AndreasS
I beg you not to pay atention to that part of my statements, it was my mistake. I was hurried by lecture and took it as a case of the distinction "West/East Germany"... until I saw (too late) "Russian Germans". You're perfectly right und I would sign all your postings. Regards.
So, I realized that I can concentrate all my objections in a Word-file before I post them. I could actually avoid 7 posts, my apologize. This monologue (or delayed dialogue) of mine finishes as follows:
“That distinction is analogous to your five Americas: North, Central, Caribbean, South, Latin.”
I retract, not such a good comparison, maybe better with Middle, North, South, East, West, Latin Europe. As a matter of fact, people in South America haven’t developed a feeling of belonging to this denomination (do you feel “Northern American”?). If we talk with Europeans, specially Spaniards, or with other Americans in order to refer the common between us, we name ourselves just „americanos“, and so on our sort of Spanish. Brazilians do exactly the same. We actually use the name of our continent without those overloaded distinctions what the identity of the US citizens depends on. So, friends of the North, don’t think you the very only speaker (Gegenredner) of Germany! Not the History alone plays a role, but also the simplicity of expressions. As non German speakers we are not used to long words like “latinoamericano” while refering our citizens, or mix-words like “sudamericano”. I think that “Middle Europeans” shall understand…
173
Wenn Nord- und Südamerika ein einziger Kontinent sein sollen, nur weil es keine natürliche Trennung dazwischen gibt (jetzt gibt es eine künstliche, den Panama Kanal), dann sind Afrika und Eurasien auch 'ein Kontinent' weil es keine natürliche Trennung zwischen den beiden Landmassen gibt. Oder?
Ich muß sagen daß, bis wir mit dieser Diskussion anfingen, es mir noch nie vorher aufgefallen war, daß 'Eurasia' und Afrika der gleiche Kontinent sind, wenn es um das Fehlen eines trennenden Gewässers geht, wie im Fall von Nord- und Südamerika als ein Kontinent betrachtet.
-Da hast du mit dem Zeug der Landmasse die Geschichte und zugleich die Linguistik aber gänzlich verpasst! Ich bitte dich!
180
I know lots of Latin Americans and they never refer to themselves as Americans, say it if you want but prepare to be mocked!
181
because I'd say that the reason 'Latin Americans' (which can mean a lot of people) do not want to be identified as 'Americans' is because they want nothing to do with the Iraq war and other recent foreign and domestic USA policy decisions.
-Not exactly, I’d say, Latin Americans do not speak English, though they probably call themselves “americanos”, just like I do. Have you already search the origin of the expression
"Latin American"? Maybe you can guess our ambiguous relation to it… (do you feel “Anglo American”?) I feel myself as much Southern American as you Northern American, as Latin American as you Anglo American, as American as you… oops, I didn’t again º_o
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Ich sehe das trotzdem nicht als eine allgemeine Kritik an Deutschland sondern an die persönliche Entscheidung von einem Menschen 'zuzumachen' wenn es darum geht, die Welt mit der Zeit vielleicht etwas anders zu betrachten, als man sie von der Schulbank sah.
-Dabei argumentierst du aus Sicht von
Pangea!
