What exactly is 'America'?

[Vicsun]

When you say "USian", do you pronounce it "you-es-ian" or "you-sian"; i hope you can understand the sounds i'm trying to type.

Hah, I was about to ask the exact same thing.

Regarding 'American', I've conveniently aligned myself with the masses and take the word to mean 'resident of the USA' unless context implies otherwise. If we're talking about the origin of tobacco, I'd take American to mean 'from the Americas', though if someone introduces themselves as American I certainly wouldn't think they're from Chile.

If I was pressed to justify the above, I'd probably say that technically there's no continent called America, and therefore the word is unambiguous and equivalent to the USA.

[fable]

When you say "USian", do you pronounce it "you-es-ian" or "you-sian";

Yes.

i hope you can understand the sounds i'm trying to type.

Sure.

My, that was an extremely agreeable post.

[Avane]

Whether we were part of the then EEC or not, we were still Europeans because, regardless of politics, Britain is in the continent of Europe. Thats the point I was trying to make. Canadians are still North American because that is the continent on which their country is found, regardless of whether or not they are part of the USA. The continents are largely based around the tectonic plates and not politics, the politics only exist since the countries are so close together.

Based on you observations Mr_Sir, this is an interesting little oddity that I came across when studying British and European politics between WWI and WWII.

Churchill coined the term "United States of Europe" in a Saturday Evening Post article in February 1930. He believed that "obsolete hatreds" could be appeased by the American federalist model, but that Britain would not belong. "We have our own dreams. We are with Europe but not of it. We are linked but not compromised."

Of course this line of thought is now obsolete Britain is part of Europe, and I am not suggesting for a second that 'hatreds' exist between Canada and the US.

Okay, venturing into dangerous territory here too, but perhaps this could be applied to the Canadian and USA situation? To paraphrase from Canada's point of view:

"We have our own dreams. We are with the US but not of it. We are linked but not compromised

[kathycf]

Okay, venturing into dangerous territory here too, but perhaps this could be applied to the Canadian and USA situation? To paraphrase from Canada's point of view:

I think that quote could represent how some Canadians feel. Of course I can't speak for any Canadians not being one myself.

We have our own dreams. We are with the US but not of it. We are linked but not compromised

On the other hand, Mexico is also part of North America, but culturally Canada (except for perhaps the greater Quebec area) and the US are more similiar so people do tend to lump the US and Canada together.

I don't. I think it is somewhat disrespectful to do that. Cultural identity might not be a huge issue to some people, but in my day to day life I find it means quite a lot to many people.

On another forum I belong to we were asked who our favorite English authors were. Many people wrote in Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker who were born in Ireland. When that was pointed out to them, they said it was "close enough" (just as an aside, most of the respondents were not from the US...) One of our Irish members pointed out that while it was "close" is wasn't the same.