Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheburashka
North Americans, South Americans, Americans...what is the difference. They're all Americans.
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Well you are correct.
They are
ALL Americans.
Anyone who lives in
Americas:
North America, Central America and South America
can consider themselves American.
I known folks from South America who called themselves American.
The term "American" can refer either to a person of one of the nations of the Americas
or to a citizen of the United States.
In English,
the term American is the most common and correct way to refer to a US citizen despite the linguistic ambiguity.
I know several people from Spanish speaking countries who refer to themselves as "Americans"
when speaking English in order to differentiate themselves from Europeans.
This is mainly a failing of the English language,
or possibly because the USA just needs to get a proper bloody name
American is not identified as just a person (resident/citizen) of the United States.
Folks in the U.S. of almighty A. think that since they're so great and since it's the only term for them,
they should be entitled to use it (the word American) exclusively, and everyone else better shut the hell up.
It's the same as folks who live in Europe
can refer to themselves as Europeans regardless
of whether they live in England or Italy or France or Poland or Germany or Ukraine or Iceland or Bosnia, etc etc
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