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Sorry, the above post was mine...it's not Guest commenting on his/her own post! But there are too many Guests around, so you never know... :-)
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<i>Since this is a language forum, let's get it straight:
There are two distinct continents in the Western hemisphere, "North America" and "South America"</i>
So, Has now English the power to define how many continents are there? If you learn English you have to accept that America are two continents, even if you have being taught since childhood that America is one continent?
You Statians can say the way you like, but be certain that for me America never has been and will never be a country, and that doesn't depend on the language I happen to be speaking at a given moment.
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What you're taught isn't always correct.
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Many Canadians use the term: US Americans.
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Sure, but the number of continents is something rather conventional isn't it? There is no place for correctness here.
In many places in Europe, America is considered to be a continent, always has been that way since Columbus got there in 1492. So the notion that there isn't such a thing America and there are instead two different continents sounds rather silly. Even the names are silly, North and South America, if they are different, why have they the same name? Wasn't there more names available in the English language? it's sound like it was a split from the cool war.
We do talk about North and South America, but always as subdivisons of a same continet, never different continents.
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"We do talk about North and South America, but always as subdivisons of a same continet, never different continents."
Then the education system in your country needs to be fixed, are North and South America ARE two *separate* tectonic plates, ergo two *separate* continents. Go learn some geography.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Plates_tect2_en.svg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics
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What makes a continent is something conventional: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent#Number_of_continents I'm sure you know that if you're so into geography. Otherwise Europe wouldn't be considered a continentd, would it? So, all the people who talk about Europe being a continent should take geography classes?
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There are 7 continents. Get over it. If you won't accept North and South America as two different continents, then you should not call Europe one either.
"all the people who talk about Europe being a continent should take geography classes?"
No, people who *don't* consider Europe a continent should be the ones who should take classes. Europe and Asia are divided by the Ural Mountains whether people want to believe it or not.
The seven continents are:
Africa
Antarctica
Asia
Australia
Europe
North America
South America
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Honestly, though, the division between Europe and Asia is more a cultural thing than a geographic or geological thing; one should really speak of six continents, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Eurasia, North America, and South America. (North America and South America are only very weakly connected, and were completely separate landmasses in the past; the same applies also to Africa and Eurasia, with the Arabian peninsula historically having actually been attached to Africa not the rest of Eurasia.)
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Either way, America is not a proper name for a country, that's all. Let's face it, Bits and Americans have achieved a lot, but they are not very good at choosing names for countries, are they?
I have to recognise that in the case of the UK, well, it's a tricky thing, but for fuck's sake, you Americans have had 200 years to think of a normal name for your nation.
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<<Many Canadians use the term: US Americans.>>
No, they don't.
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<<<<Many Canadians use the term: US Americans.>>>>
<<No, they don't.>>
They really don't, then? I had taken it as a truth, although it seemed rather redundant...
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At the signing of the US Decl. of Independence someone actually argued that "United States of America" was not a good name for a country (in the musical '1776' the custodian suggests this) but, at the time of the signing of the DoI, the US was actually a confederation similar to the EU, so it's similar to arguing the "European Union" is not a good name for a country.
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<<They really don't, then? I had taken it as a truth, although it seemed rather redundant...>>
I've lived in Canada my whole life, and I didn't even know the term existed till I saw it on here.
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"No, they don't."
I'm lovin' it.
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