I wonder if there was a time in which a similar sign was written in Latin.
Why are people from the USA always called Americans?
Would you prefer “yanks”?
Because calling anyone else an American is insulting.
Because they’re the only country with America in their name whereas United States is shared by Mexico
Also in English there’s a distinction between North and South America, with the supercontinent being referred to as “The Americas”, so America isn’t really ambiguous, they’re also geologically and environmentally distinct enough that “The Americas” isn’t used so much and “New World” is often more relevant to include Australia as another somewhat culturally similar sparsely populated former colonial area.
Removed by mod
In Portuguese (as spoken in Portugal, Brazil, USA, Japan, Ghana, wherever) they’re an americano/a but in English (as spoken in USA, UK, Brazil, Portugal, Nepal, wherever) they’re South American but not American because it’s a linguistic difference rather than a geographical/cultural one
Same reason why people from the United Kingdom are called ‘British’, despite Northern Ireland not being in Britain.
There just aren’t better proper adjectives for these 2 countries.
While you can say ‘North American’ to mean anyone from North America and not specifically the US, I’m not sure there’s a fitting word that refers to anyone from North or South America. Although, at that point, the group of people you are talking about is perhaps too broad to be useful in most cases.
And saying North America includes Canada, and I think out of respect to the Canadians they don’t wanna be lumped together with us
Same reason why people from the United Kingdom are called ‘British’, despite Northern Ireland not being in Britain.
Ireland is part of the British Isles, so you could even call people from the Republic of Ireland british (and then run away really fast).
I recommend not doing this 😂 I prefer to call the British isles “the European archipelago” :)
TEA
USAmerican, USAian, USAn, lUSA?
Unitedstatians. Thats how we call them here (estadounidense)
USAmerican is my go to yep.
Are you joking though? I’ve never heard this phrase uttered out loud except by that one miss America contestant who was derided for being stupid.
Judging by their instance they’re german where “US-Amerikaner” is a pretty common term, never heard it used in english though.
Found the lUSA
Why does someone always smugly point this out in these threads?
Because there’s always got to be some young “boo America” edgelord contrarian that thinks they’re really doing something by saying it. But really they are just an idiot in a long line of idiots who isn’t saying anything at all.
US Americans are seen by basically everyone as the most obnoxious tourists on this planet. Their self importance and undeserved national pride is second to none and it shows in every thread like this. Its just fun to see them get defensive when anyone points it out.
This is literally what that sign is about and its odd that you are confused that people would point this out.
Why are you assuming the sign is about Americans? There’s no reference to the US anywhere except OP’s title
Speaking of obnoxious self importance
No youuu 😭
Is all i get from that.
Just what people commonly understand so people say it. I always read it in a disapproving Russian accent because of too much TV, the americans
PLEASE don’t COMPLAIN about my THAI at a TOURISM HOTSPOT
Because we have to if they don’t speak our language
Besides people speaking bad English to you are braver and more engaging than the average person in general. Id speak bad English with just about anyone before talking to most of my family lol.
Thanks for the examples
We do?
I certainly don’t. It’s a huge part (besides cost) of why I find the prospect of travelling to other countries to be very intimidating. I don’t want to be a pain in the ass for the locals when I can’t communicate with them properly.
I’d think that this sign is not there because of American tourists. All the Americans I’ve met while traveling, have acknowledged that English being their native language is a privilege and have been very polite towards people who don’t speak English that well. But in Europe English has become the universal language and it’s easy to forget that not everyone can speak it as well.
I was responding to the title, which was typed by OP, not to the image. I don’t know why you responded as if my comment was directed at the image instead…?
as if it’s not the english making this complaint
Because gunpowder.
Gunpowder go in metal tube.
Projectile go in metal tube.
Ignite.
BOOM.
Death.
Human go new place.
Bring Boomsticks.
Native humans = Dead
Native humans = Surrender
World = Dominated
Language = Spread
Language = Become default
The End
Sadly Ever After
(Fun fact most pilots have to learn Aviation English in order to operate internationally. You can thank the gunpowder for that.)
Edit: Lol Lemmy Shitposts doesn’t like a shitpost about the british empire taking over the world.
Accurate af
The End
Would have been really funny if you said
Thai End
there
Of course as people pointed out, this is far from a uniquely American thing. Also, I’m sure by American they mean the USA, but “Americans” are inclusive of north, central and south America. Here in Europe, we also expect people to speak English as it is the universal language.
As a side note, it is also often commented that Americans (USA Americans) can only speak English. This is a narrow view that primarily broadly looks at white Americans and ignores the fact that the US is a huge melting pot of cultures and for many US citizens English is their second or third language.
It goes without being said, the contents of the picture should never have a reason to be written. Don’t be a dick to people trying to help you.
I always hope that everyone speaks English and if they seem worried about how it sounds I remind them that their English is way better than my their language which usually breaks the ice.
Yeah I hung out with a bunch of Germans who were really good English speakers but constantly were self critical of their English skills. They were beating my German skills by a landslide even at their worst moments.
Heard someone say this on reddit many years ago after someone was being a wise ass about their English which was obviously second or third language
You speak English because it’s the only language you know; I speak English because it’s the only language you know We are not the same
That’s pretty funny, but I’m years past accepting the “hurr durr ignorant american knows only one language” thing. Except as a response to someone harassing someone about their English capabilities, as seems to be the case in your example. 😁
The way I figure it, if the people two states away from me in every direction spoke a different language from me, and from each other, I’d probably be multilingual, too. (As would most of us)
Is this not fairly likely in the US with Mexican Spanish or/and Canadian/Cajun French?
I’m sure there are people who go to Mexico/Canada as often as Europeans seem to be popping into other countries, but most of us very rarely do.
But most of us do have to visit other states often, which works out to a similar radius as hopping countries in Europe in many cases, that’s why I made the comparison I did.
No, because these people are also highly likely to also know English and the vast, vast majority of people in any given location speak English as a default in public. Unless another language is being commonly spoken in public, it isn’t even close to having entire states speak a different language.
Not whole states, but Miami gets close.
Within the USA, the language enclaves aren’t strong enough. You might find people who can’t speak English, but there are enough people in their communities that can speak English that you can get along.
Of the countries I’ve visited so far, I find that Mexico has the strongest language barrier as Mexico is large enough to maintain an internal standard of Mexican Spanish. Outside of the northern border states, you can drive two states away in Mexico and still have people speak Spanish.
I can restrict my bullying to those living near the Mexican border and the English
Most people I’ve talked to who know English as a second language speak and read and understand it better than most American’s I’ve spoken to who know only English.
Not a justification, but part of the reason is that English is currently the world’s lingua franca.
We should fix that. Everyone start learning Esperanto.
I’m not sure if this is a bait or serious
Implying the sign isn’t talking about Australians who visit in the same numbers
And perhaps Brits and Canadians. I’m not sure about their visit numbers though.
But America dumbo!
Or anybody in europe who probably speaks english as thats the “world language”
Unless they’re from a primarily English speaking country, they’d be unlikely to complain though.
I’ve met lots of people who seem to hold the sentiment that if THEY managed to learn English, why can’t EVERYONE ELSE?
Sounds like they have something to compensate for. ┐( ∵ )┌
Yeah they wouldnt complain… except if theyre my grandfather who started complaining in vietnam to a hotel receptionist that they dont speak hungarian, a language about 14 million people speak in the world and the only language it has mutual intelligibility with is spoken by about 10000 people…
Wait, in that case maybe complaining is a bit justified? Different of course of it’s a place off the beaten path, but if it’s a hotbed of English-speaking tourists then having staff that speak their language seems pretty important.
Guess it’s really hard to say without more context (story of the internet).
Classic mistake of someone Thai trying to speak English. They forgot to write the words “long time” at the end.
LOL. Bet few got the reference
From an award winning war movie made by one of the most prominent directors of all time that had the referenced line sampled in a famous hip hop song?
Or was it something else?
The movie was “Full Metal Jacket”
I’ve been to Thailand. It’s not the Americans that are complaining, it’s the British and the Australians, both of which also speak English.
Why are you jumping to Americans?
Man, that bugs me how many Americans are out there giving the rest of us a bad name. I don’t travel, but if I did, I’d be grateful a non-native English speaker knew any English at all. And not learning enough of their language to at least get you by for the trip just sounds like poor planning in general. Some people are just incapable of looking before they leap, and for some reason a bunch of those people travel.
I’ve been to a few other countries. The people (especially retail workers) are extremely patient. All it takes is a smile and “excuse me” and they will try as hard as they can to build a communication bridge. I don’t know why we Americans have no patience
