Definition of an American?

people rarely refer to themselves from what geographic region they are from.

"hey where are you from?" "Oh, im North American?" no, they say "im Canadian"

people in the UK dont refer to themselves as United Kingdomians or something like that do they? no, they are Irish or British

therefore, it makes perfect sense that people from the United States of America would be refered to as some permutation of the name of the country.

and for a good example to support calling people from the US "Americans", where are Mexicans from? they are from The United States of Mexico, also less formally refered to as Mexico, populated by Mexicans. by that logic, i am from The United States of America, also less formally refered to as America, populated by Americans

It's interesting to me that there are people who want to make our national anthem "America the Beautiful."

Lyrics:
Oh beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountains majesty
Above the fruited plains
America, America, God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea

I for one strongly disagree. To me it sounds like a fluffy pink clouds kind of a song. I like our national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner" as it speaks to courage and bravery.

Lyrics:
O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

"Rizefall, post: 51512" said:

I've red this now and i don't get the point? Rofl.

So what... A mexican can't be called american cause he does not live in america.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

Just look. America is those green part. America is not like EUROPE.

Nvm that. America covers the whole thing.

Canadians are Ameriancs, Mexicans are americans. Nuff said!

People outside America don't care about it. It's sad but that's a matter of fact for one simple reason: America is splitted into the most common known parts, North, Middle and South America. Most of the European and Japanese Students here, as far as I can judge it, refer the North Americans as the "Americans" or アメリカ人/米国人, which both means "American & US American". Middle and South America is, of course, a different topic.

"CodeofThundera, post: 51522" said:

"Him?" Why do I keep trying? *sigh*

There's no Gender Sign on the boards, so I do apology for this.

I, as a proud AMERICAN, a proud daughter, wife, and granddaughter of a veteran, I find this thread highly offensive! But no matter what, whenever a country needs help or can't take care of themselves....my country jumps in and helps. You can call my countrymen and I any name you like, but my countrymen and I know who we are. We are Americans!

I find this even more insulting considering my country is going to have the tenth year anniversary of September 11th.

[youtube]9ETrr-XHBjE[/youtube]

This video, even though it's from a Superbowl, is a military combination of all branches of the US military service singing the National Anthem.

"Rizefall, post: 51512" said:

I've red this now and i don't get the point? Rofl.

So what... A mexican can't be called american cause he does not live in america.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

Just look. America is those green part. America is not like EUROPE.

Nvm that. America covers the whole thing.

Canadians are Ameriancs, Mexicans are americans. Nuff said!

Bu that was precisely the pooint, that Mexicans can be callled Americans as well because they do live in America too.

The idea was not telling anyone how can they call themselves; people from teh US are in all tehir rights to be called Americans as well. It's just that other Americans feel neglected when USers present themselves as Americans, or people in other continents refer as them as Americans, as if other Americans weren't.

"Ideal, post: 51555" said:

people rarely refer to themselves from what geographic region they are from.

"hey where are you from?" "Oh, im North American?" no, they say "im Canadian"

people in the UK dont refer to themselves as United Kingdomians or something like that do they? no, they are Irish or British

therefore, it makes perfect sense that people from the United States of America would be refered to as some permutation of the name of the country.

and for a good example to support calling people from the US "Americans", where are Mexicans from? they are from The United States of Mexico, also less formally refered to as Mexico, populated by Mexicans. by that logic, i am from The United States of America, also less formally refered to as America, populated by Americans

Right. But Mexico is not a continent that includes other countries, while America is. It's the same with Brazil, which is United States of Brazil.

"queen lynxana, post: 51592" said:

I, as a proud AMERICAN, a proud daughter, wife, and granddaughter of a veteran, I find this thread highly offensive! But no matter what, whenever a country needs help or can't take care of themselves....my country jumps in and helps. You can call my countrymen and I any name you like, but my countrymen and I know who we are. We are Americans!

I find this even more insulting considering my country is going to have the tenth year anniversary of September 11th.

[youtube]9ETrr-XHBjE[/youtube]

This video, even though it's from a Superbowl, is a military combination of all branches of the US military service singing the National Anthem.

Really sorry if I offended you; it wasn't my intention. If you read my first post carefully, you'll see that.

I'm not asking anyone to stop calling themselves Americans, becauswe we all are (that's the point). I just stated how other people feel about how that word seems to be used for some and not the whole. That's all.

"queen lynxana, post: 51592" said:

I, as a proud AMERICAN, a proud daughter, wife, and granddaughter of a veteran, I find this thread highly offensive! But no matter what, whenever a country needs help or can't take care of themselves....my country jumps in and helps. You can call my countrymen and I any name you like, but my countrymen and I know who we are. We are Americans!

This thread is about what people living in the American continent call themselves (example American etc...) I am not sure why you consider that offensive?

If it were a thread discussing what folks in the United Kingdom are called and I called a fan from Scotland 'British' I doubt they would take offence. This thread is not anti American in any way. It's about learning about other cultures and until Tygra Rules brought it up, I didn't realise folks in South America felt that way.

To All: As for this nonsense about hating or disliking certain cultures, it stops now! Anyone from any country is welcome on these boards and singling out certain countries and posting such a generalisation of dislike, is not wanted here, nor tolerated. I said BE RESPECTFUL. Anymore bile about hating or disliking certain people (whether it be British, French, Chinese or American) a warning will be given. Three warnings and your out of here permanantly.

Now let's stick to the topic of what American residents like to call themselves as well as the other countries that are part of the Americas :) This isn't an 'anti' anything thread. It's to learn more about all our American friends, whether they live in the North or South of the continent.

"Tygra_Rules, post: 51502" said:

In Spanish, the word we use, as many have said, is "estadounidense"

i dont see how this is any less vague than using the term "American". saying someone is from the United States....of? as you yourself pointed out, there is more than one country that is named "The United States" of something, and there have been many more throughout the years

Not sure how this thread slipped under my radar...

Here's my view:

I am a Virginian (state I live in), an American (country), a North American (continent). I'm also a redneck (South-East USA farmer folk).

There are 3 "America" sections: North, Central, and South. I consider Canadians as also North Americans. Or people from Brazil as Brazillians and South Americans. But I'm drawing a blank on if Mexico is part of North America, or if it is part of Central America... But when I hear "American" I think country, vs "North American" where I think continent.

Of course there are Native Americans, who were living here long before Europeans settled here.

As a comparision, I would view someone from London as a Londoner, British, United Kingdomer, and European. Or someone from France as French and European.

Or a better comparison Australia. When I hear "Australian" I think of the country, not the continent. That's why I don't think of people from New Guinea and Tasmania as Australian.

There's my logic...

"Tygra_Rules, post: 51621" said:

Really sorry if I offended you; it wasn't my intention. If you read my first post carefully, you'll see that.

Maybe you need to re-read what you wrote and the tone you wrote it in. You said that it's offensive and inconsiderate when people from the USA also call themselves Americans. No other way to take that than rudely singling out people from the United States of America.

I didn't see anyone posting they find it offensive if Canadians, Mexicans, etc. call themselves American. All people that live in Americas are American and yes that includes people frome the USA too.

Good grief, the pointless stuff people find to get huffy about. We all live on the same planet and have much bigger real problems to worry about.

Judgement call here...folks lets move this over to the Great Void. Need access???? PM me and Ill be glad to give you access.

IMO this is a touchy subject as can be seen during the discussion, lets keep it respectful and with that said. Please join us in the Great Void.

"Lilith, post: 51647" said:

Maybe you need to re-read what you wrote and the tone you wrote it in. You said that it's offensive and inconsiderate when people from the USA also call themselves Americans. No other way to take that than rudely singling out people from the United States of America.

I didn't see anyone posting they find it offensive if Canadians, Mexicans, etc. call themselves American. All people that live in Americas are American and yes that includes people frome the USA too.

Good grief, the pointless stuff people find to get huffy about. We all live on the same planet and have much bigger real problems to worry about.

We're not getting huffy about it, this is not a big deal, just trying to explain something that we think and bring it to light.

Like Tygra_Rules said. We're not saying that is wrong to call yoursleves American as that is correct. Canadians, North, South and Central americans have all the rights to be called american, the point lies in that that word is too generalized, at least for us.

Why you ask? well, when people bash on people from United States they go 'Americans this, Americans that' We feel that that is wrong since we dont have anything to do w/ you guys and they're bashing on everyone when in fact they're bashing only from the people from Unites States.

When people use that word they think of USA and nothing else, is like you guys own that word, is like that the word 'americans' only represent the people from United States and we we're bieng excluded, pushed aside.
Zakkie pointed this out in his post and as you can see its a fact.

I doubt when a person from USA says he would give his life for his American patriots he means even the people from South America, I bet by American he's refering only to the people of USA. Tell me if I'm wrong.

To the user who said something about calling Germans Europeans, thats fine but I bet if you say something bad of a country from Europe and generalize it by saying Europe this or that when in fact you're thinking of a country, others will get offended because thats not true of them, but by generilizing you're talking bad about all the countries that makes Europe.

My wife is a Capt in the Air Force and in all of her paperwork and ID's it says, armed forces of the United States, it doesnt say armed forces of america because thats technically wrong as you guys dont defend all america just United States. The same w/ U.S. Air Force, it doesnt say American Air Force as that wouldnt be technically correct as the A.F. doesnt belong to America but Unites States. United States is a part of America, not America.

Like I said in an earlier post. There should be a better word than American to represent the people of United States as American is too broad, too general. I guess since you guys been calling yourselves American all your life as in to define people from United States, you dont see it that way and as long you guys are a super power, you can do whatever you want.

Let me say again that this is not a big deal but soemthing that we always have seen and felt but you dont see it that way and fail to realise.