[ SECRET POST #2479 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2479 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 018 secrets from Secret Submission Post #354.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[lynx]

Smells like troll but I'll bite.

I've never referred to the habitants of the nation of "United States of America" as "American" in the way people in the US usually mean it, because in my culture, "America" is the whole continent. "Americano" is someone who may come from any of the countries from Alaska to Patagonia. If pressed, we agree that there are three political divisions: North America (Canada/USA/México) - Central America & Caribbean nations - and South America. But it's a political division, not a geographical one. There are even songs about how we're all Americans. Please go watch this video and you'll understand the mindset immediately: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vVyoF6L2Zg We don't single out English-speaking countries. Nor French-speaking ones like Guyana, nor the Brazilians who speak Portuguese.

Actually that's the way it's taught everywhere else in the world. Except in the US and Canada.

So actually for most Latin Americans... it's quite grating to hear "American" and know you guys mean just "The USA". AFAIK the most widespread in Latin-American Spanish demonym is "Estadounidense". Which means... USian.

I've seen the term USian used in polite and educated conversation, so I gather the only reason you seem to be so shocked about it is out of misguided nationalism.

[(Anonymous)]

I have honestly never heard "USian" in my life. Why not just use American? It's what we preferred to be called. No one's trying to claim all of North and South America.

[(Anonymous)]

Sure.

[(Anonymous)]

this

[ariakas]

It's a political issue. Some people (mistakenly) believe that the continental separations within the Americas are based on bigotry and bias so that people from the wealthier nations can "other" South and Central Americans as outsiders (though how Mexico wound up in North America if that's the case I'll never understand). In fact, they're based on continental plates - a division you may or may not agree with but it makes more sense than the divide between Europe and Asia. Outside of South and Central America, virtually everyone alive does use American to refer to people from the US. Also, some (very ignorant) people believe that all languages work like Spanish, and that USian is something an English speaker could say out loud without sounding idiotic.

[(Anonymous)]

THIS

[(Anonymous)]

"US-American" then when people need to be unambiguous. It really doesn't matter what you want to be called if it's an ambiguous word, because "American" is clearly taken by anyone who is, well, American. And that's a hell of a lot more people than US-Americans.

[(Anonymous)]

people who live in the united states are called americans. get over it. you sound like an idiot saying USian. no one has ever heard of that.

[(Anonymous)]

stop pretending this is something lynx invented, whether or not you want to use it it's hardly novel

god, i can't believe we're having fucking USians vs Americans wank

[(Anonymous)]

Just because you haven't doesn't mean half the internet hasn't. Google "USian", if you will (but if you were an inquisitive user of search engines you wouldn't be having this problem in the first place..).

[(Anonymous)]

Why do you caaare? She doesn't sound like an idiot, but you sound like a over-the-top patriotic american stereotype.

[(Anonymous)]

AFAIK the most widespread in Latin-American Spanish demonym is "Estadounidense". Which means... USian.

Well, in English, a we would call people from Germany (and the language) "German" but if we're speaking German, it would be weird to actually use the word "German" rather than "Deutsch".

So in this case, while Estadounidense does literally mean "United Statesian", it sounds weird in English.

And to be a bit trollish - USA is not the only country with "United States" in the name. Do you also refer to the residents of those countries as USian?

[(Anonymous)]

No, because those other countries have a demonym that isn't 'American'.

[(Anonymous)]

Er, no. The only other United States listed by Wikipedia as currently existing is actually called the United Mexican States, which does not fit.

[ariakas]

Actually that's the way it's taught everywhere else in the world. Except in the US and Canada.

I've heard this from other people living in the southern parts of the Americas before, but having actually lived in other parts of the world, I can tell you that it isn't even remotely accurate. Kids in Asia? Taught that North and South America are distinct continents. Also, Europe. And Australia. Someone from North America is North American. Someone from South America is South American, someone from the USA is American.

The overwhelming majority of the world's population also, including the US and Canada of course but also Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, refers to people from the United States as "Americans" (or their language's equivalent of American; e.g. Amerika-jin in Japanese, Amerikanski in Russian, Américain(e) in French, Americano in Italian, Amerikansk in Swedish, Ameriki in Arabic... ...I could go on. And on.)

I get that it's a thorny political issue in other parts of the Americas but to the majority of the world's population, including Americans themselves, "American" means "person from the United States", and calling oneself an "American" to the majority of the world's population when one is from, say, Brazil, is akin to someone from London calling themselves Eurasiafrican (because they're technically from that continental cluster).

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, where I am coming from using US-American is about as common as using American, especially in a debate... (central Europe here)

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

As an Australian, I think the way I know it (as you say, "American" means USA resident to me) is that if you're from any other country, you damn well get called by the name of your country.

Canada is Canadian. Mexico is Mexican. Peru is Peruvian.

If it's someone from South America whose exact country is unspecified, they are "South American", and that's not a political, racial or socioeconomic designation, it's purely geographical, just as all the country names are.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm late, but anyway in Italy we say both Americano AND Statunitense

[caecilia]

That was a really nice song.

[lynx]

Thank you! ^^ I'm glad you liked it. You're the only one who has commented on it.

[gondremark]

People who live in The States don't call it The States, they call it America. The rest of the world calls it the US, or the United States, or The States to distinguish it from the rest of the Americas. This is a distinction that has to be made sometimes, but it doesn't come up all that much for the people who live there.

There's nothing offensive or silly about the term "USian". US is one of the many various names for the country, and tacking -ian onto the end makes sense. It's less clunky and awkward than saying "a citizen of the United States" and can't be confused with the other varieties of Americans who exist. So there you go, tidy solution to a very small linguistic problem.

[(Anonymous)]

Er, most of the people of the English-speaking world refer to the US as America, especially when they don't need to type it out. It is also universally understood that "American" means "citizen of the US".

The biggest problem Central and South Americans don't understand is that English =/= Spanish. A "false friend" is a thing--the Spanish word for South American might sound a lot like the English word American, but it's not the same word, regardless of the etymological connections.

For reference, this is like English-speakers getting unbearably angry whenever the French "demande" something. Regardless of how similar the words sound, they don't mean the same thing.

It's just the people retroactively deciding that they are very offended by the idea of the historical use of a term being...what, also the current use? trying to make it more complicated.

[(Anonymous)]

Are you that un-self aware that while chastising Americans for holding exclusive rights to the term "American" you lay claim the sole use to the term "Latin" despite the fact the term has its origin point in Europe and not in the western hemisphere? Romans, the original Latins, never once set foot in South America.

So, Americans will stop calling themselves American when you guys stop calling yourselves "Latins."

[(Anonymous)]

Before making claims about "Latins" and the issues of that term, go and learn about the extremely erroneous usage and from where it originated. Go, I'll wait.

[(Anonymous)]

It could be worse. 'Yank' is a pretty common name for US-Americans here, but my dad calls US-Americans 'septics'.