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Home arrow All Discussions arrow Amerigo's Legacy - Discussion
Here is where letters sent to the paper magazine and where subjects or opinions of interest to Riviera expats may be discussed and commented upon. Your subject suggestions are welcome by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . We reserve the right to delete any comment without notice or explanation. We may also edit any comment at our sole discretion for reasons such as  profanity, defamation, racism or otherwise inappropriate content.
Amerigo's Legacy - Discussion Print
Written by Gregoire Pelletier   

I notice that in your list of consulates you ascribe the US consular agency in Nice and consulate in Paris to “America”. This will irritate those of us from the continent named after Mr Vespucci who do not believe words like “America” and “American” are to be used exclusively of US citizens. In Quebec French – often a linguistic pioneer (think courriel for e-mail) – we are increasingly using the word “Etats-Unien” for a person from south of the border rather than “Americain”; we don’t like to use “Amérique” as meaning just the US. Please think about this.

Gregoire Pelletier, by email

 

Comments (5)add
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written by Riviera Reporter , 12 January 2008
We have, and an appropriate change has been made in the listing you refer to. Of the core Reporter team two - Mike Meade, born in Vancouver, and Nancy Wilson, born in Montreal - are Américains but not Etats-Uniens. M.M.
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written by Marie Fucci , 12 January 2008
Your French Canadian reader may be irritated by Americans being called Americans, but, like it or not, the official name of the country of its citizens is the United States of America. My American passport, a document generally recognized by other governments, is issued by the United States of America.
"Etats-Unien" is a solecism: grammatically, geographically and historically. The term, apparently coined in Quebec, could equally refer to a Mexican (the official name of Mexico being Estados Unidos Mexicanos), or to a Brazilian from 1889-1968 (when the official name of Brazil was the United States of Brazil) or to citizens of other countries that also bear "United States" in their official names. I don't recognize "Etats-Unien" as referring to me or to 300 million of my countrymen.
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written by AAAROTOSTATIC , 10 June 2008
As an american raised in France with a canadian father , I believe AMERICANS is the term for which our people has been referred to on the past 250 years.so AMERICAN I am!

having been living in France for a few decedes now , I can tell you that french canadians have not invented that term , it is a france french invention in the mid eighties to refer to AMERICANS: french always prone to the " exception francaise".

nevertheless when I have to renew my passport , I need go to the "ambassed des etats unis d amerique" , not the ambassade des etats unis etats uniens! wouldn t that sound grotesque!

VIVE LE QUEBEC LIBRE!
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written by Mike P , 11 June 2008
A Mexican friend of mine gets highly annoyed when the word 'Americans' is used to apply to USA citizens.

He points out that America is not a country, but a continent (or two, depending on where you went to school) consisting of some 20 countries. Therefore he, and his Paraguayan wife, are both Americans.

I always refer to US Americans where clarity is needed.

In the same way, most of my Rhodesian friends, and I am using the word deliberately because they are Rhodesians and were born in Rhodesia, and also because I know it irritates some people who try to be PC, are Africans. The fact that they do not have black skins is irrelevant.

Nobody over the age of 27 can have been born in Zimbabwe because it did not exist prior to 1981, and it annoys me that when I say: "I lived in Rhodesia" people 'correct' me, saying : "You mean Zimbabwe." I know where I lived and it was a far, far better place than the mess that the despotic tyrant madman Mugabe has created today. That though is to be discussed more fully elsewhere.
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written by Mike Meade , 12 June 2008
The "non-existent place" situation exists more and more, most recently in Central Europe where Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia no longer exist as such.

I have a Palestinian friend who was born in Bethany. He also holds an American passport but try telling the passport office that his birthplace is in Palestine. For them, it's automatically Israel.

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