Educate me on USA and South America definitions please

[mrjones2004x]

I'm 100% American or more technically, from the US. I work with people from South America (Ecuador and Peru) and for awhile, Colombia. This also includes people from Mexico, which is neither North America or Central America. It's Mexico. Yes, it's hard to wrap your head around sometimes.

Central America is perceived as "in between" by these cultures and each perceives the other as being from somewhere else. Most were very poor where they came from. This may seem logical on the surface and even though Espanol (Spanish) is the general language (except for Brazil) there are noticeable cultural differences between all of them. Even the Spanish Language has variations from location to location.

The differences in appearance also change as you go father south, especially once into South America.

The internet has made us smarter and dumber at the same time. What I mean is this: The US is a very large landmass made up of 50 individual states. Texas alone is huge and a real mother to drive across. (It's like a country-sized state). Mexico is a country that also has individual states and is bigger than I would have ever guessed and very diverse. It also has active volcanos. A lady I work with lived beside one of the volcanos as a child and remembers being woke up from the ground shaking.

South America is still a bit of mystery to me, but I can share that many of the cultures are both traditional and modern. From the images I've seen, the land is amazingly beautiful and the people are taller than in Mexico. In some case, taller by a foot or more. The women are increasingly beautiful as you enter into South America. Don't ask me why, by I've seen it with my own eyes.

Anyway, I don't know if any of this helps or just confuses things more, but the internet does make everything seem close and easy to get to. That's farther than the truth if there every was any. For example, driving East from Central America to South America is almost impossible. There's a jungle "road" called the Darian Pass or something like that. I think the Conquestadors are still lost on that path and can't find their way out. Look it up. Idiots still try to hack their way across while dodging bullets from the guerrillas. No, not the kind that eat bananas. It's still kind of wild and gringos are less than welcomed.

The parents of the person I know from Ecuador still wash clothes by hand on a old type washboard. They are just now thinking about getting a washer and dryer. Based on the stories I've been told, they have a better quality of life than most of us modern people will ever understand.

Technology doesn't always mean better or good.

I’ve never been to the US mainly Europe, Spain, the Balearic Islands and similar areas. Furthest I’ve travelled was to the Dominican Republic. South American countries really interest me as places to travel too as a tourist not as a traveller wandering off into places you shouldn’t be

 

[SonVolt]

This also includes people from Mexico, which is neither North America or Central America.

Mexico is part of North America.

 

[geddy]

European is fine. British should be dropped until the Scottish finally have a vote and decide if they want to leave as it’s all we hear about. They said no before and still it goes on.



I did geography up till ages 13 or 14 I think. I did history as my chosen subject up till 16 when I left school. We had to chose between 3 which were history, geography and religion studies.
Don’t know how many lessons you guy did but we only took 8 subjects to exams.
English lit
English lang
Maths
Science
Art
Wood work
I.T
History

Cant speak for your school but I'm sure continents and countries were about the first thing done. No mind....this thread is doing the job

 

[chocol8]

I guess for you guys you say an American is northern American and a Brazilian is South American or Brazilian.
That’s pretty simple. Me shortening it to American doesn’t make sense and it needs its north/south up front

No No No!!!

America and American are short for the United States of America. Those terms are never used for other countries on these continents.

The terms "North American" and "South American" are never used to refer to people, only to describe the continent a country is in. For example, Brazil is a "South American Country" and people from Brazil are Brazilians NOT "South Americans".

Mexico is almost always considered part of North America. Some people separate out the area south of Mexico through Peru to be Central America..

 

[mrjones2004x]

Cant speak for your school but I'm sure continents and countries were about the first thing done. No mind....this thread is doing the job

You’re probably right and I’ve forgotten. I’ve a terrible memory from a work accident head injury long time back which doesn’t help.
My general knowledge is really random but stuff from school I just don’t remember.
This is first time I’ve spoken about continents for 20 plus years and only got confused during some comments watching the World Cup

 

[Australian]

Hi,
Geography isn’t my strong point and I was googling answers but as a fair chunk of peeps here are from the USA I thought I’d ask.

So I know North American and South America are classed separately.

So America is the north. The south is all the other below such as Brazil Mexico etc.

And from what I’ve read the United States is only the north 50 states?

Why is Brazil and Mexico Argentina and so on called South America when they’re not American they are their own individual countries?

Maybe I’m looking at this all wrong but I seem a bit lost on something that should be real easy.
In England when I went to school we didn’t learn hardly anything about the US or much outside of Europe.

Sorry for my lack of brains

Think of it as United States is the large land mass with California on the west side and New York in east side.
Below that group of 50 States is South America which is shaped like a pork chop and is made up of Brasil, Columbia, Peru etc.

But you may have heard of North America (The United States) referred to as the north or south. We would have to get into cooking and understand that the dark chocolate and white chocolate had different ideas, but after some struggle, and the white chocolate in the south allowing thier bottled up dark chocolate to be free, and the spilling of a lot of strawberry jam, the white and dark chocolate decided to mix together with agreeable thoughts and became an edible moose emulsion with intensions of someday becoming a mixture.
And thats why we have Milky Bars and Mars Bars and therefore equality.

Hope that helps.

 

[Dogs of Doom]

IIRC that's pretty much just Quebec, right?

& Louisiana...

 

[Dogs of Doom]

there are 3 continents named America. North, South & Central.

Here's a map of Central:

 

[Dogs of Doom]

below Central America, is the continent of South America:

 

[RCM 800]

there are 3 continents named America. North, South & Central.

Here's a map of Central:

Central America is a subregion not a continent.

 

[Leonard Neemoil]

What confuses people is people that refer to the United States of America as America rather than it's full name The United States of America.

Technically everyone living in North, Central, and South America are ALL American. I'm from the United States though. We really should stop saying we're American and saying that we're US, or from the United States.

My grandmother was an eastern European immigrant and she never referred to this country as America. She always called it the United States or the United States of America. Actually she called it the UniNted States due to her thick accent. She was a wonderful woman and she loved this place more than any other place on earth.

 

[Seven]

Cant speak for your school but I'm sure continents and countries were about the first thing done. No mind....this thread is doing the job

No matter the politics, the English will always be English and the Irish will always be Irish and the Scottish will always be Scottish. Even a Welshman has a spot on the globe. The same applies around the world no matter where we come from.

Some Europeans and Aussies still refer to Americans as "Yanks" or "Yankees" which does have some truth to it, but that term of endearment mostly came from the New England States and eventually made itself part of the War for Independence and eventually the Civil War.

We're not all the same and being different is okay. It keeps things interesting.

 

[Filipe Soares]

Hi,
Geography isn’t my strong point and I was googling answers but as a fair chunk of peeps here are from the USA I thought I’d ask.

So I know North American and South America are classed separately.

So America is the north. The south is all the other below such as Brazil Mexico etc.

And from what I’ve read the United States is only the north 50 states?

Why is Brazil and Mexico Argentina and so on called South America when they’re not American they are their own individual countries?

Maybe I’m looking at this all wrong but I seem a bit lost on something that should be real easy.
In England when I went to school we didn’t learn hardly anything about the US or much outside of Europe.

Sorry for my lack of brains

I really hope this is all a joke

 

[Filipe Soares]

Just to be clear

North America is a continent, as Central and South America

You can call Central, South and part of the North American continents LATIN AMERICAN because they were colonized MOSTLY by LATIN European countries such as Portugal, Spain and France (france is kind of latin, vulgar latin), as Canada and USA were once part of the British Empire which does not share a lot with Latin european countries.

there are two main views on how the world works, one os geological as continents must be part of the same tectonic plate (north america would include a lot of latin countries, such as mexico and many others), the other is based on the united nations perspective, where they use the term GEOSCHEME grouping countries by cultural similarities, dividing the north american continent above mexico - including USA, Canada, Greenland and Saint Pierre being called NORTHERN America

The other geoscheme is called Latin America and the Caribbean from mexico to argentina and there is a shit ton of cultural differences among its members. As a Latin American, descendent of Portuguese, been expatriated for almost 4 years I can say Latin Americans are way more diverse and culturally different from each other than Europe. But as the region is poor, they invented a new way to call the 3rd world.

 

[SmokeyDopey]

there are 3 continents named America. North, South & Central.

Here's a map of Central:

My understanding is that "Central America" is a region, and it is still part of North America

 

[mrjones2004x]

Not a joke, a serious enquiry and a quick google search says there is much confusion on this matter depending who you ask and where in the world you learn.
Geography isn’t my strong point but I wanted to ask these questions here as people here seem pretty educated compared to some other forums I use.
Elsewhere I visit online I find regularly Americans who know nothing outside of the USA and zero respect for other countries to the point that they are brain washed that USA is the only place in the world and there is nothing outside.
I haven’t found that here. Obviously there is a few odd bods here

 

[mrjones2004x]

My understanding is that "Central America" is a region, and it is still part of North America

Central America is definitely not a continent. I’ve never seen that on my searches or even heard of it being so

 

[StrummerJoe]

Americans exclusively refers to the United States of America. Canadians, Mexicans, or Brazilians would not refer to themselves as Americans because America is not part of the name of their country. Americans also does not refer to residents of a specific continent, because there is no continent named America.

North AMERICA & South AMERICA

It's literally in the name of both continents.

It is common to refer to both continents as the Americas.

 

[SmokeyDopey]

It is common to refer to both continents as the Americas

Right, and as previously stated, just "America".

From what I was reading all countries in the Americas (America) are "states", but they aren't "united" like the US. So you can say the US is the portion of America that is "united", hence the "United States of America". I don't know if this is the reasoning for the name but it would make sense.

 

[StrummerJoe]

Right, and as previously stated, just "America".

From what I was reading all countries in the Americas (America) are "states", but they aren't "united" like the US. So you can say the US is the portion of America that is "united", hence the "United States of America". I don't know if this is the reasoning for the name but it would make sense.

Originally what we now call states were 13 colonies that united to declare independence from Great Britain. I have never thought of our 50 states as 50 united separate countries.