Chile Forum

What's wrong with just being "Chilean"?

nothing wrong with being chilean, but we are ALSO south americans and americans in this order, then maybe we are conosurean and latin american and human beings. is just a language issue, in spanish all the americas are just one continent. the real answer here is: you call yourselves americans just because you cant call yourselves unatedstatian sounds bad. but in other international forum were i post they call themselves as US americans. a chilean artist called alfredo jaar had great troubles in NY, NY, USA, North America, America when we put this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-adpTvjNOk in the 80s

To take this thread off on a tangent: It really bothers me when I speak with people who have become citizens of the USA and they say the are "Going Home" when they visit the country they were from originally. I feel if you made the effort to become a citizen, isn't the USA now your home?
Am I too picky?

Then throw Puerto Rico into the mix. What am I? I was born in Chile, to a Chilean citizen (Mom) and US citizen (Dad) lived through early childhood there. Spent 9 years growing up in PA then to the US Caribbean for 7 years, back to the US for about 10 Years.Moved to PR and I have been in PR twice as long as anywhere else , and all PR citizens are US citizens, but no way am I Puerto Rican, even though I have lived here much longer than I have lived anywhere else.

"The standard way to refer to a citizen of the Unites States is as an American."..."American is rarely used in English to refer to people not connected to the United States"..I was born in Chile, so I am a Chilean citizen, but I became an American citizen,so, I am an American-therefore-I am supposed to be a Chilean-American citizen. Legally I am not a Chilean citizen, because when I was sworn to become an American, I had to resign the Chilean one. So, I am an American. Needless to say, If I am an American and go back to Chile...Would I be a Chilean. In other words my guess is that I am nobody. Ok Rune, help me out.

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I had no idea I had an identity crisis until I read these recent posts. I was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and emigrated to the US when I was 18, to go to university, on a British passport. Subsequently (many years later) I became a US citizen. I am legally a citizen of three countries: US, U.K., and Ireland (although I have never held an Irish passport) --- it seems that the Brits and the Irish never let their people go while the US State Department looks the other way (regarding dual nationality) during the Citizenship naturalization process. Ok Rune, what should I call myself?

PC Twaddle. Context matters. As Charles mentioned, geographically, there are lots of Americans. In terms of citizenship, it normally means someone from the US. People who enjoy being offended or have a bone to pick like to deliberately confuse the two and go off on the "you are not the only Americans" thing. Being polite to your hosts means not stretching to offend. Being a polite host means not digging for a reason to be offended. Saying "I am a United-States-ian" instead of "American" is to debase language in a vain attempt to keep from offending the easily offended....and besides, shouldn't we really say we are a "United-Statsian of the Just North of Mexico Americas"? After all, we wouldn't want to offend others with United States in their name (e.g., Mexicans, who are resentful enough of the US to often be easily offended by this sort of thing). And we certainly wouldn't want to imply that we control some other portion of the Americas, so we need to specify which part of America, and not just which United States. I am an American (doubtless "Merikun" to the faux sophisticates) and what is meant by that word is clearly understood by most, attempts to get bent out of shape notwithstanding.

When asked by Latins where I am from, I often say "I am a gringo", quite nonchalently, sometimes with an intentionally hard American (oops, I mean United Statesian from North of Mexico) accent. Generally gets a smile and breaks the ice. If I am dealing with one of the obvious "US is evil socialist types", I often refer to myself as an American, and when they say that they are Americans too, I imply "well, not really" or "you wish". After all, I am being polite in helping someone who desperately wishes to be offended get offended. Just the kind of guy I am, always looking to help.

John Hyre, American

People that get offended by our use of the word "American" fail to realize that it's merely an abbreviation of the full name of our country. It's like they think we use the term in an arrogant way of declaring that we're the sole proprietors of the western hemisphere or something, when really it's WAY more pratical than having to spell out the whole phrase, such as "citizen of the USA," etc. Plus, the word "estadounidense" doesn't exist in English. If it did, (perhaps "United-statsian?") we'd probably use it.

What do we call citizens of the Estados Unidos de Mexico? - Mexicans

What do we call citizens of the Estados Unidos de America? - Americans

It's simply a matter of abbreviation, folks. No harm inteded.

Nothing wrong if I say, "United States". There are a lot of "United States" type countries around the world. It is not like I am trying to imply no one is as united as we are.

I love to call myself a citizen of the Great Satan...but very few people remember where that came from or who said it anymore. I love other monikers too, but some here would be offended.

Also when an English speaker asks another English speaker where they're from, if the answering person is American (haha now I'm sensitive to use that term!), I've found that the American usually just says the state they are from.

A while back I realized that in English I answer back with my state's name just assuming that everyone knows all 50 states names. And then I started adding, "Virginia, I mean, in the US" so as not to be presumptuous and all English speakers looked at me like, well duh of course.
But if you JUST say the state name, they usually confirm by saying, "Ah so you're American."
And if you just say, America or the US, then they follow up with "Which state?" so you end up saying it anyway.

I think. Has anyone else experienced this? (or am I just too concerned with other people's feelings )

Kind of funny. Now that I think about it, I have been saying Las Vegas for so many years when people ask where I am from, I forgot that I rarely answer American or United States. I have lived in a lot of places in the Western U.S. over the years, among them Las Vegas. So, I have the luxury of just saying "Las Vegas" in English, Spanish, Chinese. Everyone knows Vegas from the movies. If I told people I was from Minnesota, their eyes would cross. Las Vegas however is an instance ice breaker because it will be followed with lots of questions about casinos and whatever.