@Gelderland
Most of the world, including in the US, refers to the US as America, the people and adjective as Americans. Personally, it doesn't bother me. It's really linguistically necessary, using US Americans for the people is unwieldy enough, but trying that as an adjectival form is untenable. It might be unfortunate that the country name is the United States of America, which is the reason why we have that dilemma, but that's the way it is, it's rather hard to change now. And I don't think it's confusing, since almost nobody refers to anybody outside of the US as "Americans." North Americans or South Americans, perhaps, and then it's clear that one means the continents, not the USA (or the northern/southern portions thereof, respectively). Given that the US was actually the first independent country in either continent, I don't think it's egregious. It's not like the term was used before, and was then appropriated by the US. It was the New World for the most part until the US became independent (the Americas was used as a term, but not very often, and I don't believe ever as a term of self-identification, only geographically), and only got the name America associated due to a historical quirk. And there is precedence from elsewhere. The Congo is the name of a region, but the two countries with it in their name refer to themselves as Congolese, to name one example. I don't have an issue if we come up with another term that makes any sense, and is neither unwieldy or confusing, but I don't see it likely. So we're stuck with American(s). Much more important and realistic, would be calling place names by what they call themselves. So, for example, München, not Munich, Göteborg, not Gothenburg, Wein, not Vienna, etc.
I would agree that the Scandinavian languages are slightly more like English, although not much more (Dutch is also very closely related to English, being a Germanic language). I'm not sure I agree that the number is necessarily higher. When I lived in Oslo, it was nearly impossible to get anyone to speak to me in Norwegian. The moment I spoke, they heard my accent, and switched to English, and would almost never go back, as much as I begged and pleaded (it was because they wanted "practice" in English with a native speaker, despite having actually better English than most native speakers I know). Right before I left, I finally got someone believing I was native born Norwegian (briefly), but other than that, it was very rare to find anyone that didn't speak to me in English. Maybe in some parts of Scandinavia it's different, but at least in Oslo, it really was everyone that tried, and succeeded, in speaking English. Half the time, I couldn't even pick up the faintest trace of an accent. But I wouldn't say "not too well" about Netherlands, you guys aren't far behind. I didn't spend as long in the Netherlands, but I didn't meet anyone whose English wasn't at least pretty good. You're right behind countries where their English is better than people here that grew up speaking it their whole life, that is still high praise for you guys. I like accents, too. I try to pick out where people are from, too. I'm not too bad, although I miss quite often.
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@Gelderland
Most of the world, including in the US, refers to the US as America, the people and adjective as Americans. Personally, it doesn't bother me. It's really linguistically necessary, using US Americans for the people is unwieldy enough, but trying that as an adjectival form is untenable. It might be unfortunate that the country name is the United States of America, which is the reason why we have that dilemma, but that's the way it is, it's rather hard to change now. And I don't think it's confusing, since almost nobody refers to anybody outside of the US as "Americans." North Americans or South Americans, perhaps, and then it's clear that one means the continents, not the USA (or the northern/southern portions thereof, respectively). Given that the US was actually the first independent country in either continent, I don't think it's egregious. It's not like the term was used before, and was then appropriated by the US. It was the New World for the most part until the US became independent (the Americas was used as a term, but not very often, and I don't believe ever as a term of self-identification, only geographically), and only got the name America associated due to a historical quirk. And there is precedence from elsewhere. The Congo is the name of a region, but the two countries with it in their name refer to themselves as Congolese, to name one example. I don't have an issue if we come up with another term that makes any sense, and is neither unwieldy or confusing, but I don't see it likely. So we're stuck with American(s). Much more important and realistic, would be calling place names by what they call themselves. So, for example, München, not Munich, Göteborg, not Gothenburg, Wein, not Vienna, etc.
I would agree that the Scandinavian languages are slightly more like English, although not much more (Dutch is also very closely related to English, being a Germanic language). I'm not sure I agree that the number is necessarily higher. When I lived in Oslo, it was nearly impossible to get anyone to speak to me in Norwegian. The moment I spoke, they heard my accent, and switched to English, and would almost never go back, as much as I begged and pleaded (it was because they wanted "practice" in English with a native speaker, despite having actually better English than most native speakers I know). Right before I left, I finally got someone believing I was native born Norwegian (briefly), but other than that, it was very rare to find anyone that didn't speak to me in English. Maybe in some parts of Scandinavia it's different, but at least in Oslo, it really was everyone that tried, and succeeded, in speaking English. Half the time, I couldn't even pick up the faintest trace of an accent. But I wouldn't say "not too well" about Netherlands, you guys aren't far behind. I didn't spend as long in the Netherlands, but I didn't meet anyone whose English wasn't at least pretty good. You're right behind countries where their English is better than people here that grew up speaking it their whole life, that is still high praise for you guys. I like accents, too. I try to pick out where people are from, too. I'm not too bad, although I miss quite often.