Hi
I travel to Europe often and usually spend two or three weeks walking there with other people. When they ask me where I'm from, I usually answer 'the U. S.' or 'the United States' because it seems to me that people from other parts of North and South America are as 'American' as I am. What do you think? And especially those from outside 'America'? When you think 'American', it is people from the U.S. that you mean?

Hello Linda,

Generaly speaking I think that in the Netherlands you would be considor an American.
Even in the news they say Amercia meaning the U.S.....
(we have the same strange thing with Great Brittan, we all call them English.....

Strange.

Duh I meant United Kingdom...

Sorry.

I remember many years ago, while traveling in Canada, asking Canadians the same question. They responded similarly - they called themselves Canadians and they called us Americans.

huh - I ususally respond to that question with the state I'm from. "Where are you from?" "Colorado." I guess I kinda assume my accent or something or other gives me away as being from the US.

Yes, American in Australia too. Unless you state that you are Canadian as both accents are similar and we can't tell the difference.

Much like you probably can't tell the difference between Australian and New Zealand accents, but we can.

Elly

I call my nationality American.
However when it comes to the name of the country, I tend to say the US.
Many years ago when I first came to Paris and was attending the Sorbonne, I once called the country l'Amérique and an Argentine classmate smilingly corrected me: "l'Amérique du nord !?" Since then I have always referred to the country as the US (or les Etats unis), for the sake of clarity.

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I call my nationality American.

But is there a "nation" called America?

Maybe our "continentality" is American, or N. American?

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But is there a "nation" called America?

No, our official name is United States of America, and while the conventional short form is United States, we should be careful to recognize that the official name of Mexico is Estados Unidos Mexicanos.

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Americana in Parigi

I call my nationality American.

So do I usually. However, I also make it a point to identify my country as "U.S.". When I lived in Australia, people would ask me, "American or Canadian?" I wondered why, until I had been there for a while and found out that if an Australian just naturally assumed somebody with my type of accent was American, it didn't bother the Americans but it really got the dander up of the Canadians. (No offense intended here, Jerry, Brenda, et al ) So then I started saying in response to the same question, "I'm from the U.S."

That seemed to make everybody happy.

I personally feel it is a little presumptuous of us "Americans" to assume that it is only us. I think it should include the entire North, Central, and South Americas. We should all be Americans.

OK, off my now!

I say the United States too for country and nationality.

As our American members know, here in Canada we have access to a minimum of 1876 TV stations from the United States of America. We hear daily on these stations what "the American people want" and we always understand it refers to the people of the United States, not of Canada or Chile or Uruguay.

I have lived on three continents and I have always heard "American" applied to people from the United States. When people want to emigrate to America, or to live and get a green card in America, or when they sing the West Side story lyrics "I like to be in America, Okay by me in America, etc." they never refer to Guyana, or Canada or Argentina.

I can't see here any source of confusion; surely not in the usage.

So, to answer the original poster's question, to me you are American and a citizen of the United States of America.

I like to remind everybody that we meet;

That those that live in the USA are called Americans,

And those that live in Canada are Canadians.

However the Aussies and Kiwis never to seem to figure that out;

Europeans especially those from the north just shrug their shoulders because they think anybody from North or South America are Americans:

Europeans from the south don’t care

The Brits are confused and we not sure why

And the Americans apologize once again for confusing us Canadians for being American


G

Elly, Canadians sound different than Americans. I can spot 'em at 50 paces with my eyes shut!

I learned when I went to college in upstate NY that it was provincial to say that you were from "the city" when you meant New York City; people from Rochester, Buffalo and Albany --- to name just a few --- found this annoying. Perhaps this is why I am (nearly) always careful to say "the United States" or "Stati Uniti" or "Etats Unis" or "Artzot haBrit" when asked where I'm from.

Or maybe it's just that I've always been a bit of a pedantic stickler.

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The Brits are confused and we not sure why

I'm confused by your confusion on this !

In the UK a reference to an 'American' will be taken to mean someone from the US, nothing else. If you said North American that may be taken to include Canadians, but it's not a common reference.

Of course, we have our own identity issues with being part of the European Union but still referring to mainland Europe inhabitants as 'Europeans' and not meaning ourselves......

I can generally spot the difference between Canadian and US accents and there would be grief if I ever got an Australian one mixed up with a Kiwi as my DH is one of the latter

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Originally posted by frankie:
Elly, Canadians sound different than Americans. I can spot 'em at 50 paces with my eyes shut!

I am not so sure, Frankie, and Panda! Canadians from Nova Scotia sound quite different from Newfoundlanders, those from Alberta have their own twang and so do the British Columbians. Not to mention the French-Canadians, the Native Canadians, etc. And about 25% of Canadians are first or second generation from immigration and those retain their own accent characteristics, which tend to blend into the local accent by the second and third generation. There are over 200 minorities as per 2006 Census, 5 million were visible minorities (probably more now), and we all call ourselves, as we should, Canadians.

There is really no generic Canadian accent, just as there is no one American accent. Geography, demographics, administration, immigration patterns, all conspire to create those differences here as in The Unites States of America.

I worked in Belgium with many people from Canada. When we were introducing ourselves the Canadians would always say they were from Canada. If I said I was American one of the Canadians would invariably speak up and say, "...I am an American also..." I learned to say I was from the United States and now when I hear a person from Maryland say they are American I think it may indeed be a bit presumptuous for others to assume that they mean they are from the United States.

People from the United States have been called "American" since Revolutionary times. In a 1787 book titled "Letters of an American Farmer," a Frenchman named Crèvecœur (who settled in New York) wrote an essay called, "What is an American?"

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The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas and form new opinions.

Side note: Crèvecœur introduced alfalfa to America and the American potato to Normandy.

I'm an American, and don't feel it's presumptuous to identify myself that way. Even pedantic sticklers should understand.

Most people in our travels assume that we are from the U.S.

When ask where we are from, our response is usually "San Francisco!"

Ah, "Golden Gate Bridge", "Alcatraz" are some of the usual reaction.

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Even pedantic sticklers should understand.

Ouch! (We need a smiley for gettin OFF the soapbox!)

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Originally posted by JustTravel:
Most people in our travels assume that we are from the U.S.

When ask where we are from, our response is usually "San Francisco!"

Ah, "Golden Gate Bridge", "Alcatraz" are some of the usual reaction.

I guess this is just like us when people tell us they are from Italy: "Ah, bella Venezia! Amo Roma!" What is the difference?

We do the same but with only one reaction..

"We're from Orlando, Florida"

"Oh.. Disneyworld" is the reaction. That's ANYWHERE in the world too!!

..............where else in the world could you live where we built a who community around a cartoon of an oversized rodent and everybody knows him and where you live?!

Go figure...

Since I am from a big city in the US, I just say the name of the city when someone asks. I like to think this gives the person a much more specific image than just saying "the States", which is such a large and varied place. Last August, while my husband and I were in Paris, a man from Singapore stopped us for directions, and asked where we were from. When we said "Chicago", his face lit up and he said, "Obama country!" A definite step up from Al Capone

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just say the name of the city

My husband likes to call the Loire city "Old Orleans" and the English city "Old York".

I always would say that I'm from the United States but, living in the Czech Republic, I often would get confused looks until I said America. The first time we went back to the States for a visit my daughter's teacher asked her if she was going to America and she said, "No, I'm going to the United States." After that I decided I needed to use both with our children and depending on who I am speaking with I use either the United States or America.

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Originally posted by Mary L.:
I always would say that I'm from the United States but, living in the Czech Republic, I often would get confused looks until I said America. The first time we went back to the States for a visit my daughter's teacher asked her if she was going to America and she said, "No, I'm going to the United States." After that I decided I needed to use both with our children and depending on who I am speaking with I use either the United States or America.

Hi Mary, I was wondering, I remember when you moved to Prague, how long has it been now? Are you still loving it? Will you stay forever? Just curious!

I come from Mexico and I refer to anyone born in the United States as "UnitedStatesian" or "US-er" if I want to be brief.

Just like the nationality of someone born in Japan is not "Asian", the nationality of someone born in the US is not "American".

Sometimes it worries me that a lot of UnitedStatesians (not the OP, of course) think that their country designates a whole continent, or that a whole continent is solely characterized by their country (the US). In Mexico the UnitedStatesian attitude of calling themselves "Americans" is seen as rather arrogant. Kudos to the OP for endorsing precision in language, and knowing that America is a land much more varied in peoples, language, tradition, history, and culture, than the 2 centuries' old USian convention of thinking themselves the sole inhabitants of a full continent.

I'm glad for this discussion. It is helpful to have my impression confirmed that in many parts of the world -- not all certainly -- the term "American" is taken to mean someone from the United States. When traveling and asked where I'm from, I usually say the United States, sometimes perhaps I'll say from Washington DC (which is near where I currently live but not necessarily my sense of my own identity).

However, when I'm saying what I am, I'm American. I really don't know another word to use. People from France are French, People from Russian are Russian, people from Canada are Canadian, people from Mexico are Mexican, but those of us from the US for some reason don't really have a corresponding word for "who we are" other than American. I don't think very many -- probably very few -- people from the United States who use the term "American" are expressing arrogance. It is a convenient term that is understood in lots of places besides the United States to mean someone from the US.

Just my own two cents worth!

When I travel, I say I'm American but honestly not that many people ask me most just assume (I'm fair-skinned, blue eyes, blonde, lol I look American). Honestly more often I have to clarify that New York is a state not just a city, or answer questions about Sex and the City or Beverly Hills 90210.

As a Canadian, I would never call myself an American - too much baggage, and I'm usually near the weight allowance as it is.

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Originally posted by Doug Phillips:
As a Canadian, I would never call myself an American - too much baggage, and I'm usually near the weight allowance as it is.

Are comments like this really necessary?

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Originally posted by lesfaye:

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Originally posted by Doug Phillips:
As a Canadian, I would never call myself an American - too much baggage, and I'm usually near the weight allowance as it is.

Are comments like this really necessary?

I think it's ridiculous to think that Canadians would ever consider themselves to be American. My comment was an attempt at humour. Sorry, if it misfired.

I got your joke Doug. We also joke with our neighbours across the Tasman about not getting mixed up.

They call us the island across the ditch. No one really takes it seriously.

Elly

As the proverbial Americana I thought Doug was funny. He was being goofy and not insulting. Hey, isn't goofiness encouraged on ST ?

Folks, its easy to misinterpret someone's intentions in this format; and one person's humor isn't always another's. Let's move back to the discussion at hand now.

I was listening to my Pimsluer French CD yesterday and they had that whole exchange, "are you an American?" and I started to wonder, to what area are they referring? Then I wondered, if a European asks me "Are you an American?" to what are they referring?

So then I looked it up at dictionary.com and found this:

1. of or pertaining to the United States of America or its inhabitants: an American citizen.
2. of or pertaining to North or South America; of the Western Hemisphere: the American continents.

I keep meaning to check my Webster's but keep forgetting.

For what it's worth, I've looked at a lot of European newspapers from a number of countries, and read a couple of British ones regularly, and they consistently use "American" when referring to people or things from the US. They will say "US government" or "US citizen," but I've certainly never seen anything resembling "the United Statesian writer," "the United Statesian student," or "McDonald's, the United Statesian fast food chain."

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UnitedStatesian

I disagree that UnitedStatesian is the politically correct term. If American is not correct, same would be for US, USA and United States of America.
Simply the reason is that Mexico, Brasil, Canada and many other countries are federation of states and they are just an united states of America as well.
The problem of common names that are not politically correct is that sometimes they are easier. Some one mentionned Check Republic. Before the split of the country they were Checoslovachian, now they are Checkian, in Italy Ceco (blind) makes all sort of jokes. Now they are Checkrepublicans, what if they change to monarchy? Checkkingdonians?
UK drops monarchy (could happen) becomes UR?

Here they are just called Czechs.

Elly

I love this discussion. As a Canadian now and then I've called editors of magazines on this issue saying "In my part of America..." and they always react with "Hey!..." and end up with more letters the next edition from others who feel they also live in America without being in the U.S.

In Scotland one time a lady at a B&B asked me "what part of America are you from?" I said "We call our part Canada." She surprised me by falling over herself to apologize to me. I had to assure here that a full 1/2 of my family are U.S. citizens and we like them fine! LOL!

She said "Oh dear calling you an American is like you calling me English." ..... her opinion of the English seems clear enough doesn't it?