Do you call U.S. citizens "Americans"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 issues: we have 7 continents in the USA that we learn about- North America and South America are different. In South America, they only have 1 American continent and consider themselves "Americans" the way all the people on the European continent consider themselves "Europeans." I didn't understand this because I would call them "South Americans."

The other issue is that in Spanish, they call us "estadounidense." There's a similar word in French. There isn't a word in English for "United Stateser," which is why many people say American. United Stateser is what they want us to call ourselves, but it doesn't translate.

I absolutely call myself an American. It's in our name. Mexico is actually "The United States of Mexico" but no one is telling them they can't be just Mexicans.

Ugh, no.

United Mexican States. Estados Unidos Mexicanos.

They both start with Estado Unidos...

Your translation is lacking gringo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As somebody from Central America, we call people from the United States “Americanos” yes, even though we are from the Americas.

Please tell your virtue signaling Canadian friend that it is not offensive to us!

It's just the South Americans who get so upset over it. Central Americans don't seem to care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The people of Venezuela are Americans too, OP.

Well they soon will be!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As somebody from Central America, we call people from the United States “Americanos” yes, even though we are from the Americas.

Please tell your virtue signaling Canadian friend that it is not offensive to us!

It's just the South Americans who get so upset over it. Central Americans don't seem to care.

I’ve never heard a South American call themselves Americans or Americanos. They call themselves, Colombianos Argentinos, Chilenos, Venezolanos
Etc., whatever but I’ve never heard them refer to themselves as Americanos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As somebody from Central America, we call people from the United States “Americanos” yes, even though we are from the Americas.

Please tell your virtue signaling Canadian friend that it is not offensive to us!

It's just the South Americans who get so upset over it. Central Americans don't seem to care.

I’ve never heard a South American call themselves Americans or Americanos. They call themselves, Colombianos Argentinos, Chilenos, Venezolanos
Etc., whatever but I’ve never heard them refer to themselves as Americanos.

Agreed. But they get upset if people from USA call themselves American.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have never seen this as an issue. I think of myself as American and regularly refer to U.S. residents as Americans. But I was recently called out on this by a Canadian friend who said that they (and Central and South Americans) take offense at us calling ourselves "American", as though the rest of North American and South America don't exist.

My response is that it's a shortening of "United State of America" not a reference to the continent I live on. And I can't think of any other countries in North or South America who use America in their country name. What else would say we are? United Statesian?
Also, if I were going to refer to my larger region (like Europeans or Asians or Africans) I would say I'm North American, not simply American.

But, liberal me wants to do the right thing. Have you thought about this and how do you refer to yourself if not as an "American"?

You need to be politically correct not to offend your Canadian friend and call yourself USAer. And why are you referring to him as a Canadian if he is American as well?

[Anonymous]

Canadian here. We do not want to be called Americans! Your Canadian friend is nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The people of Venezuela are Americans too, OP.

YES!!! Happy Jan 6th, Fellow Americans!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was in law school I did an international mediation skills program in Europe. It was made very clear to us that you never refer to people from the US as "the Americans" to anyone else from the western hemisphere because you will most certainly cause offense. The Americas stretch from Canada to Chile, and everyone who lives here are "Americans."

I was taught this as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As somebody from Central America, we call people from the United States “Americanos” yes, even though we are from the Americas.

Please tell your virtue signaling Canadian friend that it is not offensive to us!

It's just the South Americans who get so upset over it. Central Americans don't seem to care.

I’ve never heard a South American call themselves Americans or Americanos. They call themselves, Colombianos Argentinos, Chilenos, Venezolanos
Etc., whatever but I’ve never heard them refer to themselves as Americanos.

Agreed. But they get upset if people from USA call themselves American.

False.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2 issues: we have 7 continents in the USA that we learn about- North America and South America are different. In South America, they only have 1 American continent and consider themselves "Americans" the way all the people on the European continent consider themselves "Europeans." I didn't understand this because I would call them "South Americans."

Anonymous wrote:
It's South Americans who are the most vocal about people in USA not calling ourselves American. The Canadian is just repeating their party line.

There is not a "North America" to South Americans. They consider both continents to be one American continent. That seems the easiest to fix actually. Their schools should teach S and N America as separate continents to stop the confusion.

Either this is a terminally online people trope or is limited to the Spanish-speaking part of South America because I can guarantee you that as a citizen of South America's largest country, I have never heard this that you are claiming. Ever. Maybe it's a teenager thing and I'm an out-of-touch middle-aged lady, but among my extensive network of South American friends and family, this is definitely not a thing.

[Anonymous]

Yankee Go Home.
There fify. USAians are Yankees. Sorry, CSAians.

[Anonymous]

I am Canadian and I have only ever heard Americans. I have never heard any Canadian care or consider themselves an American either. We are all from the Americas but the general colloquial term for people from the USA is American.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2 issues: we have 7 continents in the USA that we learn about- North America and South America are different. In South America, they only have 1 American continent and consider themselves "Americans" the way all the people on the European continent consider themselves "Europeans." I didn't understand this because I would call them "South Americans."

The other issue is that in Spanish, they call us "estadounidense." There's a similar word in French. There isn't a word in English for "United Stateser," which is why many people say American. United Stateser is what they want us to call ourselves, but it doesn't translate.

I absolutely call myself an American. It's in our name. Mexico is actually "The United States of Mexico" but no one is telling them they can't be just Mexicans.

Well, yea, the word exists but c'mon -- I spend a lot of time in Latin America and am fluent in Spanish and very, very rarely hear this. The large majority of Spanish speakers in Latin America call us norteamericanos or, more informally (and usually not pejoratively) gringos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a push to get us to change the names of songs like "American the beautiful" because the South Americans get so upset over it. They're very vocal online.

And yet they all want to come here.

No, they don't.