Why do so many people on the internet get upset at that word? "American" has referred to the people living in the US since its formation. In fact, the word referred to those people for over a century before the country was founded. Why do people get so worked up over it?
Using the Word "American"
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Because when you say Americans it sounds like you are referring to the people of the entire continent and the people in at least México don't like to get associated with the gringos as we call them, we'll refute North American too since that includes Canada and México[footnote]Don't believe me? Look it up México is part of the North American region of the continent.[/footnote], it's for a lot of historical reasons, here in México the USA is very resented[footnote]By the people not the politicians and merchants they love the USA.[/footnote] for the fact that about half of that country used to be México and there is still a lot of hatred because in the USA Pancho Villa is recorded in history as a terrorist even though he is a hero here, doesn't help that the name of that country doesn't allow for a unique way of calling the people living in it since it's called United States of America, though the formal way that we call the inhabitants of that country is "Estadounidenses" which translates to Unitedstateians which sounds just weird, anyway it's mostly to do with the fact that people don't like to get associated with that country, I think, for what I've seen anyway.
American is a nationality, not a way of life. The country is too large and the culture too diverse to be put into a single category. Regional differences play a very big part when it comes to culture though there are a few norms across the country as a whole.
Most of the complaints come from other residents of the Americas, who don't like the way language works. The Kingdom of Spain is "Spain". The Federal Republic of Germany is "Germany". The People's Republic of China is "China". So why is it a surprise that the United States of America gets shortened to "America"? That's being consistent in language.
Shame anyone feels that way. Also, "Estadounidenses" is blasted hard to say.Kaleion said:
Anyhow: When I see people complain about this issue, it's often complaining simply to be able to complain. So I would take it with a grain of salt.
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Most of them are just trying to be smartasses because you see we think pointing that out it's clever!CM156 said:
So yeah do take it with a grain of salt please, also Estadounidenses is not hard to say at all if you're native language is Spanish.
Though I would like to mention that a lot of people in México blame the USA for a lot of problems and are not in good graces with them, the strongest point here is that they don't help with the war on drugs even though most of the drug traffic going on here is going directly to the USA for they're ridiculously high demand for drugs, the point can be reinforced by the fact that a LOT of these drugs are not even produced in México they just pass through here because there is no other way, they make a lot more points but I don't want to get overtly political here because I'm not very familiar with politics and that stuff, but yeah there's a lot of friction going on and I'm not sure that the "Americans" know of it, though I couldn't tell you if there's more people that like USA or hate it since there are a lot of people here that wished they were you too, it's a little divided and complicated right now.
Eh, it's annoying and unweildly, and to be honest it'd be a problem here if Australia was divided into more than one country and one of them kept the name Australia.
It's just unfortunate that there's no way to easily differentiate between inhabitants of the US and inhabitants of America (as a continent).
I just use the phrases "people from the US" or "US citizens" etc. "Yanks" also works but it's not accurate (I'm lead to believe it only applies to the Northern Atlantic area?[footnote]Also, it's a fuck around when times for NBA games are given as "Central" or "Pacific" or "Atlantic" or "Mountain" time. Why the fuck not "GMT - 5" or whatever?[/footnote])
It's just unfortunate that there's no way to easily differentiate between inhabitants of the US and inhabitants of America (as a continent).
I just use the phrases "people from the US" or "US citizens" etc. "Yanks" also works but it's not accurate (I'm lead to believe it only applies to the Northern Atlantic area?[footnote]Also, it's a fuck around when times for NBA games are given as "Central" or "Pacific" or "Atlantic" or "Mountain" time. Why the fuck not "GMT - 5" or whatever?[/footnote])
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Hey!, I decided to ask some friends here are the answers they gave me:
"It's because we are more American than they are and they insist on calling themselves like that because they are fucking retarded"
And
"By calling themselves America they are implying that we are less of America than they are, like saying we are a lesser nation"
My friends are Mexican too BTW, make of that what you will.
"It's because we are more American than they are and they insist on calling themselves like that because they are fucking retarded"
And
"By calling themselves America they are implying that we are less of America than they are, like saying we are a lesser nation"
My friends are Mexican too BTW, make of that what you will.
I think Native Americans might disagree with you about that comment.Kaleion said:
Wikipedia seems to say that people in Mexico like the guyKaleion said:
I wish more people would use 'american' when referring to the language rather than 'english' but other than that i have no problem with it. If i lived in south America and someone called me American i would certainly get hostile though...
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Right or wrong people here feel like that, though people here feel like they deserve the land more because almost everyone here is pretty a combination of white and native, therefore people here feel like they are more American than the guys at the USA, doesn't make it right but it's easy to explain.Volf said:
As you can see at least politically speaking a big chunk of the USA used to be México, but I guess the hatred comes mostly because they don't teach this at school which makes people think it's a conspiracy, you know how that works I'm sure, it doesn't really have to make sense.
As I said he is a hero here, and people here specially in the North of the country are still upset about that, though they do like decorating restaurants with Wanted posters of him, anyway I don't they'll forgive the US for that, I mean just because they were on opposite sides of the conflict does not make him a terrorist, it just makes him a member of a conflicting faction and it is kind of demeaning to classify him as that.Volf said:
Ok I've never heard of the guy before, so I guess you have to live near Mexico to know about the guy, which tells me that the US doesn't really care about the guy either.Kaleion said:Right or wrong people here feel like that, though people here feel like they deserve the land more because almost everyone here is pretty a combination of white and native, therefore people here feel like they are more American than the guys at the USA, doesn't make it right but it's easy to explain.Volf said:
As you can see at least politically speaking a big chunk of the USA used to be México, but I guess the hatred comes mostly because they don't teach this at school which makes people think it's a conspiracy, you know how that works I'm sure, it doesn't really have to make sense.As I said he is a hero here, and people here specially in the North of the country are still upset about that, though they do like decorating restaurants with Wanted posters of him, anyway I don't they'll forgive the US for that, I mean just because they were on opposite sides of the conflict does not make him a terrorist, it just makes him a member of a conflicting faction and it is kind of demeaning to classify him as that.Volf said:
Yep, sounds like paranoia and ignorance.
Side note, if people are so proud to be Mexican, then why speak Spanish? Why would you speak the language of the oppressor? Why not Mayan? Last I checked, don't Mayan people live in the Yucatan peninsula?
pish posh, people get so caught up in pointless semantics. You still somehow understand what someone means when they say american, then congratulations, the language has succeeded in its endeavor of translating thoughts into a form that can be communicated among other human beings. Everything else is pointless.
Edit: Of course, it probably would be more fitting to be referred to more clearly by nation, but USian or United Statesian just really isn't nearly as catchy, thus nobody uses it.
Edit: Of course, it probably would be more fitting to be referred to more clearly by nation, but USian or United Statesian just really isn't nearly as catchy, thus nobody uses it.
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Well you're question actually made me facepaplm, regardless do you know how many different cultures were in México? Mayans, Toltecs, Aztecs/Mexicas, Toltecs, Teotihucans, Totonacs, etc, well let's just leave it in a lot, the reason why the Mexican people are so proud is because we are a combination of a lot of different cultures that have melted into one including the Spanish culture, though the main reason it's because as you may know the Spanish conquered nearly the entire continent and enslaved and indoctrinated the natives, also although the Mexican revolution of Independence [small](That's the one from 1810 not the one from 1910)[/small] was won by the insurgents the leaders of the Independece were for the most part the "Criollos" which were basically Spanish people [small](That means both parents were Spanish)[/small] born in México which probably is a huge indication as to why the Spanish culture was so prevalent not to mention that the most common language on the whole country was Spanish since every region had it's own dialect, does that make sense now?Volf said:
I thought that the Spanish conquest was important history for the entire continent, I mean here in México we study at least a little bit of the Independences of every country in América, well anyway that' the really simplified answer, I would recommend you look it up because that's actually pretty interesting.
[sub][sub] Now that I think of it all of that was off topic...
Please forgive me for that, I don't think my reaction to that question was very appropriate.[/sub][/sub]
Sorry I'm a little ignorant about Mexico. So then, why don't more people speak languages besides Spanish? I have yet to met one Mexican-American who knew the language of the Mayan, Toltecs, Aztec, Teotihucans, Totonacs, ect.Kaleion said:
I don't know if this is a fair comparison, but why isn't Mexico more like India? India has many different languages, and English isn't the only language that most people know.
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It's OK, but a lot of people speak dialects here in México, it's not particularly common in urban areas but in rural areas is very prevalent, also Yucatan is filled with Mayan people that speak the Mayan dialect, so it is like India but it's not as easy to see because in the urban areas most people speak Spanish, though I think English is more common than the dialects nowadays, they actually have recently started to try conserve this languages in our culture by teaching them in elementary school but only certain regions, hopefully it will become more common in the future.Volf said:
Sorry again I lost my temper.
