@MaviMavi It's kind of a catch 22 from our angle. We are known as Americans by a lot of the world, so there is not much incentive for us to call ourselves something else. If I say I'm from the United States to someone in England, they just respond, "So you're American." In Japan, the word for the United States is simply 'Amerika.' But yes, it's a huge point of contention with our southern continental brothers and sisters, which can cause serious tension. I lived in Chile for many years and grew accustomed to just saying "I'm from the U.S.," but then tourists would call me American or talk about American movies, which then caused my Chilean friends to go into an uproar.
But saying "I'm from the U.S." is annoying because it's such a mouthful, and it feels kind of crappy not being able to say "I'm Danish/Canadian/Spanish/German/etc." like the rest of the world. It kind of feels like your national identity is stripped away. And we don't really have an alternative option. It's not like we can call ourselves "United Statesians." Plus, as my Mexican peers point out, they call themselves Mexicans because they're from los Estados Unidos Mexicanos. It makes sense for us to call ourselves Americans, being from the United States of America.
If I'm being honest, I'm happy to respect my South American friends' feelings and I do understand the rationale, but I also want to tell them this battle ended a long time ago.
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@MaviMavi It's kind of a catch 22 from our angle. We are known as Americans by a lot of the world, so there is not much incentive for us to call ourselves something else. If I say I'm from the United States to someone in England, they just respond, "So you're American." In Japan, the word for the United States is simply 'Amerika.' But yes, it's a huge point of contention with our southern continental brothers and sisters, which can cause serious tension. I lived in Chile for many years and grew accustomed to just saying "I'm from the U.S.," but then tourists would call me American or talk about American movies, which then caused my Chilean friends to go into an uproar.
But saying "I'm from the U.S." is annoying because it's such a mouthful, and it feels kind of crappy not being able to say "I'm Danish/Canadian/Spanish/German/etc." like the rest of the world. It kind of feels like your national identity is stripped away. And we don't really have an alternative option. It's not like we can call ourselves "United Statesians." Plus, as my Mexican peers point out, they call themselves Mexicans because they're from los Estados Unidos Mexicanos. It makes sense for us to call ourselves Americans, being from the United States of America.
If I'm being honest, I'm happy to respect my South American friends' feelings and I do understand the rationale, but I also want to tell them this battle ended a long time ago.