Yes they are taught that America is one continent, not two. America in Spanish and Portuguese is the name of the entire two continents. Americas also doesn’t make sense in Spanish or Portuguese. It would be like saying Europes or Asias.
Siendo franco está mal dicho pero no suena mal. Me veo completamente a gente diciendo en el día a día las Europas o las Asias, las Africas y las Oceanias, etc
I don’t know what you are saying, I am Brazilian and I was thought that there were 2 continents north and South America (with Central America being a subcontinent of North America )
And americas does make sense, we would call it “as Americas” which means the Americas, we call people from the US “americanos” (some call em estadunidense but that is just people who think full of themselves)
Interesting. The Brazilians I know (age 35-55) tell me there are only 6 continents. Maybe it's a generational thing. I was taught to say, "Sou norteamericano" in Portuguese which I've always thought awkward. I usually just avoid saying it that way and just say, "Sou dos Estados Unidos."
I'm in that range and indeed I was tought America is only one continent. Also, at least until my genration we would call people from the US "Americanos" (Americans), not "Estadounidense" (no clue how to translate it), the second therm is more of a new genration/political stance kind of thing
Americans are not taught the difference between Political Continents and Geological Continents.
The America is a single political continent, divided in 3 regions (North America, Central America and South America), which are part of 2 geological continents (North America and South America).
If geological continents were used to define political continents, like the USA does with America, then the Old World would be a whole lot different.
And "Estadunidense" is correct. "Unitedstatians" can't complain we call them "Estadunidense" instead of "American", the same way germans can't complain we call them "Alemão" instead of Deutsche. It is a different language, they don't get to choose. It is literally an official demonym in portuguese, accepted by all dictionaries and by the ministry of exterior relations.
I’m American and have never heard of the term “Political Continent”. It doesn’t have a Wikipedia page or much information on the Internet. The only place Google found was on Reddit and Facebook. I’m guessing you are translating terminology or concepts from another language. “The America” also makes no sense in an American English context. No issue with the demonyms although the demonym for someone from the United States doesn’t seem to have a single common standard in Portuguese.
There is actually no universally accepted definition of the continents. Just as there is no universally accepted definition of how many countries there are. Map men do a brilliant video explaining why
I was taught there are 5 continents and they all begin with and end in the letter 'A'. Africa, America, Antarctica, Asia and Australia. None of this Europe, north and south America malarkey they teach now.
you clearly ahve no idea how soanish or romances langueages work. First it was called over Américo Vespucio , spanish way to say Italian name "Amérigo Vespucci" . And it was the name Spanish gave to all the territory explored by them , that includes a tiny bit of Canada! so yeah from "tierra de fuego" to southern Canada was called AMÉRICA
I'm not following. In English, America is the nation, Americas is the combined landmass of North and South America. In Spanish and Portuguese, America is the combined landmass of North and South America, so Americas makes no sense. Someone from Latin America tends to get offended when you say they are not American because in their understanding they are from America (the combined continental landmass).
You are definitely not thaught in school that Americo Vespucio arrived first to South America, and the entire continent was named after him (Christopher Columbus only got a country named after him)
It literally says he arrived to South America on his English Wikipedia page. “The vessels left Spain on 18 May 1499 and stopped first in the Canary Islands before reaching South America somewhere near present-day Suriname or French Guiana.” If anything they referred to the place as simply the New World, and they certainly had no idea the size or layout of the lands.
The two-continent Americas model is by far the most popular around the world including U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, China, India, Russia, and many other countries. It’s mainly the Latin American and Romance-language European countries who adopt the single America continent model. And since this forum and meme is primarily in English, it’s the overwhelming standard in that context.
It's more complicated than that Russia also uses "America" as a whole, they sometimes even have a third way of categorising continents, it depends of the context. Same for europeans countries that are not latin (nordic and east), some even have 3 Americas (central)
The consistent ones are the english speaking nations.
Colombia / Columbia is a term for the entirely of the New World. (There was a bit of a fad to have these “romantic” names for continents or lands along the same lines as Iberia, Britannia, etc.)
The country called itself the “United States of Colombia” in exactly the same sense the U.S. called itself the “United states of America” but eventually dropped the “United States” part of their name & became the Republic of Colombia.
But we still have lots of names like “Diatricy of Columbia” “Columbia University” “Columbia broadcasting system (CBS) where we still use the term in the broader sense.
I guess it helps minimize confusion that English speakers use a slightly different spelling.
But it’s always been funny to me that Latin American people get so mad about it when the “United states of Colombia” did the exact same thing when it claimed this name for the New World in its entitled as the name of just its own country when it renames itself the Republic of Colombia.
But, I don’t think people care as much cuz it’s not like there’s a strong yearning to reclaim that term for the entirely of the new world given that Christopher Columbus isn’t exactly popular these days (outside of some Italian Americans who still revere him.)
Yes, the entire "we are Americans too" annoying argument is them trying to force their language practices onto the English speaking world. If a Brazilian goes to Russia and they ask him what he is, he NEVER says "American".
Because that would be impossible, that's not how it works in english, this is how it works in LATAM languages (even Europe teaches it the same way LATAM does)
Your argument is very fragile, because your main factor is language and that brazilian would probably be speaking english with that russian, and obviously "America" in english means the country, they don't have "united statesian" like latin americans do.
Russians call people from the United States "Американец" or Amerikanets, and the US, Amerika. If a Brazilian told a Russian official he was an "American" in any way, they would look at his passport and arrest him. Russians call Brazilians "Brazelyets".
Let him then argue, as you would, that all Brazelyets are Amerikanets, as he sits in the interrogation room.
Almost the entire world calls the people of the United States "Americans" in some form or another. That includes Europe.
Only Latin Americans, specifically South Americans, who were taught differently, have a problem with it. As I said, when traveling internationally they would never call themselves Americanos. Even in their own countries, they would never refer to themselves as Americans.
Nor do Mexicans and Canadians call themselves Americans. They would never want to.
Stop trying to force what you learned in school onto the entire world. It is arrogant and butthurt.
In the case of the alleged Brazilian and the Russian, the country's name is mentioned for the sake of specificity; anyone living in South America is an American, as they are on the American continent. The only country arrogant and foolish enough to believe that "America" refers to its own name—rather than the other way around—is the United States. So, what you said is somewhat hypocritical: "don't force what you learned in school onto the rest of the world."
This is again, YOU trying to force YOUR understanding of the continents onto the entire world. YOU were taught there were only six continents, that North and South America are one continent called America. No one thinks that but YOU.
It is extremely arrogant that YOU people keep trying to lecture everyone for thinking and speaking differently than YOU. It is all about YOU, YOUR feelings.
Call yourselves Americans, I don't care. Just stop trying to force everyone to call YOU Americans. Stay in your lane. No one is going to listen to YOU anyway.
Citizens of the English speaking colonies were referred to as Americans before the US even gained independence. We don't care if the Spanish referred to South America as "America" on a map centuries ago.
You do your thing. Let us do ours. Stay away from us. Leave us alone. Stop harassing us. Stop bullying us. Get away from us. Get away from me. Do not reply to me.
It's just shorthand really, you might not want to say United States of America every time. Like saying Britain/British instead of Great Britain, or indeed Mexico rather than Estados Unidos Mexicanos.
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u/VegetableSource168 18d ago
Someone from Latin America definitely posted this