What's wrong with saying I'm American?

[Nationes Pii Redivivi]

Well, nothing. To be born in the US is to be born in a nation that is as fine as any other nation in the world, and perhaps finer.

[Camelza]

Nothing. Though if you're an American that is not a citizen of the US, but of another American nation, it can cause quite a bit of confusion.
In my opinion a Mexican is as American as a Colombian, a Quebecois and a New Yorker.

[SD_Film Artists]

Complaining over the use of the term 'American' is just being pedantic; yes there are other countries in the Americas but it's perfectly clear that if someone's "American" then they're from the United States. It's like if someone says- "I'm British.....not from the United Kingdom of course, I mean the Republic of Ireland which is part of the British Isles".

Nothing, but for some reason a lot of people in the US love to say " oh im italian or irish or german"

no bitch...your American, just because your grandaddy is from (insert here) dosn't make you a part of that people, I have German and Italian ancestery but I would never say I have loyalty or some sense of commitment to these places.

3rd generation ancestry is pretty strong compared to the homeopathic dilutions which "American Scotch-Irish" normally base their claims on.

[Camelza]

Complaining over the use of the term 'American' is just being pedantic; yes there are other countries in the Americas but it's perfectly clear that if someone's "American" then they're from the United States. It's like if someone says- "I'm British.....not from the United Kingdom of course, I mean the Republic of Ireland which is part of the British Isles".

Nothing, but for some reason a lot of people in the US love to say " oh im italian or irish or german"

no bitch...your American, just because your grandaddy is from (insert here) dosn't make you a part of that people, I have German and Italian ancestery but I would never say I have loyalty or some sense of commitment to these places.

3rd generation ancestry is pretty strong compared to the homeopathic dilutions which "American Scotch-Irish" normally base their claims on.

I've once met online a guy from Massachusetts that could trace his ancestry to old English settlers and he still "felt a connection to the old country" ... I mean, what about the revolution? What the actual fuck?
Nevertheless, I won't judge - anyone can pursue to be part of any nationality he/she wants to be.

[SD_Film Artists]

Complaining over the use of the term 'American' is just being pedantic; yes there are other countries in the Americas but it's perfectly clear that if someone's "American" then they're from the United States. It's like if someone says- "I'm British.....not from the United Kingdom of course, I mean the Republic of Ireland which is part of the British Isles".



3rd generation ancestry is pretty strong compared to the homeopathic dilutions which "American Scotch-Irish" normally base their claims on.

I've once met online a guy from Massachusetts that could trace his ancestry to old English settlers and he still "felt a connection to the old country" ... I mean, what about the revolution? What the actual fuck?
Nevertheless, I won't judge - anyone can pursue to be part of any nationality he/she wants to be.

Yeah given America's history I can't blame them for wanting to find out more of their ethnic history, it just seems so arbitrary at times as Irish and German genes apparently weigh more than Swedish or English genes. but I digress...

[The Two Jerseys]

Complaining over the use of the term 'American' is just being pedantic; yes there are other countries in the Americas but it's perfectly clear that if someone's "American" then they're from the United States. It's like if someone says- "I'm British.....not from the United Kingdom of course, I mean the Republic of Ireland which is part of the British Isles".



3rd generation ancestry is pretty strong compared to the homeopathic dilutions which "American Scotch-Irish" normally base their claims on.

I've once met online a guy from Massachusetts that could trace his ancestry to old English settlers and he still "felt a connection to the old country" ... I mean, what about the revolution? What the actual fuck?
Nevertheless, I won't judge - anyone can pursue to be part of any nationality he/she wants to be.

If you want a "connection to the old country", there's a place in Virginia called Tangier Island, it's so isolated that the locals still sound like they're from the West Country.

[BK117B2]

I've once met online a guy from Massachusetts that could trace his ancestry to old English settlers and he still "felt a connection to the old country" ... I mean, what about the revolution? What the actual fuck?
Nevertheless, I won't judge - anyone can pursue to be part of any nationality he/she wants to be.

If you want a "connection to the old country", there's a place in Virginia called Tangier Island, it's so isolated that the locals still sound like they're from the West Country.

I think that is mostly played up for television and whatnot. I've been to Tangier Island, and nearly everyone there would fit right in elsewhere in Virginia or Maryland without anyone thinking they had an accent.

One funny thing about the island: since it is such a small place, the restaurants (such as they are) only open for a couple hours for each meal. Want to head out for brunch? Guess you're heading off island then, since they don't have anyplace serving brunch.

[Deuxtete]

I've once met online a guy from Massachusetts that could trace his ancestry to old English settlers and he still "felt a connection to the old country" ... I mean, what about the revolution? What the actual fuck?
Nevertheless, I won't judge - anyone can pursue to be part of any nationality he/she wants to be.

Yeah given America's history I can't blame them for wanting to find out more of their ethnic history, it just seems so arbitrary at times as Irish and German genes apparently weigh more than Swedish or English genes. but I digress...

Got to know where to find the communities.
I know Swedes, Dutch, German, Pole, Italian and Irish communities rooted in immigrant history.

German and Irish just happen to be the two most common heritages in the US.

[The Two Jerseys]

If you want a "connection to the old country", there's a place in Virginia called Tangier Island, it's so isolated that the locals still sound like they're from the West Country.

I think that is mostly played up for television and whatnot. I've been to Tangier Island, and nearly everyone there would fit right in elsewhere in Virginia or Maryland without anyone thinking they had an accent.

One funny thing about the island: since it is such a small place, the restaurants (such as they are) only open for a couple hours for each meal. Want to head out for brunch? Guess you're heading off island then, since they don't have anyplace serving brunch.

Television, you lied to me again! *shakes fist*

[Suicune]

Well the only problem is actually admitting you're American....

[Camelza]

I've once met online a guy from Massachusetts that could trace his ancestry to old English settlers and he still "felt a connection to the old country" ... I mean, what about the revolution? What the actual fuck?
Nevertheless, I won't judge - anyone can pursue to be part of any nationality he/she wants to be.

If you want a "connection to the old country", there's a place in Virginia called Tangier Island, it's so isolated that the locals still sound like they're from the West Country.

Do they serve cream tea every afternoon in the local leisure establishment as well?

[Camelza]

Well the only problem is actually admitting you're American....

It's less of a problem than admitting you're from a certain ridiculous, bankrupt southern European nation, trust me.

[Forsher]

Yes, but you've been ignoring that said South Americans are in error by applying Spanish (or, perhaps, South American Spanish) concepts in a different language.

I haven't even brought up the Spanish language.
Are you sure you mean me?

I meant to reply to this sooner, but that you're not is sort of the point, isn't it?

You have made a narrow discussion that has skirted the central issue: it's not appropriate to use language x concepts in languages y or z except if they overlap. When you talk about South Americans get "narky" you have to contextualise it... are these Americans speaking English of Spanish because it really makes all the difference. Likewise, what the demonym for the US is in French is relevant to French but not to English.

It's not too different to rocking up to some info site in London and asking for directions to the nearest bibliothek. You might get an answer or you might not. Even more confusingly, you might be after a bookshop but you can only remember the French word...

Unlike a lot of Americans who most likely would actually feel patriotic if they were referred to by their states' name like Californians, Texans or New Yorkers.

More exactly like Americans who would be offended if you called them all Texans even if they were from New York.
The is exactly why I don't use the term English anymore, because of rants about all Brits not being English.

It's generally not that hard to tell English Britons apart from non-English ones (if they're speaking)? Or, indeed, to differentiate between English and British in other contexts.

This sort of reasoning is probably why British accents has come to invariably mean English accents. As in, "And now I will adopt a British accent, 'Good day to you old bean'".

You should call yourselves "USians".

...I get the feeling someone may have suggested this on NSG before and that it mightn't have gone over particularly well.

It's not going to happen. Not only is there no global consensus about this issue that Americans are set in their ways about (unlike, say, the metric system), but there's no real benefit to changing aside from not offending some latin american nationalists (unlike, say, the metric system), it's inconsistent (Mexico), and it sounds weird in English.

"American" is the correct term in English. Trying to force "USian" is basically insisting on an adoption of Spanish terminology for a predominantly English-speaking country.

Actually it's more a concerted* effort to change how English speakers refer to a particular country to a way speakers of other languages refer to a country. That's nuts. That's completely unreasonable.

*By which I mean a suggestion on an internet forum.

[Imperializt Russia]

I've once met online a guy from Massachusetts that could trace his ancestry to old English settlers and he still "felt a connection to the old country" ... I mean, what about the revolution? What the actual fuck?
Nevertheless, I won't judge - anyone can pursue to be part of any nationality he/she wants to be.

Yeah given America's history I can't blame them for wanting to find out more of their ethnic history, it just seems so arbitrary at times as Irish and German genes apparently weigh more than Swedish or English genes. but I digress...

In the 1981 census, "English American" was a box checked by tens of millions. Then it sort of died out and IIRC isn't even included as a response anymore.
Irish American and German American grew more popular as options.

[Banana Nanica]

I have been thinking more about this lately.

As I said in the first page, who call americans by that other stupid word (because it does sound stupid in Portuguese just like "unitedstatians" would sound in English) is always the left, because of their hatred for the US as the embodiment of capitalism, conservatism, imperialism and pretty much everything that is not nice in the world. They couldn't live without their american products, but that's another issue.

Anyway, the south american left is united if by anything for their hatred against the US, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if people from other countries around here also come up with this for the exact same reason.

If that's the case, and probably is, the issue is just another excuse to vilify the US, and the nickname is just a tag to constantly remind that americans are evil to the point of calling themselves the owners of the Americas, and that the left won't take that.

Those apparently simplistic and repetitive kinds of propaganda are often the most effective ones.

And by the way, american sympathizers of the latin left, don't think for a moment that changing how you are called, or felling more guilty about anything, will appease those people. They are the kind that celebrated 9/11 like a New Year. The USA is capitalism, and capitalism must be brought to its knees by their ideology, nothing else will do.

[Imperializt Russia]

I have been thinking more about this lately.

As I said in the first page, who call americans by that other stupid word (because it does sound stupid in Portuguese just like "unitedstatians" would sound in English) is always the left, because of their hatred for the US as the embodiment of capitalism, conservatism, imperialism and pretty much everything that is not nice in the world. They couldn't live without their american products, but that's another issue.

uhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Confederate Ramenia]

I was talking with some guy from colombia who went off on me when I said I was an American. He said something like everyone in the Americas is an American. I agreed but then said he wasn't asking what continent I came from but what country. Then I asked how many countries have America in their name. He didn't answer but went on about Americans being arrogant etc.

I thought I had a good point. People don't say they are from a continent. They say they are from a country. My country is America. Is there another country called America?

How many countries have America in their name? I know one.

Well how the hell else does he expect us to call ourselves? "United statesiens"?

Our demonym in Spanish is estadounidense, basically United-States-ese.

[BK117B2]

Well how the hell else does he expect us to call ourselves? "United statesiens"?

Our demonym in Spanish is estadounidense, basically United-States-ese.

Maybe yours is. Mine, in any language, is American. Now, people from other countries might call me something else (much like most Americans would use 'German' or Japanese'), but that is their thing, not mine

[Kvatchdom]

In Finnish we call you Yhdysvaltalainen, aka United Statesian.

[Confederate Ramenia]

In Finnish we call you Yhdysvaltalainen, aka United Statesian.

6 consonants in a row, nice. How is it pronounced?

[Kvatchdom]

In Finnish we call you Yhdysvaltalainen, aka United Statesian.

6 consonants in a row, nice. How is it pronounced?

Uh, I dunno how to explain it. Our language is hard to pronounce for foreigners.

[Jamzmania]

In Finnish we call you Yhdysvaltalainen, aka United Statesian.

Bless you.

[Wisconsin9]

In Finnish we call you Yhdysvaltalainen, aka United Statesian.

6 consonants in a row, nice. How is it pronounced?

The same way you pronounce anything in a Nordic language: gibber incoherently and pray to your deity of choice that it actually means something.

I'm kidding. Mostly.

[Kvatchdom]

6 consonants in a row, nice. How is it pronounced?

The same way you pronounce anything in a Nordic language: gibber incoherently and pray to your deity of choice that it actually means something.

I'm kidding. Mostly.

Finnish is orcish not nordic tho.

[Wisconsin9]

The same way you pronounce anything in a Nordic language: gibber incoherently and pray to your deity of choice that it actually means something.

I'm kidding. Mostly.

Finnish is orcish not nordic tho.