--- dsk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Wally Kairuz wrote: > > > > america is only one continent spanning from the > northernmost tip in canada > > to the southernmost bit in argentina. this is a > GEOLOGICAL fact.
... > Yes, American children are taught that there are > seven continents -- > Asia, Africa, Europe, Antarctica, Australia, South > America and North > America -- the world's large land masses. (I'm more > confused by Europe > being considered a "continent" than I am by North > America being > considered one.) I don't know when geographers, at > least the "western > world" ones, decided to agree on such designations. Canadian children are taught the same and I can still rhyme them off in the order in which we learned them - I think it was supposed to be from biggest to smallest, but I suppose that's open to interpretation too: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Antarctica. I don't get the whole continent thing either, especially why Europe and Asia are supposedly two separate continents - they're completely stuck together for God's sake! At least N and S Amer have this little peninsula thing (plus that friggin' man-made canal) dividing them. Australia's easy - it's out there in the middle of the ocean, attached to nothing. Same with Antarctica. Africa's connected to Europe/Asia in a small part too, so it's kind of like the Americas, a bit iffy in the continent department, if you ask me. Why is Germany called Germany in English, but Deutschland in German (Deutsch.) Why do anglos call people from the Netherlands Dutch, but we call the Deutsch German? And the Pennsylvania Dutch are German, not Dutch. And they don't all come from Pennsylvania either. Why is Venezuela called Venezuela? Doesn't that mean "Little Venice" or something like that? Where are the canals and the gondoliers singing "Santa Lucia"? How many races of mankind are there really? What makes a race a race? Wally also said: > > why people from the US call themselves americans > is a mystery to me, but at > > least i know that it doesn't have anything to do > with americo vespucio. That's what we were taught. Not that everything we were taught is necessarily true, but just because he didn't land at Plymouth Rock doesn't mean the USA can't be called America. We still have these two (one???) continent(s) called North and South America (named after ___?) and the United States are in one of them, and they're states, and they're united. What the hell? Why not? ===== Catherine Toronto ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
