Are we Americans?
“How much longer are we going to think it necessary to be ”American” before (or in contradistinction to) being cultivated, being enlightened, being humane, and having the same intellectual discipline as other civilized countries?” –Edith Wharton (1862 - 1937)
In my opinion, United Statesians tend to be ethnocentric and ignorant of the world around us. We don’t mean to be (I really believe this); it’s how we’re raised.
English is the third most widely spoken language in the world (roughly 380 million native speakers), and it is the international language of communication. Ipso facto, less need for United Statesians to learn other languages. You may have taken Spanish or French or German or whatever in high school. If you went to college, you probably studied it there, too. Ok, quick quiz: how do you say, “Excuse me, where is the bathroom?” in your chosen language of study? Had to think about it, right?
Our political power (or is that political bullying power?) is vast and the likelihood of being taken over by other countries (or even attacked) is slim. Therefore, we don’t learn that much about them. Most people I know never, ever had a geography class, let alone learned the history of some of our sister nations. Can you point out Uzbekistan on the map? How about Qatar? (Can you even point to Iowa?) Can you give a brief history of China’s dynasties? Or how about a rundown of the current Russian government? No? Ok, can you even tell me how the Canadian or Mexican government works today? (After all, they are our neighbors!) What is the Mexican Prime Minister’s name? The president of Canada’s? Or wait, do I have that backwards? Whoops. Yeah… no need to feel embarrassed. These things are just not taught in many US schools.
Moving on… notice how I’ve been saying “United Statesians”? As far as I know, that’s an invented word (I’m so industrious, huh?). Do you know why I invented it? Simple. Millions of people from Central and South America, not to mention Canada and Mexico (with whom we share North America), refer to themselves as Americans (in Spanish, americanos). If you want to get into a heated discussion, call yourself an americano when you visit me in Costa Rica. Make sure to say it loud and clear, so all the ticos can hear you. Then listen really close while they begin muttering under their breath about United Statesian ignorance and egos. (By the way, we are estadounidenses in Spanish, and our country is los Estados Unidos [translation: the United States].) Now, I’ve made the argument many times that “American” does not translate as americano (and it doesn’t! it translates as estadounidense), but still: why do we call ourselves Americans? We are the United State of some of North America, not the United States of all of North, Central, and South America. Potato, potatoh? I don’t really think so. But I’ll leave it at that.
We do not live in a bubble. We use products from other countries. We interact with people from other countries. Our world does not start and end with the USA. We have some international responsibility. When weI go to other countries, whether weI like it or not, we are cultural ambassadors. People see us, and they associate our actions, our beliefs, and our general way of being with the United States. I want to promote a positive image of our country (Lord knows there’s plenty of anti-American sentiment in today’s world!) instead of the same old “Ugly American” stereotype. I am not just a citizen of the U.S., but a citizen of the world.
Do I think we should change our language? Not really. Am I actually going to walk around referring to myself as a United Statesian? Not in English. But I am going to educate myself. I will always be a student of languages and other cultures. I am going to learn more about the world we live in. I’m going to study some maps, read up on international current evens, and check out the World Fact Book. I can’t change the past, or how I was raised, or what I was taught in school. I certainly can’t change US foreign policy or Bush or generalizations about our country. But we all have control over what we do in our present and what we make of our future.
I, for one, am gonna get me some edumakashin. How about you?
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p.s. Just for fun, here’s a joke you may have heard before:
What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual.
What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Trilingual.
What do you call a person who speaks four languages? Quadralingual.
And what do you call a person who speaks only one language? An American!
Hello, I read your post.. It was really marvelous.. What I really loved is how you lectured everyone about how to be a better citizen of the United States. That was really fabulous! However, before assuming all people from the United States are as backward as the region you come from, you might want to travel within the U.S. more. Additionally, there is no word “quadralingual” or “quadlingual” or “quad-lingual” trying using Meriam Webster, New Oxford English, or even www.dictionary.com to verify that. Seems you like to make up a lot words, some intentionally and other non-intentionally. Before you seek to reprimand citizens of the United States across the board you should criticize yourself and work on improving your own short-comings. There is an old adage in the English language “if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all”, and that is especially true when it comes to you. Additionally, anyone in South America could call themselves an ‘American’ if they are so inclined. The ironic thing is how you seek to chastise AMERICANS’ attitudes (meaning from the U.S. you arrogant bullocks) when in fact your self-righteous, pretentious, cocky, asinine blog is itself the perfect representative of what you so loathe. How about this, why don’t you get busy shutting the f*ck up, stop flagellating Americans since you are one, and start listening to how extravagantly arrogant you are so that you might have a chance of being humble. And before you start to criticize me, remember I never said how wonderful I am like your blog implied of yourself. I am a humble Brit who grew up in Japan (????????and now resides very happily in the U.S.. I don’t think I am intelligent but I recognize a cocky bullocks when I see one and you are about as big as they get you self righteous shat eater. GROW UP!
Well, I don’t know if you actually read the post or if you just went into it guns blazing, but I guess it’s of no concern. You have your opinion, whether it is founded or not.
A few points:
1) I did not write the joke, so I therefore did not make the words up.
2) Yes, I do like to make words up. I believe only 2 words (1 term) were made up in this post, and that was to make a point. I’m sorry if that went over your head.
3) I certainly have shortcomings. I do work on them. One thing that I have worked on is being non-judgmental of individuals (my government is another story). Perhaps you should give it a try.
4) The old English adage is, in your terms, bullocks. I’ll give you a better quote: “Dissent is the greatest form of patriotism.” If I disagree, I’m going to say that I disagree. Also, if you think your adage is so great, try it out for yourself sometime.
5) If someone from South America called himself “American” (in English), no one would understand that he meant “from South America”.
6) You may say “fuck” in my blog.
7) I will absolutely not stop voicing my opinions in an attempt to be “humble” (although I would call it “cowardly”). Please remember that my country separated from your country because we wanted freedom of speech. This includes the right to freedom of opinion and freedom of expression. Furthermore, this is my blog and since I pay for it and am the writer, marketer, SE optimizer, administrator, and owner, I will write whatever I please. You do not have to read it.
You, sir, are not humble.
9) I agree with your self-intelligence assessment. Intelligent people are willing to open their minds to (I do not mean “agree with”) other ideas.
I did not delete your rude comment nor did I ban you. [I believe that people have the right to voice their opinions, whether they agree with me or not.] However, please be advised that in the future all abusive comments will be deleted and you will be banned, as such comments and commenters are neither welcome nor permitted on this site. Freedom of opinion? Yes. Freedom of expression? Yes. Freedom to name-call, slander, etc.? No.
Have a lovely day.
Eeeew. Heavy comment above.
Erin, Thanks for visiting my blog. I can’t believe that we made up the same word. I have visited your blog and in fact even have it on my bloglines list, but I hadn’t read this article before (I swear)!
I have a habit of making up words, too, including my blog title which I discovered wasn’t properly formed as yours was (the ‘gui’ part). I talked about it here:
http://lagringasblogicito.blogspot.com/2006/07/title-dilemma.html
Since most of my readers are English speakers I decided to leave it the way it was, but I still feel bad about it.
Anyway, good article and I hope you come to visit my blog again. Thanks for commenting.
Hello. I stumbled upon your blog by accident and couldn’t help but read it. It was amazing , really, I was completely drawn in and repulsed all at the same time. I do not wish to reprimand or insult you in my response as others have unfortunately been lowered to do, because as an American I believe strongly in the freedom of speech. However, I thought maybe I could send you a bit of hope that not all Americans are so hopelessly lost as you believe they are. So, indulge me in a little bit of bragging to prove my point, please. I am an American, brought up in Miami, Tampa and then Charlotte, NC. During my childhood I became fluent in Spanish due to my friends of Cuban, Mexican and Dominican heritage. After completing a Bachelor with Honors in Spanish and another in Latin American Studies, I am currently doing a Master degree in Linguistics in France. I have currently traveled to almost every continent (minus Antarctica) and I speak four languages fluently, English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. I also speak enough of Russian, German and Punjabi to make myself understood and have small conversations. Not only that, but I have met probably hundreds of Americans just like me in my travels. We are good people, intelligent people, no different in percentages when it comes to ignorance and “bi-lingual-ism” than any other country in the world except maybe the Scandinavian ones. It is fine to criticize the United States, but there are plenty of things to be proud about too. I hope one day you forgive your countrymen for their shortcomings and grow as a person yourself in the process. Good luck in your travels and language studies.
Stumbled across this thru your mac fandom–a decent, but hardly accepted, alternative for “American” is Usonian, coined (or “popularized”, depending) by Frank Lloyd Wright. It also works as a decent translation of estadounidense to english.