- Britons are from. . . . Britain
- Chinese are from . . . . China
- Danes are from . . . . Denmark
- Latvians are from . . . . Latvia
- Russians are from . . . Russia
What would you say if I told you:
- Americans are from . . . . Peru
The issue that some Peruvians have with this is that they say that there are only five continents: the Americas, Antartica, Asia, Australiasia, and Europe. Due to this anyone from the Americas is American. Now depending on who you talk to you'll find out that there are 4-7 continents in the world.
The issue I have with this is that people don't refer to the continent they're from. They refer to the country they're from. They might tell you what continent their country is on, but they're not going to use that adjective to describe themselves. For example, a Kenyan isn't going to say, "I'm African". They're going to say, "I'm Kenyan". Or they might take it a step further and refer to the city they're from, stating that they're from London or New York.
Peruvians also have another issue with this and that's due to language. You see, in Spanish Americans are called "norteamericanos/as" if you want to translate it directly it would be North American. However, there are three countries in North America: Canada, the USA, and Mexico. In Spanish, Canadians are called "canadienses" and Mexicans are called "mexicanos/as". For that matter in Spanish, Peruvians are called "peruanos". If you're looking to learn Spanish, two programmes I recommend are Synergy Spanish and Fluent in 3 Months.
I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, but to the Peruvians who insist that they're "American" I tell them to go to the USA with no visa or no green card and to tell the immigration officer to let them in, because after all, "they're American".
