America and Americans / Europeans

Donald M Lance lancedm at MISSOURI.EDU
Thu Feb 21 19:57:30 UTC 2002


Do Danes consider themselves Europeans or Scandinavians?  I understand that
Brits don't like to be called Europeans.  Are Finns Europeans?  North
America isn't the only region of the world where geographic terms get
confusing.  The Near East used to be considered western Asia.  Does one
still hear, e.g., the Lebanese referred to as Asians?

DMLance

on 2/21/02 1:27 PM, FRITZ JUENGLING at
juengling_fritz at SMTPGATE.SALKEIZ.K12.OR.US wrote:

> In all the languages which with I am familiar, the word for someone or
> something from the US is "American"  (of course, with variant spellings,
> pronunciations, and endings).  Yes, many people know and use 'Yankee' as
> well.  What do the Danes call people from the US (aiIdk)?
> It will be interesting to see whether we have this same discussion in a
> few years if a "United States of Europe" is created.
> I never use 'the states.'  I would say "United States," though.
> Fritz
>>>> Michael Vezie <mlv at POBOX.COM> 02/21/02 10:23AM >>>
> Another anecdotal thought about "Americans".  When I was an exchange
> student in Denmark back in 1990, a fellow student (Canadian) got upset
> with me for introducing myself to the group as "an American".  He told
> me I should say I'm from "the states", not "America".
>
> Frankly, it seems silly to me.  For a Canadian to claim to be from
> America
> is just plain wrong.  There is no continent called "America".  It's
> "North
> America" (or "South America", or collectively, "the Americas").  So the
> only geographical region that can be called "America" is the United
> States
> of America.
>
> Michael
>



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