Is it correct to call oneself a "US American"?
'Guest' : « The flag of the Olimpic Games represents the 5 continents. So 5 continents is clearly the most common criteria. What you say , Skippy is an US-centric point of view. »
Exact. D'ailleurs aucun des cinq continents (Afrique, Amérique, Asie, Europe & Océanie) n'est représenté par une couleur en particulier. Les six couleurs (fond blanc + cinq anneaux) représente les couleurs utilisées dans les drapeaux des pays qui existaient à l'époque de Pierre de Coubertin.
Skippy : « How is that US-Centric? The Olympic flag symbolizes Oceania, Eurasia, North America, South America, and Africa, that's exactly what I said excluding Antarctica and the Indian sub-continent. »
Non, c'est faux. À l'époque l'Europe et l'Asie étaient distinguées et l'Amérique considérée dans son ensemble. On peut le regretter, mais c'est comme ça.
'Guest' : « Symbolizes: America (red), Europe(blue), Asia (yellow), Africa (black), Oceania( green). »
Non, c'est faux. La liste des continents est exacte, mais les six couleurs (pas cinq → faut rajouter le fond blanc) ne réprésentent pas les continents de notre planète mais les coloris des drapeaux des pays existant en 1914.
Christopher Columbus didn't discover "The Americas" he discovered America, and because of that when UK colonies became independent and decided to unite they called the country "United States of America" because they were a Union of States LOCATED in America.
Later they realized that they didn't have a proper name so they started calling themselves simply "America" and so it wouldn't overlap they "cut" real America in 2, North America and South America.
For one reason, when the colonies which later became the US first became independent they viewed themselves as independent nations in a confederation, analogous to the modern European Union.
Yes, they were independent and when they decided to unite and create a new country they thought "how are we going to name this new country?" the most logical thing was "United States of America" again because they were a Union of States LOCATED in America.
People did not typically identify themselves as Americans for a while. They were Georgians or Carolinians or Virginians, etc.
People tend to get blunt when they speak of identity. It's been ironic that people could be stereotyping against _themselves_, like when they feel proud of being yellow-skinned, when people on the other side of the globe are very aware of the offensive notion associated with the yellow peril, even though they aren't the exact people themselves.
Then I wonder: who do the first people think they are? Unlike you guys, they are already assuming possible assaults of any sort when they end up in a foreign land. I know this could happen to any foreign students or tourists, but it doesn't sound right to have so many assumptions.
For example, when some guys are preparing to go to Europe as "backpackers" (what's that?), some of them are assuming that Germans (they call them Germanic people) are very orderly (what they think why there were the Nazi regime) and so Germany should be very safe for travellers. They don't bother to learn at least with phrasebooks and have to rely on their lousy English, though they know not everyone in Europe except in the UK understands English. Then, they are already afraid of getting beaten, intimidated or whatnot by neo-nazis or any random people everywhere in Central/Eastern Europe for purely racial reasons.
I can't translate everything, but this is what I call typical solutions to travelling among the necessarily blunt Chinese. I'm not bashing them. Rather, I pity them for having a terribly limited world-view and always and being so "hard" on themselves.
"People did not typically identify themselves as Americans for a while. They were Georgians or Carolinians or Virginians, etc."
>>Yes, all independent countries have demonyms, and when you create a new country you create a new demonym, in this case with the creation of the United States of America they took the demonym "American" despites of all the other countries, Canadians themselves at first refused to call them Americans but eventually they gave up as the U.S. became the world superpower, but all the other non-English speaking countries defended their term American by calling them "United Statians".
Anyways, when I speak English I can call you Americans, but what really pisses me off is people calling it simply America, the U.S. government made a good job hiding that part of history so no one would challenge their name.
"when some guys are preparing to go to Europe as "backpackers" (what's that?), some of them are assuming that Germans (they call them Germanic people) are very orderly (what they think why there were the Nazi regime) and so Germany should be very safe for travellers. "
Yes, German people are very ordely, but it's a cultural think, I din't think it comes from the nazi times.
I think that's off-topic.
美國人民
Although Americans from the United States (Y'all happy now?) are beautiful country people in Chinese, they are from 米国 【べいこく】(beikoku)-the Rice country (no, I am not making this up.) in Japanese.
So I am a rice-country person if I am not an Americajin (American) in Japanese.
"Do NOT call me a yankee..."
I have both "yankee" and "rebel" blood, but even I don't want to be called a yankee. If folks from Lazar's neck of the woods want to be Yankees, that's fine. That's what they are and it's not an insult for them.