Not necesarily those who live within the States and disagree with their country’s policies, but those living in, say, Central or South America.
Would it be a faux-pas or would they be cool with it? Or does it depend on the country?
Well, I can remember listening into conversations while I was living in Germany (when people didn’t know an American was sitting next to them) and hearing Canadians throw a holy fit when a German asked if they were American. So I guess, from limited exposure, Canadians abroad don’t take kindly with being associated with residents of the USA. (This was ages ago - pre-Bush era, and I can only imagine the current political scene makes Canadians even more adamant to distance themselves from US citizenship.)
The same can be said if you ask a New Zealander what part of Australia they come from (and vice versa with Australians) - it seems they place great importance on not being associated with one another.
Just realized I am not sure if I answered your question - technically, yes - South Americans and Canadians certainly could refer to themselves as “American” in that they are all residents of the Americas…but the term “American” is now (fairly or unfairly, depending on how you look at it) considered a word describing only citizens of the USA.
“American” doesn’t really sit with me. I’m not sure why. I think partly because of North/South America and partly because Bush has managed to turn the term into a dirty word.
I used to use the term years ago, but today I would not refer to myself as such.
I had to visit the US Embassy not long ago and I called myself a US citizen.
Sometimes I’ve been in lines in stores with bigots who try to engage me in conversation about how terrible it is that all the immigrants seem to run the small stores these days.
I always respond “You don’t like immigrants? I’m Canadian.” I’m not, but it shuts them up.
I have Canadian relatives who are never sure when traveling whether to answer yes or no when asked if they are American. Of course they live in America the continent, but know that’s not what’s meant. On the other hand, if the asker simply wants to know whether they are perhaps British or Australian, then American seems close enough for polite conversation with strangers.
I was in Mexico, attempting to use a payphone and a calling card at my hotel. I could not for the life of me figure out how to work the damn card/ phone and there was a bunch of the staff of the hotel behind me. I waited for a break in their convo and asked (in Spanish) if any of them knew how that card worked because I needed to call America.
They all rolled their eyes so far into the back of their heads that I think their pupils came back up through the bottom. One looks at me and says (in English), “You ARE in AMERICA!” Then they started laughing.
This made me mad and I explained to him that 1: what he said was rude as he knew damn well what I meant and I was just trying to get some help and 2: I’d wager if you asked most people in the world, “Hey, have you been to America?” they would NOT say, “Oh yeah, I’ve been to Mexico.”
Perhaps I was wrong on that second point, I don’t know. When I ask most of my international friends that question, they generally reply with, “No, I’ve never been to the States.” Maybe I’ve just got a weird group of friends.
So yeah, apparently people in Mexico get really pissy if you refer to this place I’m in as (exclusively) America and me as American. Go figure.
It was de rigeur w/ the uber-hip just a couple years ago to protest vehemently at any use of the term “American”, mercifully the angst-wridden have moved on to more pressing issues, apparently.
OK, the thing is, in formal standard Spanish, there IS a correct specific word for a citizen of the USA: “estadounidense” (Unitedstatesian)(*); in colloquial language, though, there are various usages: in order of diminishing formality, “norteamericano” (**), plain old “americano”, and of course, “gringo” (originally meaning anyone not-Spanish-speaking, evolved to mean a USAmerican).
(*Notice no consideration for the fact that the large federation to the immediate south of the USA is the “*Estados Unidos * Mejicanos”, that is the Mexican United States, or US of M)
(**Notice no consideration for the fact that North America includes two other large federal states, Canada and Mexico)
The thing is, Diosa, regarding your point #2, that in standard Spanish as used in Latin America, the word “América” does NOT have in itself the automatic connotation of a specific meaning of “the USA” that it does in German, Russian, Arabic, etc. ; your international acquaintances either (a) are mostly non-Latin-Americans, or (b) those who are, KNOW what YOU mean and are aware of what is your cultural frame of reference and respond accordingly. I mean, here in Puerto Rico, we **are ** a component of the greater USA but we do not use the generic “America” to refer to the whole nation when speaking Spanish; OTOH we DO use plain “Americanos” all the time to refer to Anglophone Americans from the actual States.
And hey, in Mexico and in various other places in Central America and the Caribbean, let’s just say there’s, well, itchy old wounds in regards to the idea of the USA “taking over” “America”; these countries HAVE in the past at various points been invaded or subjugated by the USA so they’re sensitive to the idea that the USA feels we “own” “America”. But of course, this just means THEY have their own set of blinders * on, and do not understand that in common English * usage, “America(n)” DOES refer most frequently to the USA and its citizens, or that this is so for reasons of cultural-historical development and it’s NOT a construct of imperialistic language.
In my experience, though, using “americano” or “norteamericano” to refer to a “USAn” is more generally tolerated than using “America” to refer to the USA when speaking in Spanish, in other south-of-the-border locations as well. (Somehow the farther south you go, ISTM the more “Norteamérica” is used as synonimous with the USA even though it’s equally inexact.)
Diosa’s point 1 however is well-taken, there is no need for pedantry. They should have assisted as requested and provided as “helpful hint” that you should use the formal word so everyone understands.
[Molson’s ad] I am Canadian. [/Molsons ad]* I would never refer to myself as an American. In university one of my very leftist friends had a button that said “US out of North America.” I bought it off him for 20 dollars once when he was broke and hungry. (Because he wouldnt let me give him any money.) I wore that button for years, and it might still be in a box at Mom and Dad’s house.
Not that I dislike US citizens or anything. The foriegn policy (and well, the domestic policy too if Im honest) bothers me somewhat. Ok, more than that. I live in North America, I don’t much like USA stylizing themselves as Americans, but I figure there are bigger things to worry about.
*Oh and I do NOT drink Molsons. If Im going to drink BEER, it had better be a good one.
When I took Spanish in high school twenty years ago, norteamericano seemed to be used to refer to a resident of the US or Canada, and the norteamericano entry in the Spanish-language version of Wikipedia seems to agree.
It is a common one-liner to oppose US foreign policies in America to say: “You know what they (the gringos) say, America (the continent) for the Americans (the gringos)”.
Anti-US sentiment aside, though, America is a BIG continent and the US is a small percentage of it. The US had an easy time appropriating the word “American” because most of the rest of America is often referred to “Latin America” and that freed the word. Also the US-Latin divide is so great that there is seldom need to refer to anything “american” in the sense of referring to the entire continent. The is no Pan-American anything (other than a road), no policy, no ideology, idiosincracy, or anything else for which you would need the word “american”.
Don’t try to pull that one in spanish, though. America is the continent and Americano refers to pertaining to the entire continent
If you use ‘Usarian’ they get it and you get a smile.
I’m just wondering which other country in the Americas has ‘America’ as a part of its actual name. Bueller? Bueller?
Besides, we got dibs. Not only are there perfectly acceptable adjectives in English for all the other countries, the term was used as far back as Cotton Mather’s time (the late 17th century) to refer to people in what is now the USA.
You’re not the first Canadian on this board to say that. There’s just three little problems:
-
The English language has no other word for “someone who is a citizen of the United States.”
-
The term “American” to describe someone from that place is centuries old - in fact, it predates the formation of the United States, and was commonly used to describe people from the Colonies. “American” in English has meant that since the early eighteenth century, at least. Saying you “don’t like” Americans calling themselves Americans is very much like complaining that people use words like “house” or “Friday” - “American” is a perfectly acceptable word in English and has been used that way since before Canada existed. There has never been a time when “American” was commonly used to describe people from Canada. It’s not a word they’ve stolen.
-
Not to point out the obvious, but if you’re from Canada, being in North America, you’re a North American, not an American.
My drive-by thoughts:
Technically, yes, anyone from the American continents could be called American. However, it seems to me that the US is the only American nation that does not have a specific regional name. Therefor I feel justified in saying that “American” should be generally understood to mean “of, or related to, the United States of America.” I mean, people from Brazil are Brazillian. TV shows from Mexico are Mexican. Should we have to use the stodgy-sounding “US Citizen” or “made in/from the USA?” As a matter of practicality, I think it makes sense for American to mean the US, except when referreing to continental landmasses.
I am, and I have used basically this same statement. They’re always flabbergasted. One response was ‘but you’re not really foreign’. :rolleyes:
As a Canadian, I do not like being called American. “American” means, to me, US Citizen.
…by citizen’s of the United States.
I take groups on trips to Costa Rica and El Salvador to work in local churches. 99% of the time they will not say anything, but there is a resentment at the gringo concept that “American” means someone from the USA.
I was in a cafe with some Costa Rican friends when this edition of Time Magazine came out. There were a lot of rolled eyes.
Again, it isn’t a huge deal. It just underscores the arrogance we are accused of so often.
Well different places in the world operate on different definitions of the word continent. And I have definitely seen some threads of people getting quite annoyed at people using the term American to refer to only Americans. But in English North and South America are separate continents.
Seems silly to me for them to quibble. With pretty much every things else they’ve already got a name for. At the very worst they’d have to resort to “The people of North and South America.” Plus we also have the United States of Mexico. And several other now defunct uses of the United States.
Maybe some day we’ll get a nice scientific definition of continent. Of course with the minimum connection between Africa and Asia much larger then that between North and South America that’d be interesting. And you thought the battle over planet was heated.
I would say we are officially the “United States Of America” and the name “America” is in the official title. Does any other country have “America” in it’s official title? I think therefore it is justified that people from the United State be called “Americans”
Ah the broad brush, chip on the shoulder syndrome. No, maybe those Mexicans objected but most could care less. Go figure.