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Cultural differences or just uncultured? - Page 3

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Caballero
July 14, 2011, 10:11 PM
5. As a noun "americano" more often means "a person from the continent(s) of America" rather than "a person from the USA". Some people object to using "americano" to mean "a person from the USA". Alternative neutral words include "norteamericano" and "estad(o)unidense".
I wouldn't say "more often". So far, I've seen "americano" refering only to people from the US more often than not in Spanish, even though it is not correct, since in the continent model that is used in Spanish speaking countries America is one continent. But yes, saying norteamericano or estadounidense is more precice, although saying americanos is not wrong because norteamericanos/estadounidenses are by definition also americanos, even though peruanos, argentinos, etc are also americanos.

wayfarer
July 15, 2011, 05:50 AM
Hello Caballero,
indeed "norteamericano" is more accurate, by saying "americano" we are erasing from the map a huge piece of continent!

Even though my English is not perfect, I will try to make some little corrections to what you have written:

I wouldn't say "more often". So far, I've seen that in Spanish "americano" refering refers only to people from the US more often than to people from the whole continent.(1) not in Spanish , even though it (2)This is not fully correct, since in the continent model that is used in Spanish speaking countries America is one a single continent. But yes, saying norteamericano or estadounidense is more precice precise/accurate, although saying americanos is not wrong because norteamericanos/estadounidenses are by definition also americanos, even though peruanos, argentinos, etc are also americanos.

(1) In this sentence I rearranged the word order, the one you used didn't sound well.

(2) Here your expression was not incorrect, but I split the sentence because it was too long.

CrOtALiTo
July 18, 2011, 07:43 PM
The other day at work I was talking to the people who clean our office and they were Hispanic. So naturally we were speaking in spanish to each other about a comic strip I hung up (which was in Spanish). The manager that sits in the cubical across from mine told me that "Spanish people" need to speak "our" language not theirs or they need to go back to where they came from. I sort of just stared at him and told him they have a right to speak their own language. I was shocked, offende, and embrassed that he said this in from of the girl I was talking to.

Why is it that some Americans feel this way. I am American and I don't act that way or think that way. Is it just cultural differences or rem being uncultured? :impatient:

His expression was very rudeness and I don't believe appropriate his attitude with the Spanish people, already it called racism in our country, I don't know why the America people have that thinking about us the Latin people, everyone in this small world we are humans with feeling before that other thing.

I don't agree with his commentary about it.