GIVE ANSWERS - English

93% GOOD (245 votes)AnsweredLanguage Question
What is America? Where is America? Who are Americans?

 

America and American are two of the most misused words in the english language and even in the world.

Most people born in the United States of America don't even know this or don't want to know this (even all Presidents of the U.S. of America)

 

 

 

1- What is America?

 

For so many years, people have believed that America and The United States (OF America) are the same thing...they are NOT.

America is NOT a country, it is a CONTINENT and there are 36 American Countries in it, going from Greenland and Canada down to Chile and Argentina. Yes, canadians are actually americans.

 

 

 

2- Who are Americans?

 

To this day, people still believe that americans are only the people who are born in the United States (OF America).

It might come to a complete surprise that Not only citizens from the U.S. are American but all the people across the southern border are also Americans and all the people across the northern border are Americans, including people born in Canada. So, yes, if you are from Canada you are actually American, even though you are referred to, as Canadian !! (I mentioned before that some things might come as a shock to you).

People think that Americans are white, have blue or green eyes and golden hair. Well, actually we americans are descendants from European people (that is also a shocking news for some people).

The real Americans had/have dark skin, brown eyes and dark hair. (Some Real Native Americans were Apaches, Navajos, Mayans, Aztecs, etcetera).

There are more than 1,000 million Americans in the American Continent from Greenland to Argentina.

 

Who else is American?:

There are immigrants that are called African-Americans, Asian Americans, etcetera but there are NO Mexican-Americans or Canadian-Americans because they are already Americans. This would be like calling you American-American.

 

The "American Flag"

People in the U.S. refer to the U.S. flag as THE "american flag". This is INCORRECT

There are more than 35 american countries so there are more than 35 american flags in THE American Continent, not just 1.

In the U.S. (of America) there are hundreds of thousands of Documents, Books, Magazines, Films, TV shows, Songs, Brands, etc using the word America but it these are huge mistakes.

If you search in english on the internet: Map of The American Continent or America, you will only find a Map of The United States (OF America).

But if you search in another language (like spanish) you will find the Map of THE American Continent.

Let's not forget that Google is a company founded in the United States OF America.

Videos(DVDs) to watch about the Real America:

"Latin History for Morons" (2018)

Starring John Leguizamo

"Guide to Black History" (2019) Starring Kevin Hart

Videos to watch on YouTube:

"THIS IS AMERICA (NOT WHAT MOST PEOPLE THINK)"

"America is a CONTINENT, NOT a country.  The name of U.S.A. should be Midnorthamerica (or Usania)."

"America - Country or Continent"

"The Countries of the World Song - The Americas"

"The AMERICAN COUNTRIES in English - Flags, map and capitals"

 

 

Books to Read:

- "A People's History of The United States" by Howard Zinn

- "1491" by Charles C. Man

- "Las Venas abiertas de America Latina" ("Open Veins of Latin America") by Eduardo Galeano

Best groups to learn English:
- Best WHATSAPP Groups
- Best DISCORD Groups
- Best TELEGRAM Groups
- Best FACEBOOK Groups

PS: Delve into these free English learning lessons: Free learning: Ascension Island Timeline — Useful English Acronyms and Abbreviations — Confusion between Adjectives and Adverbs — How to Write a Good CV

GIVE ANSWERS

exRanger profile picture exRangerNovember 2019
P.S. Your "graphic presentation" "America Is Not The United States" needs A LOT of work -- both editorial and content.

Good luck w/ that.
exRanger profile picture exRangerNovember 2019
In short: The "Americas", which were named by a cartographer in honor of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci (Latin: Americus Vespucius), the mere fact that in 1776 the term "United States of America", written in a letter from a man named Stephen Moylan to Lt. Colonel Joseph Reed, military aide-de-camp to George Washington, "stuck", albeit subsequently shortened to "America" and/or "USA", and thus was coined the term "America" as representative of the sovereign nation controlling the original 13 British Colonies, i.e., what is known as Federal-era America. The short (or nickname, if you prefer) name stuck, not merely among the inhabitants of those formerly British colonies, but as well by foreign -- ENGLAND & THE EUROPEAN CONTINENTAL POWERS IN PARTICULAR -- of the term "America" in reference to "The United States Of America". No "great conspiracy" to monopolize on the word "America", my ill-informed (or simply misguided?) friend. It was not until (much) later that cartographers (ie, people who design maps), geographers, and political entities applied the terms "South" and "Central" as modifiers to the word "America" in order to distinguish among them. That "Canada" is, well, simply "Canada" owes to its own devices: had it seleted a different name, e.g., "The United Canadian Provinces of America" or somesuch, perhaps it, too, would have carried forward w/ an element of the term "America" in popular reference, e.g., "Canadian America". But, seriously, from an etymological standpoint there was about as much chance of such a ridiculous "name" sticking as seeing Godzilla actually rise from the depths of Tokyo Bay.

Got all that?
  • cgonzalezesq profile picture cgonzalezesqOctober 2021
    Thank you, you reaffirm my point above. Language evolves - the America’s were called what they were and evolved into what we now have. However it would be illogical to call the people who lived in North America in pre-columbian times by a term which did not in fact exist at that time!
  • josdan profile picture josdanOctober 2020
    I agree with you alecoiba: people should really be informed about this (both in the US and in the rest of the world). But we shouldn’t really judge Americans because of this. I’m sure they are not trying to be arrogant or nationalistic, it’s just a convention.
  • alecoiba profile picture alecoibaDecember 2019
    The fact is that to this date (and century), people are still misusing the terms, and many people do not know the truth and most people IN the U.S. like yourself, my friend, have a hard time admitting the truth about these facts and people in other continents are being misguided too because of this. If Japan says Asia is only Japan, you´d say "that makes no sense, what about China, Thailand, etc?" but as it is a correction about your own Country, it´s a pill hard to swallow. A mexican comedian and U.S. citizen does stand up jokes about latins and the same night he made a joke about another country and people didn´t laugh so he asked "It´s not funny when it´s you, is it?" and people started cheering and applauding. So, it´s hard when people correct us or talk about us. My intention is not to continue this "he said, he/she said" because it will be an endless history lesson with each person, telling their side of their story. (There´s: My Truth, Your Truth and THE Truth). This is not intended to be political either, is just to INFORM people they´ve been using the wrong terms, specially if this is a place where you learn languages and culture. If (people think) the shoe fits, wear it, if not, well continue believing like this. These mistakes originated (as your recent post says) IN the U.S., so you are giving yourself the answer in who´s wrong about the real facts. Also many Native ("Indian") Americans and African Americans differ on the facts that U.S. History claims and the truth they know.
    People that want true facts look it up IN Spanish (specially latin AMERICAN spanish) a research on maps and history in spanish and you´ll get different answers.
    "It´s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled" -Mark Twain
    Good day to you all.