If you have ever spent time in another country, you’ve probably answered the  question, “Where are you from?” You likely responded with either: America or the United States. Both are accurate, but imply different things.

In English speaking countries, parts of Western Europe, India and China, students learn that there are seven continents: Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa, Antarctica, North America and South America. Yet, students in many other parts of the world learn only five: Oceania, Asia, Europe, Africa and America.

From Canada’s Boothia Peninsula in the north, to Chile’s Patagonia in the south, America spans approximately 8,700 miles. The United States makes up only 23 percent of this total American landmass. 

America. Just America. Not North. Not South. Not Central. Just America.

There are directional divides associated within other continents of the world: Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, West Africa, ect. However, these directional adjectives are not defined as distinct continents.

In the United States, we are taught that we (along with Canada and Mexico) make up a different continent altogether. We are unique in our northness.

We are America. They are Central and South.

Most of us initially associate an American with someone from the United States. To the 600 million people living in what we refer to as Central and South America, an American is anyone who lives on this giant land mass. To those populations, we are all Americans because this continent is America.

There are 313.9 million people living in the United States and there are 953.6 million Americans. Less than a third of Americans reside in the United States.

I think what makes this concept difficult to digest for many people is that the only way to refer to someone from the United States is “American.” The English language does not have another way of describing such a person.

Perhaps “American” is really meant to be “United States of American,” but I have never heard it used that way. In the U.S., we are “proud to be American” and we live the “American way.” Our society uses the term to describe someone from the U.S.

In Spanish, the word for someone from the United States is “estadounidense.” It is the equivalent of saying “I am United Statesian.” I would imagine other languages have similar terms. To say “I am United Statesian” sounds foreign to us. It doesn’t roll off of the tongue nicely. We would never use it in conversation.

One might wonder why this distinction is even important. Does dividing us between north and south mean there is a cultural division? Because Mexico is considered part of North America, I would disagree. Instead, I see this division, and more specifically the use of “American” by people in the United States, as representative of the indifference many people in our country have toward our neighbors in the southern part of the continent. By dividing our continent into two parts, we attempt to distance ourselves from two-thirds of its residents.

In other parts of the world, particularly in other parts of America, to say you are United Statesian or to say you are American mean two different things. One is a nation while the other triples your number of cohabitants. One represents a mutual respect between neighboring nations while the other probes at a state of ignorance.