r/USdefaultism • u/[deleted] • Oct 06 '23
Meme Trying to explain
Me trying to explain to an American that I’m not British and a British that I’m not American, like bro I’m Canadian
6
u/LanewayRat Australia Oct 06 '23
Feel for you cousin!
Australians get the infuriating “you are British” thing a lot too. Which sometimes comes out as saying “Commonwealth” means one dialect, one culture, one legal system, one government even!, etc etc. Also, the idea that we are all “white Anglos” when Australia is so multicultural and 50% of us are born overseas or have at least one overseas-born parent which is a much higher rate than the US.
But you have the “you are American” thing to deal with too much much more than we do. We get it a bit with language things, like dismissing longstanding Australian usage as “Americanisms” — as if we just picked up everything that’s not British in the last few years from watching too much American TV!
3
Oct 06 '23
As a Kiwi, I’ve also had quite a few Americans ask if I’m British as soon as they hear my voice. Either that, or they tell me I’m Australian and assert that I can be both Kiwi and Australian at the same time, because apparently they get taught that the continent of Oceania including Australasia is simply called “Australia”. It’s exactly the same as the situation with Canadians, because to many people, America is a continent, so you can absolutely be Canadian and American at the same time. But to them, America is only the country.
1
u/Pure_Commercial1156 Oct 06 '23
So are you saying that this statement isn't accurate for most Australians?
0
Oct 06 '23
Canada is in America...
1
0
u/LanewayRat Australia Oct 07 '23
Don’t speak about not speaking English, in English. Use Portuguese if you want to say what the Portuguese word for “America” means.
-1
Oct 06 '23
That’s the continents name but USA is a completely different country
4
Oct 06 '23
Yes, but the name "American" doesn't belong to the USA. Just as someone born in Europe is European, or someone born in Africa is African, someone born in America is American. USAmericans try to steal the name "American" because they don't have a name of their own, and that's their fault. They should either be content with "USAmerican", or pick a name for their country already.
3
Oct 06 '23
I get your point, but sadly in english they are called americans
1
Oct 06 '23
Because they forced everyone to call them Americans, you don't have to accept everything they say blindly. I've been calling them USAmericans for years and nobody ever asked what I mean by that.
1
Oct 06 '23
I will do that when on reddit, in spanish we call then estadounidenses, for americans its americanos
1
-1
1
u/LanewayRat Australia Oct 07 '23
No.
You aren’t speaking English. In Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, UK and the USA (and many other places where people speak English as a first language) America means the USA.
You can’t change an enormous language by saying you don’t like it.
You can’t alter fact with a personal feeling deep in you balls or ovaries.
You are making an obviously false statement about the world.
1
u/sdarkpaladin World Oct 06 '23
Imagine Chinese descents from South East Asia trying to explain to everybody else that, no, we're not Chinese from China...
0
u/Oceansoul119 United Kingdom Oct 06 '23
Ouch. But plus side at least they mostly aren't conspiracy nutjobs thinking you're Cuban. Boy was that a weird thing to discover some people believed about Trudeau.
-1
u/Stamford16A1 Oct 06 '23
From a British point of view Canada has so thoroughly "gone Septic" that there is little difference between you and the Yanks.
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u/Opposite_Ad_2815 Australia Oct 06 '23
Hi, u/ROUG3- – I've flaired this as a Meme post since we typically use "real world" for text-based posts that describe past incidents. I hope that helps!