Reply to Referring to people from USA as "American"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I would say that when you (plural you) are speaking English, the correct word is "American", and when you're speaking Spanish, the correct word is "estadounidense".

Especially since [b]there is no continent called "America"[/b]. The continents are North America and South America. People from Canada, the US, Mexico, and the countries in Central America are all North Americans. People from the countries in South America are South Americans. [/quote]

You have been taught that there is no continent called America.  Most people in the world, and all Latin Americans, are taught differently.  [/quote]

How do you know that "most people in the world", and all Latin Americans, are taught that the continents are Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and America?

Also, geologically and biogeographically it does not make sense to lump North America and South America into one continent.

[/quote]

I am Latin American and have lived abroad extensively.  I know for a fact that Latin Americans  are taught that America is one continent.  While I haven't done the math, and "most" can be a vague word, I am positive that most countries teach their nationals that America is one continent -- exceptions are the USA, the Uk, and other former British colonies, China and India (all well populated, but just a handful among all countries in the world).

We can argue about the geoLogical part, part historically it would be silly to deny the strong linkages between what you have been taught as North America and South America.  Do you want to talk about the differences between Panama and Colombia?  (By the way, you do know that Panama was part of Colombia, until the USA intervened and fomented the partition of the country so that the U.S. could build the canal -- after The U.S. intervened in Nicaragua and pretty much occupied the country but realized it wasn't feasible to build the canal there, right?)

[b]The point is that differences in views about 1 vs 2 continents have a big role in Op's question[/b].[/quote]

OP here. I agree this must be why I'm corrected a lot! It's a pretty interesting discussion. I even had most of my Spanish teachers correct me from saying I'm "American." Most of my teachers were Cuban or Mexican. I hadn't had anyone from South America correct me though. I thought they referred to themselves as sudamericanos and didn't realize they called themselves American too.

I guess being from the USA I never refer to myself by continent the way we refer to Asians, Europeans and Africans by continent. [/quote]

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