Is Not Knowing the Capital of Canada a Problem?

[Meed]

I agree. Speaking from north of the 49th parallel here, Canadians do not refer to the U.S. as "America". We typically call it either "the U.S." or "the states". I have never referred to the U.S. as "America" and I am not personally acquainted with any other Canadians who would generally refer to it as such.

Calling the U.S. "America" appears to be a uniquely U.S. thing.

Calling it America is not uncommon in England from my experience (I'm English on my mother's side).

 

[Foolmewunz]

I think we're talking about two different things here; I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see them to refer to U.S. natives as "Americans" but I would be very surprised to see them refer to the U.S. as "America".

I could be wrong, of course, and would be happy to be shown to be wrong if that is the case.

One click on what those morons on Google are saying.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Report+citizen+been+detained+North+Korea/9192306/story.html

Montreal Gazette. Headline uses US. Article refers to "Americans" and to "America". Yes, it's a wire story and no, I don't know that it's AP USA or AP Canada (they have offices in Canada), but I assume USA.

But the editors of the Gazette would putz around with the copy if it didn't suit their style book, of that I'm certain. (I have a friend who writes for the Gazette, and even in sports stories, they edit newswire articles for style and content.)

And I have little difficulty in finding quotes in which Robertson Davies, Farley Mowat, Mordechai Richler and Morley Callaghan all refer to the USA as "America".

 

[LashL]

ETA:

Actually, it occurs to me that I am probably helping to draw this thread off topic, so I should probably refrain. That wasn't my intention at all.

 

[LashL]

Calling it America is not uncommon in England from my experience (I'm English on my mother's side).

It is absolutely uncommon in Canada. Nobody here calls the U.S. "America".

 

[joesixpack]

It is absolutely uncommon in Canada. Nobody here calls the U.S. "America".

No matter how many times you say this it will not be true. I live relatively close to Canada. My ex wife is Canadian, I have a couple of friends who live down the block with dual citizenship, and I personally know scores of Canadians who have used the word "American" to refer to non-Canadian, non-Mexican North Americans.

Really, let it go already.

If this is what you want to argue you should probably not be in this thread. Look at the thread title and ask yourself what your assertions have to do with it.

 

[GlennB]

I agree. Speaking from north of the 49th parallel here, Canadians do not refer to the U.S. as "America". We typically call it either "the U.S." or "the states". I have never referred to the U.S. as "America" and I am not personally acquainted with any other Canadians who would generally refer to it as such.

Calling the U.S. "America" appears to be a uniquely U.S. thing.

Brits call the USA "America" pretty routinely, both formally and casually. By which I mean those educated and well-spoken BBC newsreaders and the bloke in the pub.

You seem to be having a very dogmatic day, LashL.

 

[AdMan]

Brits call the USA "America" pretty routinely, both formally and casually. By which I mean those educated and well-spoken BBC newsreaders and the bloke in the pub.

You seem to be having a very dogmatic day, LashL.

I think the point (since I made it initially) is that the majority of the population of the Americas does not refer to the United States as America.

I don't find it surprising that Brits or other nationalities do.

 

[GlennB]

I think the point (since I made it initially) is that the majority of the population of the Americas does not refer to the United States as America.

Ah, I see. That distinction got a little lost along the way.

 

[Damien Evans]

You're right that Quebec is a province and Quebec City is a city. Much like New York is a state and New York City is a city.

Yes, but I was wrong that Montreal was the capital.

 

[Mudcat]

In this thread, I've learned that the reason why Americans don't know things like what's the capital of Canada is that they only retain information that has any advantage to them. For an American to remember something, he has to gain something by it.

And you would be dead wrong. I personally know a number of my fellow Americans who have memorized all the lyrics of every song ever released in a given generation along with who sang it and where. Personally I would find that more useless to know than the name of a capital to a foreign country and it's absolutely something without any value or gain to it.

 

[AdMan]

I think that the fact that people can't name the capital of a neighboring country, while by itself may not be all that important per se, implies a general lack of knowledge of the world around you and what's going on in it. In my view, it suggests a lack of curiosity about what's going on outside your own borders. Not good.

 

[Mudcat]

I think that the fact that people can't name the capital of a neighboring country, while by itself may not be all that important per se, implies a general lack of knowledge of the world around you and what's going on in it. In my view, it suggests a lack of curiosity about what's going on outside your own borders. Not good.

How does that work exactly? To put it into perspective, yet again, I don't need to know the capital of Indianna (which is so close to where I live all I have to do is drive across a bridge to get there) to know what is going on there or appreciate its culture.

 

[AdMan]

How does that work exactly? To put it into perspective, yet again, I don't need to know the capital of Indianna (which is so close to where I live all I have to do is drive across a bridge to get there) to know what is going on there or appreciate its culture.

Just generally following the politics of a neighbor like Canada, it would be difficult to not know its capital.

Do you mean to say that you follow important happenings in Canada and never learned what its capital was?

Not knowing that Africa is not a single country suggests little knowledge of what is happening there.

 

[Craig B]

How does that work exactly? To put it into perspective, yet again, I don't need to know the capital of Indianna (which is so close to where I live all I have to do is drive across a bridge to get there) to know what is going on there or appreciate its culture.

If you know what is going on in "Indianna" please inform the rest if us.

 

[This is The End]

No, it isn't. Nobody here refers to Quebec City as the province of Quebec, just as nobody here refers to New York City as the state of New York.

It's quite the opposite here in the US.

If someone says New York they almost always mean the city not the state. Obviously it is the case with people within the state ("I'm going to New York tomorrow."). But it is nationwide as well.

It goes as far back as New York, New York, and probably even farther. These days people even write that as the address, dropping the "city" part entirely.

Just like when people say Washington, they mean the city (Washington D.C.) not the state. (When the news says "the ******* in Washington" everyone knows they aren't talking about the state! )

 

[This is The End]

As previously mentioned, Canadians do not typically call the U.S. "America" at all. I would not be surprised if a few Canadians of lesser intellect might adopt the typical U.S. language on the point, but Canadians do not generally do so. Above the 49th parallel, the U.S. is typically called the U.S. or "the states"; its inhabitants are often referred to as "Americans" but that is not the subject matter under discussion at the moment.

The single word "America" only means one thing. It is the country The United States of America.

"The United States of" are descriptors, just like how China is officially "The People's Republic of China". If China was on a continent called "North China" it wouldn't suddenly mean the single word China does not refer to the country.

"North America" is a continent. "South America" is a continent. "Central America" is a region. They are often referred to as "The Americas" collectively.

But the only place called America (without an S) is the country.

 

[AdMan]

The single word "America" only means one thing. It is the country The United States of America...
But the only place called America (without an S) is the country.

In the Americas, this is only true if you're in the United States. No other country in the continent refers to the US as America.

 

[This is The End]

It appears that the people who assume such are poorly educated and geographically challenged. I would never in a thousand years interpret "I'm from New York" as meaning "I'm from New York City".

Well nearly the entire population of the US would read it that way. It's just a matter of numbers. The vast majority of the people in the state live in the New York metropolitan area.

Basing an assumption on population density and statistics sure looks like the opposite of "poorly educated and geographically challenged" to me!!

 

[This is The End]

Yes, very stupid people might say that. Admittedly, this country has a few stupid people.

That just doesn't make sense to an American.

If someone in another city in New York says they are going to "New York City" the people around them would all look at each other weird and think: "Well duh!! Why did that person just add the word city??". They would think that was the stupid person, not the other way around!

Do people in Quebec province like adding that extra word just for some "I like to be precise." reason? Because if you are already in the province of Quebec it would be quite hard to "go to the province of Quebec"!

 

[AdMan]

That just doesn't make sense to an American.

If someone in another city in New York says they are going to "New York City" the people around them would all look at each other weird and think: "Well duh!! Why did that person just add the word city??". They would think that was the stupid person, not the other way around!

No, they wouldn't. That is laughable.