The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Tonamel wrote:

Caravan Ray wrote:33. The President must be born in what country?

A: America


"America" - a country? If this was Trivial Pursuit - I'd be calling that wrong.

Federal Republic of Germany
Commonwealth of Australia
Swiss Confederation
French Republic
Kingdom of Belgium
Russian Federation
People's Republic of China
Republic of Italy
Dominion of Canada
United Mexican States

Yeah, I hate it when people don't use the proper name of a country.

But those country names are unambiguous (except for the 'Russian Federation', which is different to 'Russia', and the 'People's Republic of China', which may be confused with the 'Republic of China'). 'America' may refer to anywhere in the two continents in the Western Hemisphere.

After many years of watching "Sale of the Century", I can assure you that returning an answer of "America" when you mean to refer to the second largest nation in North America would earn a short, sharp double buzz from the adjudicator and a request from Tony Barber to provide "more information please...

I don't believe anyone except residents of the United States refer to themselves as "Americans"; Canadian and Mexican emigres call themselves Canadian- or Mexican-Americans, and citizens of Central, South, "and" Latin America would all call themselves Americans with that special geographic adjective. Likewise if anyone wanted to disavow nationality in a description of a people and refer to the "upper" continent they would say North American. I think this is unambiguous, but I am coming from a Western-centric worldview. Nevertheless I believe newspapers of record the world over use these same conventions.

I think Korea is more interesting. Korea can refer to either one of two nations or to the geographic peninsula upon which they lie. The Republic of Korea is commonly South Korea, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is commonly called North Korea. But an unmodified "Korea" would say "South Korea" to me, that is the Republic of Korea. A deliberate clarification there, I think, is advisable or necessary ("the Koreans"--which ones?) but, while a suboptimal nomenclature, I think "America" is understood contextually to mean the US.

Mkilly wrote: ...I think "America" is understood contextually to mean the US.

In most instances, you are of course correct - but we are discussing here the vital matter of who may be deemed worthy to become a citizen of those United States, so surely a bit more precision and accuracy is called for. After all - it would be terrible if some geographically ignorant people snuck in!

(Heh! - I love the end of the video on that link where the dude suddenly realises how big "North Korea" is!)

Mkilly wrote:I don't believe anyone except residents of the United States refer to themselves as "Americans"; Canadian and Mexican emigres call themselves Canadian- or Mexican-Americans, and citizens of Central, South, "and" Latin America would all call themselves Americans with that special geographic adjective. Likewise if anyone wanted to disavow nationality in a description of a people and refer to the "upper" continent they would say North American. I think this is unambiguous, but I am coming from a Western-centric worldview. Nevertheless I believe newspapers of record the world over use these same conventions.

I work in Mexico, and there are a few things here...Most Latin Americans I know (all the way down) consider themselves "Americans" and laugh that the US feels it's their label. Also, Mexico is part of "North America", not Central America.

That said, the lack of an easy nationality by name has made it pretty necessary to claim "American" as ours. "I'm a United States of American", or "I'm a USA-ian" doesn't cut it. Hell, Mexico is actually "The United States Of Mexico", and they get to say "Mexican", so there you go.

roymond wrote: That said, the lack of an easy nationality by name has made it pretty necessary to claim "American" as ours. "I'm a United States of American", or "I'm a USA-ian" doesn't cut it.

You could just call yourselves "Seppos" - that's what we call you.

Will those stupid seppos ever shut up bragging about how much lemonade they can drink?
HaHaHa!!!

Oh man, I'm totally going to start calling myself a "Seppo" in International conversation. That is awesome.

I just checked out that test, and I've gotta say, it's wack.

Where's:

What does "Don't Walk" mean?
or
Should you sled on less than an inch of snow outside your neighbors window?
If so, what time should you start?