Why people are naming just Africa usually and not a country?

[Pongi]

When it comes to a conversation, black people, or a country in Africa, anything, people usually say: In Africa...
But never name a country.

[Maintenance]

Same goes when most Americans talk about someone from a european country, they just say "the european guy/girl" and not the specific country they are from.

[Kazimiera]

When I say I live in South Africa people ask, "So where in Africa do you live?" Try to explain to them that South Africa is actually a country and not just a geographical region and they look at you like you're crazy.

A friend of mine went overseas and a guy asked him where he lives. He says, "South Africa." The guy answers, "That's cool. I surfed in Morocco when I was there." As if they're just around the corner. :picard1:

An internet friend from the US was going to Ethiopia for some reason. He says, "I'll pop in at your place while I'm there." :picard1:

I don't think people realise how enormous Africa really is and that there are 54 countries in it.

http://kai.sub.blue/images/true_size_of_africa_v3-da3dd38e.jpg

[Shah-Jehan]

Yeah, I've noticed this too.

[Nurzat]

Why people are naming just Africa usually and not a country?

because we love it all

[Amor Vincit Omnia]

edit

[Amor Vincit Omnia]

When I say I live in South Africa people ask, "So where in Africa do you live?" Try to explain to them that South Africa is actually a country and not just a geographical region and they look at you like you're crazy.

A friend of mine went overseas and a guy asked him where he lives. He says, "South Africa." The guy answers, "That's cool. I surfed in Morocco when I was there." As if they're just around the corner. :picard1:

An internet friend from the US was going to Ethiopia for some reason. He says, "I'll pop in at your place while I'm there." :picard1:

I don't think people realise how enormous Africa really is and that there are 54 countries in it.

http://kai.sub.blue/images/true_size_of_africa_v3-da3dd38e.jpg


oh you live in africa ! so u can speak african !! :rotfl::rotfl:
u are so lucky you can see lions everyday :-)):-)) :picard1:

noone told u something like that ? ;):picard1:

[Óttar]

Because when Black people came to the New World, they didn't bring ID papers.

[Amor Vincit Omnia]

When it comes to a conversation, black people, or a country in Africa, anything, people usually say: In Africa...
But never name a country.

yes it is a strange habit ....when someone say " i came from America" he refer USA but there is nothing egual about africa ,europe or asia

[Óttar]

oh you live in africa ! so u can speak african !! :rotfl::rotfl:
I told a truck driver I was studying for a Masters in Languages and Cultures of Asia, and he asked, "You want to learn Asian?" :rolleyes:

[Shah-Jehan]

Because when Black people came to the New World, they didn't bring ID papers.

That's not what he means, it just that all of Africa is generalized as if its one country.

For e.g., if someone people would say, my visit to Africa was really nice, despite only visiting Kenya. Or like some interesting thing about some African tribe in Tanzania comes up on the news, and the title will read, "Interesting Lives of the XXXX tribe in Africa" instead of mentioning Tanzania.

[Kazimiera]

oh you live in africa ! so u can speak african !! :rotfl::rotfl:
u are so lucky you can see lions everyday :-)):-)) :picard1:

noone told u something like that ? ;):picard1:

You won't believe what I've been asked already. :picard1:

Do you have electricity? Do you have computers? (Uh, I'm answering your question by typing on a computer which is powered by electricity. Work it out yourself, bright spark!)

Do you have hospitals? (Actually, we have some of the world's best doctors.)

Can you speak African? (Of the approximately 2000 African languages, which one specifically are you referring to?)

Do you live in houses or huts? (I have relatives in Germany who were going to send curtains which I could put up in my mud hut.)

Is it hot there all the time? (No, some parts have snow in winter. South Africa even has a ski resort - nothing in comparison to European ski resorts, but a ski resort nonetheless.)

Do the wild animals walk around next to your house? (No lions, no elephants, no rhino, no giraffes, no buffalo. I sometimes tease people and say it is very important to shake the spiders and snakes out of your shoes in the morning, before you put them on. Unfortunately I do get guinea fowl by the dozen and they make the most horrendous sounds. I call them "polka dot chickens". http://kitundu.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/guinea_fowl.jpg)

Besides the wild animals and weather, the next thing people want to talk about is Apartheid. I don't even bother talking about it any more because people already come into the conversation with pre-conceived ideas. Nothing I tell them will change what they already believe and it's a waste of my time.

What pisses me off to no end on this forum is when people start talking about South Africa and start bombarding me with YouTube videos and statistical information about my country. I've lived here all my life and no YouTube video (normally from nefarious sources) will tell me something I don't already know. You don't need to send South African statistics to me, I'm well aware of them. I have people (who probably couldn't even locate South Africa on a map) telling me what my country is like. I mean, I can't browse a few websites about the life and politics of Estonia and then tell an Estonian who has lived in Estonia all his life what is really going on his country. No, you're not educating me, you're pissing me off. Now where is that pet lion I can set loose on you if you don't go away? Damn, I don't have a lion. I'll just have to throw scorpions at you.

[Smitty]

African civilizations haven't achieved much. That may not be a pleasant fact for some, but that's why (I believe) people lump the whole continent together. It's not like Asia or the Americas, where regional differences are well-known.

[Kazimiera]

I must admit, though, that some people here don't have a fucking clue what is going on in the world.

I tried to have an argument with someone who was convinced that the kangaroos live in Austria. The more I'm trying to explain, the more adamant they are that I'm wrong. Okay, kangaroos live in Austria. Now we all know it.

At work we often get people from overseas who can speak only German. Whenever there is someone in the hospital that doesn't speak English, I get called to come communicate with them. It usually is a German or Dutch person. But not everyone realises that there are more languages than German and Dutch in Europe. They call me to come talk to a Russian woman, and then wonder why I can't understand her. Or they drop a Congolese family in my care (because I can speak "another language") who only know French. I once had a couple of Finns dumped onto me.

That can get tiring sometimes.

[Mingle]

Also, when people say Africa, they only mean Sub-Saharan Africa.

[wvwvw]

When it comes to a conversation, black people, or a country in Africa, anything, people usually say: In Africa...
But never name a country.

It is normal I think. When Europeans live outside Europe they also refer to their country as just Europe. And Americans when they are in Europe or any other continent they reply America when they are being asked where they are from. But when they are in American or meet a fellow America, they jyst name the state before the country.

[Autrigón]

Not my case, I always say the name of the country because I am a very special person