No Shorts Allowed !!!

Originally posted by Bob McAdams The name of our country is "The United States of America", but that's a pretty long name, so we tend to abbreviate it as either "The United States" or as "America". "America" is shorter, but we often opt for "The United States" for exactly the reason you have described. But it sounds awfully awkward to call ourselves "United Statesians", so we call ourselves "Americans", instead. This usage normally doesn't cause confusion because there isn't a continent called "America". The continents are called "North America" and "South America". And while we call ourselves Americans, we would agree that Canadians, Americans, and Mexicans are all North Americans. Bob The first time I heard about two Continents in America it surpriced me, I was working for Lucent Technologies at that time and I remember the discussion with a friend in Atlanta, I was able to comunicate with colleges from other countries in Latinamerica using the company intranet, and I discovered that as we have learn in Mexico from junior school, these guys from other countries also manage the idea that there are 5 Continents: Europe, Asia, Oceanía, Africa and América (about Greenland I just don´t know, specially because it should be named Whiteland). I have never asked Europeans if they also manage the idea of two Continents in America, I guess the Spain people think that there is only one as they discovered it, because Columbus arrived in America not in South America. 12 of Octuber it is known in Mexico and the rest of the souther countries in America as the "Discovering day of America", different from the US, as every one in this forum knows it is called the "Columbus Day". May be we are just mis-informed and sometime, somewhere, sombody decided to divide it and we just did not know about it (forgive me if it sounds sarcastic but it is not my intention, I just want to understand why we know different things about the same). Let me tell you that we do manage the concept of North America, South America and also Central America but as differente regions not Continents. By the way ¿do you know where the name of America comes from? Regards

Originally posted by Bob McAdams The name of our country is "The United States of America", but that's a pretty long name, so we tend to abbreviate it as either "The United States" or as "America". "America" is shorter, but we often opt for "The United States" for exactly the reason you have described. But it sounds awfully awkward to call ourselves "United Statesians", so we call ourselves "Americans", instead. This usage normally doesn't cause confusion because there isn't a continent called "America". The continents are called "North America" and "South America". And while we call ourselves Americans, we would agree that Canadians, Americans, and Mexicans are all North Americans. Bob The first time I heard about two Continents in America it surpriced me, I was working for Lucent Technologies at that time and I remember the discussion with a friend in Atlanta, I was able to comunicate with colleges from other countries in Latinamerica using the company intranet, and I discovered that as we have learn in Mexico from junior school, these guys from other countries also manage the idea that there are 5 Continents: Europe, Asia, Oceanía, Africa and América (about Greenland I just don´t know, specially because it should be named Whiteland). I have never asked Europeans if they also manage the idea of two Continents in America, I guess the Spain people think that there is only one as they discovered it, because Columbus arrived in America not in South America. 12 of Octuber it is known in Mexico and the rest of the souther countries in America as the "Discovering day of America", different from the US, as every one in this forum knows it is called the "Columbus Day". May be we are just mis-informed and sometime, somewhere, sombody decided to divide it and we just did not know about it (forgive me if it sounds sarcastic but it is not my intention, I just want to understand why we know different things about the same). Let me tell you that we do manage the concept of North America, South America and also Central America but as differente regions not Continents. By the way ¿do you know where the name of America comes from? Regards