I correct anyone that will use America to refer to the US cause not only it’s incorrect in every single way, but it’s imperialistic and colonialist to do so.
Also it’s easier to just say “US” (United States).
I see a lot of Latinxs doing it too and it drives me insane, we should be the first ones correcting.
America is a whole continent, WE are America.
Like René said: “it’s as stupid as saying Africa is just Morocco”
EDIT: go cry a river about me saying “Latinx” no one cares about y’all strawman argument. Grow up.
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Yes, I am
Bookmarking to come back and read the com
Used to but since the word has taken such a negative connotation as a result, they can keep it.
Not really…
America is the shortest word in Spanish.
US? You need to pronounce it in English
In Peru we usually say “Estados Unidos”
But American is just easier.
No, I’m not gonna say “EEUU” when talking.
“Death to America” rolls off the tongue better than “Death to the USA”
I don’t really care when talking in English, I got used to it. But I really dislike when someone who speaks Spanish talks about USA as America. In Spanish America is the continent, not the country.
Yep
I’m Iranian, the US is called “Amrika” in Persian. Nobody in Iran thinks of “America” as anything besides the US. Are you saying Iranians are colonialist and imperialist for doing so?
Lol
Saying latinx is even dumber
Not only am I sick of people saying America when they mean The US, I’m also sick of people saying The Americas when they mean America
I hope that you are only talking about people in Latin America because even Spaniards refer to United Statesians As Americans.
Otherwise getting upset about this is crazy because the native standard and most of the colloquial language in nearly every single country in the world uses the continent of America as an eytnmym for someone from the United States.
Its 100% not incorrect and correcting someone on this is very out of line and borderline rude
Some examples.
Turkish: Amerika/amerikalî
Russian: Amerikanskiy
Moldovan: americānesc
German: amerikanisch
French: Américaine
Arabic: Amrikiun
Etc
Let united Statesians keep it tbh. because they clearly couldn’t come up with a original name for the country
god who gives a shit
No, it’s the nickname and demonym for people from the US in English.
Do people in East Asia demand China stop calling itself Zhongguo? No, it’s the name in their language despite them not literally being the Middle Kingdom
https://preview.redd.it/8vs7898pa4ue1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=459c5602abf04a88aa23210138c25eb5544a6ecc
There’s a basic language confusion you just need to get used to. In Spanish, America is a continent that includes North and South America. In English, America is a shorthand for the name of a country. The supercontinent that comprises North and South America is actually called The Americas. It happens to be consistent with how land masses are referred to, eg. The Carolinas.
Yes
I can’t think of something as irrelevant as this specific grievance. Only progres have an issue with this today (you’re a Spanish Republican, lol). The US was (arguably still is, but the world’s more multipolar) the dominant world power. They had the clout to get people to call them what THEY want. Not like Turkey and their “Türkiye” thingy. I think it’s only us and the Francophones who still call them United States.
Americans call their country America when speaking English. But we call it Estados Unidos and their people are estadounidenses to us (or gringos, too). We think of “América” as a single continent, they think of it as two. Whatever.
No, it has another meaning in english, at worst synonym. I don’t know why people get so angry.
united states of America.
Don’t overthink this.
>I see a lot of Latinxs doing it too and it drives me insane, we should be the first ones correcting. America is a whole continent, WE are America. Like René said: “it’s as stupid as saying Africa is just Morocco”
It’s as stupid as saying Latinxs
I used to feel that way, but at this point I’ve given up. I don’t even care about ‘latino’ as much anymore either. I wish latin america could be its own thing, separate from the US, with a name that has no connection to europe or the west, but I’m sure I’m in the minority on this.
Yes!
I know for people in the US it’s really just the terminology they grew up hearing, but from my pov after growing up in latin america, it sounds very entitled and arrogant.
But not as entitled as using the term “latinx”, that’s just ridicolous.
Totally irrelevant.
Lol
Not really? The only people who I see who are annoyed by it are like wannabe Chicanos or other “latinx” folks. We have to differentiate between north and South America anyway
No
I don’t think it’s a huge deal, i mean the full name of the country is The United States of America. To be honest though i’m just really use to only saying the US or United States, I only ever say america when referring to myself as american. Regardless I wouldn’t really say there’s a confusion either between the continent and the country, typically people refer to the US as America and the continents by The Americas.
I dont correct others but I always say statesian, USian, people from the US, yankee, etc
I don’t understand why US Anglos are so hell-bent on crying over the use of the demonym “American”. I swear, it’s the same bunch of people who insist on using the term, “Latinx”.
Just don’t.
Yes, because there is no country called America, but I understand that most people do it just to shorten “United States of America.” Most people aren’t trying to be political.
That said, I find the term ‘Latinx’ even more imperialistic and colonial. It was coined by virtue-signaling U.S. academics who seem too lazy or uninformed to understand or respect our individual cultural and national identities.
>I correct anyone that will use America to refer to the US cause not only it’s incorrect in every single way, but it’s imperialistic and colonialist to do so.
Imagine living in such first world privilege, surely brought by centuries of imperialism and colonialism, that the way some country (not yours) refers to another country (not yours) is a serious concern to you.
I’ve always thought it’s really annoying they call themselves as an entire continent.
You have two separate continents, South America and North America. In English, if you are talking about this set, you call it “The Americas”. You don’t refer to them as America. That may be confusing, but that’s how it goes.
No, that shouldn’t bother anyone that much.
Yep
No, l couldn’t care less tbh
Calm down, you lost credibility by just the mere mention of X
Yup, America is a continent. The name America was first coined by the maps that Amerigo Vespucci did of central and southern parts of the continent. So the term Americans doesn’t apply to US citizens exclusively.
IDGAF
My country is not really named Uruguay, that is the river. Is the “Republica Oriental del Uruguay”, the republic that is at the east of the Uruguay river. But is called everywhere Uruguay anyway, we think on ourselves as Uruguayans, and so on. In some way, we are a country with no name.
So, for me, is not so weird to think of the union of some states that have in common to be in (north) america to usually be called America. Being called also as united states follows the same idea.
No, because “America” is the official name of the US in English. People are never going to stop saying “America” to refer to the US no matter how much you whine and complain about it.
Its arbitrary, the only reasons to it as ONE is for your little political/cultural browny points.
It’s as much of a single continent as Afro-Eurasia.
Why? Just because YOUR language, YOUR country, calls it that, sounds kinda Imperialistic to me.
Now, YOU need to say GULF OF AMERICA because thats the way my country refers to it as correctly.
Yeah, sounds stupid right?
Interestingly, the translations of the America(US) and America(continent) in Chinese are different. America(US) is meilijian/meiguo, and America(continent) is ameilijia/meizhou, guo means country and zhou means continent, so the two names will not be confused. Even more interesting is that when Google Maps chooses the translation of the Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico), it chooses the translation “meizhouwan”, which means Gulf of America(continent).
No. America clearly pertains to the United States of America. It does not create any confusion with the continents, as there is no one American continent, there is North America and South America, which are collectively known as “the Americas”. Not at all colonialist, the name and demonym are derived from the official name of the country. Like Peru corresponds to the Republic of Peru, and Argentina to the Argentine Republic, etc.
But if you’re gonna call the Americans imperialists for sharing their name with a continent, you should make sure you scold the Australians first. Who directly derive their name from the continent they sit in, Australia. To clarify, Oceania, which I assume comes to mind, is a region of the world, incorrectly described as a continent by some.
With that being said, what is in fact very colonialist is that little “Latinx” word you just threw around. It’s a clear attempt at Anglicizing the Spanish language, as no Hispanohablante would use it or even be able to pronounce that word. And a poor attempt by the American/European left to colonize the values of Hispanic/Latino people, who largely don’t share them. They could’ve tried a little harder and at least gone with “Latine” which is actually pronounceable in Spanish, but that would also prove futile as it is grammatically incorrect, and besides, any unironic use of “Latinx” or “Latine” in LATAM would get you laughed out of the room, because it’s that ridiculous.
How ironic, telling latinos themselves to cry a river for getting bothered by the word “Latinx”, as you are crying a river yourself for people saying “America” 🤷♂️