Bittersweet Candy Bowl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29g57XTYgLE

After re-watching this video, I got to wondering just why it is that only people from the USA ever seem to refer to themselves, and are conversely referred to, as Americans.

When did that start happening anyway? It seems kind of odd that it’s the only continent in the world where a single country has manopolised on the continents name.

(You’ll also note that 9/10 people will not say “I’m traveling to America” unless they are traveling to the USA.)

What do you guys think?

Generally, though, people will say “I’m travelling to *insert country name here*” rather than, say, “I’m travelling to Europe”. And you will note that it is mostly Americans who refer to the whole two continents as “America”… just a side note ^_^

Reasons: Bigotry and a poor education system.

Duration: I know it’s been going on for more than 50 years.

AMERICA

FUCK YEAH

Canada is America’s hat and Mexico is America’s boot.

@Sammy
I couldn’t count the number of times I’ve heard the phrase “I want to travel to Europe” or “I’m going to go see Asia” or “I’m going on safari in Africa”. Yet, people always say “Canada” or “South America” if that’s where they’re going. No one ever says “Oh I’d love to go see America” without meaning USA specifically.

Maybe because USA is the only country that has “America” in it’s name?

well i don’t like uk or british that much iam not from the uk iam from england
(wales, scotland, ireland and northern ireland are different countries)

there four iam english

Umm…U.S. was independent first? or something…?

It’s because if you want to say you’re going to THE AMERICAS, you add the “s”.
If you want to go to SOUTH AMERICA, you add “south”.
If you’re talking about NORTH AMERICA, you add “north”.
If you’re just trying to say The United States of America, without the extra six syllables, you say “America”.

I thought this kind of subtley in language was something that went without saying.

Seconded.

Because if I didn’t call myself an American I would have to say United States citizen every time I wanted to refer to my nationality and that would be an inconvenience.

America has been secondhand for USA for so long, I can’t imagine someone saying America to mean all of the continents today. If it was a single landmass of “America”, then sure, I can see the confusion, but we are talking about three distinguished land masses here.
Also, LoadingReadyRun is absolutely amazing.

umm… australia monopolized the continent of australia… just gonna say that…

Australia: The only country that is also a continent, and the only continent that is also an island. Also the best country in the world.

I KNOW that technically it isn’t a continent, but give me some slack ^_^

… all continents are islands…

Well technically continents are too big to be considered islands…

That’s what I’m saying. In the case of The America’s, even if you wanted to say where you lived in a vague geographic sense, “America” would be one of three continents. That is all. So if you get more specific, you can say North American, but now you are telling people “I live on the North American continent in one of two countries.” Central American? Seven. Southern America? Try 12, not including the 3 areas controlled by France, the US, or the UK, and not including Cuba. Even if you wanted to use America geographically, it’s just too big an area to work.

Because Canada is it’s own continent

@gameking218
Because, you know, Africa is so much smaller.

I just think it’s weird that if someone from Canada or Cuba or Ecuador were to say “I’m American”, people would black out the rest of the continent and ask “Oh? What state?”

@Ark
No it’s not. It is very firmly attached to the continent of America. It’s just a different country.

Saying Citizen of the United States of America gets really annoying.

I’m not disputing that they can say “I’m American”. I’m disputing why seemingly no one else in America can.

@gameking: Two continents, central America is technically a part of North America. Even if you do consider it a third continent belize, costa rica, el salvador, guatemala, honduras, nicaragua, panama, mexico is eight countries not seven. Cuba would be far closer to north america than south america if you consider it part of a continent. Sorry I’m something of a geography nut and I can’t help myself

Venezuela, Cololombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia.. “south americans”.

no, p-chan…we, south americans, are mostly called as latins….

and, you forgot the two guyanas and the suriname!!!

Yeah. I’m from Brazil, and I usually just say that I’m South American or Latin American.

I also kind of agree that maybe people from the US call themselves Americans because It’s a short version of The United States of America. Though I do think it’s kind of frustrating that most people think that when people say America they mean the US.

When I tell people that I’m traveling to the other side of america, most think that I’m traveling to the other side of the US, and not the continent.

@(nameless) I did fifteen minutes of internet research so to get the right number, but I got seven twice. Also, I’m just a geographic idiot, so any error is my own fault. I don’t even know where I got three continents from.
@Maverick
I will admit that, by mentioning Africa, my entire argument falls apart. I got nothing now.

@Maverick

*face palm* I was kidding, I’m not that stupid and I am Canadian!

Well make sure your clear when you joking then Text is a very deceptive medium.

Australia is not an island, but it is a continent. ^_^

Also, happeh made a good point. But yes, it does not make much sense from an ontological standpoint.

Australia actually is considered as an island, a continent, and a country. It’s multi-talented that way.

An island is distinct from a continent so by most definitions Australia would be considered too big to be an island (despite the fact that it is effectivly a big island). At least with Australia one can say “Australian” and cover both the country and continent part.

No, according to Trivial Pursuit Australia is not an island. The answer to “What is the world’s largest island?” is Greenland, despite the latter having a rather lesser amount of geographical playground. ^_^

Hmm… Checking into it, I found that some scholars do consider it an island. I guess it is like the question of “What are the three primary colours?”, because they can never quite agree on whether green or yellow occupy the third spot.

Yellow with paint, green with light

They are preparing for the day that the United States gets enough money to hire Ninjas to conquer Canada and Mexico, Forming the country of North America, then subsequently invade and subdue all of South America, forming a single nation known as America.

And they say they aren’t imperialists…

Who says we’re not imperialists? Fuck that!

ALL HAIL THE EVIL EMPIRE.

I should have known it would be a Texan…

Thats not exactly true, if you tell somebody in (especially southern) Mexico that you’re from America they’ll go “Yeah, me too.”

tecincally canadians and south americans are Americans. We call the colective American continents The America’s. We arent The United States of Notrh America.

Also: AMERICA FUCK YEAH!!

The Hell? I wrote that comment.^^

Sabotage!

Not on porpose. Its happening with *ninja too, I can even edit his posts! This is weird.

Funny, I can edit yours as well, HB. This must mean that my IP-address shifter has somehow synchronized with your address.

I hope this doesn’t last too long…

My name randomly changes to yours or his and its like I’m them. The system gets cofused somehow and thinks that I’m posting from their computer.

Woah… that is freaky.

Totally freaky.

Suitcase! We need you!

suit case can not hear you now

Ehhh… if it keeps up ill shot him an e-mail.

Somebody fill me in. What on Earth happened here? ^_^