some alternatives to american: Unitian, Statian,Usaian. Dont go around and steal the name of a continent just for yourself.

Great! Now here's what you do. Go convince the rest of the world to use those terms. I did not choose the term, but I use it because that is what is commonly accepted; just the same as everyone else. If you don't like it, change it. Get people to change the word that they use. If you do that, then we can all be proud that the term American can be applied to not just any single country, but to any person living in North or South America.

To blame citizens of the US for using the term American is absurd not only because America is in the name of our country, but also because none of us chose it. It has been around longer than any of us, and the rest of the world uses it too.


America is NOT the name of the country. It's part of the name, in reference to the continent. Up untill the US' indepence in 1776 (and for a few more decades too), there's not a single written mention of the usage of the word "America" as the name of the country. It only happened after the US selected its name, so it wasn't originally intended for the US to be called "America".



insomniac17 on 06 March 2012
PBBN43 said:
insomniac17 said:

I personally disagree with this. The name of the country is the United States of America. The name of Canada is Canada. The name of Mexico is Mexico. Only one of these has America in it, and that is the US. Canadians, Mexicans, and Americans. It is not out of arrogance that we use the term American, but because the name of our country contains America. What would you recommend we use instead?

A demonym derived off United Stated could be less ambiguous, like "United Statesian". It doesn't sound good (especially in English), but it's more adequate. Although, perhaps it would be more suitable to not use a demonym as the US doesn't have a "proper" country name like the rest of the countries do. Lots of cities don't have a demonym and I've never seen anyone complain about that.

And if "It is not out of arrogance that we use the term American" how can you explain US citizens referring to the country as "America"? That seems arrogant to me.

I think that it would be more inconvenient to not have anything for citizens of the US. It is a quick and easy way to identify someone as from a country, rather than saying "I'm a citizen of the US." What that term is, I don't really mind too much. The American label has been around forever, and that is how I grew up identifying myself. It is also how the rest of the world identifies us.

It isn't arrogant either. Again, America is part of the name of our country. We didn't choose the name, but it is what it is. Rather than say "United States of America," most of us shorten it to the USA, the US, or America. I have no problems just using the US if people are offended by America, but I do not think that it is fair to call us arrogant for using America to identify the country when that is part of the country's name. I can tell you that I do not know a single person that uses America out of some twisted desire to put down every other country in both North and South America.

PBBN43 said:
insomniac17 said:

Great! Now here's what you do. Go convince the rest of the world to use those terms. I did not choose the term, but I use it because that is what is commonly accepted; just the same as everyone else. If you don't like it, change it. Get people to change the word that they use. If you do that, then we can all be proud that the term American can be applied to not just any single country, but to any person living in North or South America.

To blame citizens of the US for using the term American is absurd not only because America is in the name of our country, but also because none of us chose it. It has been around longer than any of us, and the rest of the world uses it too.


America is NOT the name of the country. It's part of the name, in reference to the continent. Up untill the US' indepence in 1776 (and for a few more decades too), there's not a single written mention of the usage of the word "America" as the name of the country. It only happened after the US selected its name, so it wasn't originally intended for the US to be called "America".

I said it is in the name of the country.



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PBBN43 on 06 March 2012
insomniac17 said:
PBBN43 said:
insomniac17 said:

I personally disagree with this. The name of the country is the United States of America. The name of Canada is Canada. The name of Mexico is Mexico. Only one of these has America in it, and that is the US. Canadians, Mexicans, and Americans. It is not out of arrogance that we use the term American, but because the name of our country contains America. What would you recommend we use instead?

A demonym derived off United Stated could be less ambiguous, like "United Statesian". It doesn't sound good (especially in English), but it's more adequate. Although, perhaps it would be more suitable to not use a demonym as the US doesn't have a "proper" country name like the rest of the countries do. Lots of cities don't have a demonym and I've never seen anyone complain about that.

And if "It is not out of arrogance that we use the term American" how can you explain US citizens referring to the country as "America"? That seems arrogant to me.

I think that it would be more inconvenient to not have anything for citizens of the US. It is a quick and easy way to identify someone as from a country, rather than saying "I'm a citizen of the US." What that term is, I don't really mind too much. The American label has been around forever, and that is how I grew up identifying myself. It is also how the rest of the world identifies us.

It isn't arrogant either. Again, America is part of the name of our country. We didn't choose the name, but it is what it is. Rather than say "United States of America," most of us shorten it to the USA, the US, or America. I have no problems just using the US if people are offended by America, but I do not think that it is fair to call us arrogant for using America to identify the country when that is part of the country's name. I can tell you that I do not know a single person that uses America out of some twisted desire to put down every other country in both North and South America.

PBBN43 said:
insomniac17 said:

Great! Now here's what you do. Go convince the rest of the world to use those terms. I did not choose the term, but I use it because that is what is commonly accepted; just the same as everyone else. If you don't like it, change it. Get people to change the word that they use. If you do that, then we can all be proud that the term American can be applied to not just any single country, but to any person living in North or South America.

To blame citizens of the US for using the term American is absurd not only because America is in the name of our country, but also because none of us chose it. It has been around longer than any of us, and the rest of the world uses it too.


America is NOT the name of the country. It's part of the name, in reference to the continent. Up untill the US' indepence in 1776 (and for a few more decades too), there's not a single written mention of the usage of the word "America" as the name of the country. It only happened after the US selected its name, so it wasn't originally intended for the US to be called "America".

I said it is in the name of the country.


I know it's not your intention, but it comes across as arrogant. US is shorter than America and it's not ambiguous. I don't see any reason to use America. About "I said it is in the name of the country", that doesn't mean anything, America is in reference to the continent. I said that it's not the name of the country, which it really isn't, so there's no point using it.



crissindahouse on 06 March 2012
Netyaroze said:
insomniac17 said:
PBBN43 said:

I have a lot of things to say about it (mostly negative stuff), but what annoys me the most is how they think that the entire American continent is theirs (and it's just one continent by all logical geographical definitions, the US, and to a lesser extent Canada, seperate the continent so that instead of making the sacrifice of saying "US and Canada" they can say North America, without realizing that Mexico is part of North America).
It's offensive and disrespectful to the other Americans to refer to the US as "America" and using the demonym "American" exclusively for them.

Edit: "Oh, and as a favor, let us know what country you're from." I was born in Brazil, went to live in Italy when I was 2, and I've been in Canada since 2010.

I personally disagree with this. The name of the country is the United States of America. The name of Canada is Canada. The name of Mexico is Mexico. Only one of these has America in it, and that is the US. Canadians, Mexicans, and Americans. It is not out of arrogance that we use the term American, but because the name of our country contains America. What would you recommend we use instead?


Here some alternatives to american: Unitian, Statian,Usaian. Dont go around and steal the name of a continent just for yourself.

hey i thought the name is jsut for the one and only.

 

ok let's forget the extra letter in your word^^



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Netyaroze on 06 March 2012
insomniac17 said:
Netyaroze said:
insomniac17 said:

I personally disagree with this. The name of the country is the United States of America. The name of Canada is Canada. The name of Mexico is Mexico. Only one of these has America in it, and that is the US. Canadians, Mexicans, and Americans. It is not out of arrogance that we use the term American, but because the name of our country contains America. What would you recommend we use instead?


Here some alternatives to american: Unitian, Statian,Usaian. Dont go around and steal the name of a continent just for yourself.

Great! Now here's what you do. Go convince the rest of the world to use those terms. I did not choose the term, but I use it because that is what is commonly accepted; just the same as everyone else. If you don't like it, change it. Get people to change the word that they use. If you do that, then we can all be proud that the term American can be applied to not just any single country, but to any person living in North or South America.

To blame citizens of the US for using the term American is absurd not only because America is in the name of our country, but also because none of us chose it. It has been around longer than any of us, and the rest of the world uses it too.



I might just do that. You should apologize to the mexicans and canadians that your ancestors were rude and without manners.

Rath on 06 March 2012
NintendoPie said:
miz1q2w3e said:
Play4Fun said:
Inferior to Canadians.

No, seriously. Canada is a much better country.

hear, hear!! XP

Seriously, Canada's awesome, it's kinda like the US but without all the religious nuts, obesity, hating others...etc

US, Y U make fun of Canada all the time?? D:

Is it necessary to always say this? It's really generalising Religion. I'm religious but I'm not a huge nut about it. :P I don't think Pokemon are demons or anything. I also don't think that evolution isn't real, :/ is it possible to not say "religious nuts"?

The complaint isn't about religious people in general - it's about then nutty ones. America has them aplenty.



NintendoPie on 06 March 2012
Rath said:
NintendoPie said:
miz1q2w3e said:
Play4Fun said:
Inferior to Canadians.

No, seriously. Canada is a much better country.

hear, hear!! XP

Seriously, Canada's awesome, it's kinda like the US but without all the religious nuts, obesity, hating others...etc

US, Y U make fun of Canada all the time?? D:

Is it necessary to always say this? It's really generalising Religion. I'm religious but I'm not a huge nut about it. :P I don't think Pokemon are demons or anything. I also don't think that evolution isn't real, :/ is it possible to not say "religious nuts"?

The complaint isn't about religious people in general - it's about then nutty ones. America has them aplenty.

I know. That is wny I said the bolded.



insomniac17 on 06 March 2012
PBBN43 said:

I know it's not your intention, but it comes across as arrogant. US is shorter than America and it's not ambiguous. I don't see any reason to use America. About "I said it is in the name of the country", that doesn't mean anything, America is in reference to the continent. I said that it's not the name of the country, which it really isn't, so there's no point using it.

Then get everyone who uses it to change what they say. Across the world. If there was a different term when I was young, I would have grown up using that. It is because everyone uses it that I do too. There isn't really another word that is widely accepted for identifying a US citizen. Everyone just uses American.

And US is shorter than America. I think most people do use US when talking about the country. I do, and the people I know do. But you do hear America, and that is because it is a part of the name of the country that we use it. You are right; it isn't the name of the country. But it is part of the name. And the name is long and unwieldy. No one wants to say United States of America every time we talk about the US. So we use other terms. America is one of them, because it is part of the name. US/USA are others because they are acronyms for the name.

I'm not trying to be a jerk here, and we are really arguing over semantics, but my point is just to say that... People here grew up using those terms because everyone else does. Everyone in the world uses them. We could blame people way back when for starting it, but they aren't alive now. Saying that we're arrogant for using the terms that we grew up with, and that everyone in the world uses seems rather cruel because it isn't just us, and we didn't start it. Yes, we aren't changing it... but no one else is either.

Netyaroze said:

I might just do that. You should apologize to the mexicans and canadians that your ancestors were rude and without manners.

Certainly. Let this be my formal apology to all Canadians and Mexicans (and anyone from South America) out there who have ever taken offense to the term "American" being used to refer to a US citizen. My ancestors should be ashamed to ignore such a significant part of the world. I'm sorry.



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Panama on 06 March 2012

War crazed consumerist fat morons whose lives are dictated by celebrities, religion and equally moronic politicians that don't know a lick about running a country.

Don't worry, I'm sure we're perceived as crazy knife totting rednecks that ride kangaroos all day and are run by a soulless ginger.