Thanks for swinging by!
Daniel´s last [type] ..Knee high socks

Ha, def weird.

Just found your fantastic website when I was searching for differences between the UK school system and the Italian school system for my italian homework.

After navigating around your site for the past 20 minutes, I found this debate and thought it was a really interesting topic.

I know all of this is from last year but I still wanted to write my opinion.

I’m at secondary school in England and at primary school I was taught there are 5 continents; America(s), Europe, Oceania (incl Antartica), Africa and Asia.

But in Secondary school I was taught there are 5 continents but they are differet to the ones I was taught before: America(s) Europe, Australasia, Africa and Antartica.

That said, I just spoke to my dad about it, and he said that at school, all those years ago, he was taught to keep the number as small as possible: America (one continent as he said he was taught it is one land mass, so one continent), Eurasia (Europe and Asia combined – weird I know!), Africa and Antartica/Oceania. Which makes 4.

So there could be between 4 and 7!!!

How do we expect our kids to learn anything?

Ha, it was such an hysterical lunch-time conversation when we learned about “our” differences!

There are a lot of different assessments about that around the World. The number of continents varies between five and seven.

For example, I’m paraguayan, and in all Latin America we study the “America” like a continent. Not the “Americas”, but America. So, you’ll ask me: “How do you call us? United Statizens?” Well, I don’t know if the word “statizens” exists, but… It’s similar. I will explain. In spanish, we call your country “Estados Unidos de América” (or EUA or E.E.U.U.). So, people coming from EUA are called “estadounidenses”.

First, we must know which one is oldest. I’m referring to the name “America”. We know that the the first denomination of the continent America happened in 1507 by Martin Waldseemüller in his work called Cosmographiae introductio. You can see that here (near the brazilian territory): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/UniversalisCosmographia.jpg

So, we have first the continent America and then the term America to designate a country. But, became common uses the term “americans” to designate a person came from USA. It’s not wrong. I will call you “american”, without problem.

And now… finally, I’ll write about the number of continents. I would like to be a universal knowledge, but it doesn’t. So, I just send the link of the continental composition by the United Nations: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm

And we see five continents: Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania.

Apologies for my english, my italian is better but your site is all in english, so I decided to write in english.

PS.: Il tuo sorriso é bellissimo

Ma, grazie! This is so comprehensive. Thank you so much.

Still..yeah…kinda scary!

Ha. That is funny.

.-= Melanie´s last blog ..Five Favorites: Lucca =-.

They should-totally!

.-= MadelineJ´s last blog ..The Best of Palermo, Sicily =-.

I know! It was so hard this morning-we have a German guest at our B&B who doesn’t speak Italian so for work, I had to break out the mother tongue! I plan to write a follow-up post about how it is going. Also, I’ve heard other English speakers say “Yankee.” I always think it is cute! Then again-I’m from Texas and being called a “yankee” is a novelty for me. Thanks for the info on how other languages refer to Americans. Very interesting.
.-= Benny the Irish polyglot´s last blog ..Summary of month 2: on the final dash to see if I make it to fluency! =-.

You’d think it would be something scientific like that, wouldn’t you?

Interesting, huh?

.-= AmyEmilia´s last blog ..my assistant =-.

Hey Benny. I don’t see Americans as not acknowledging others as being part of the American continent, but we are the Unites States of America. What are we supposed to call ourselves? United Statizens? As I told my husband, they make a distinction of countries when they talk about themselves or others. They don’t say “I am European” they say they are “Italian.” And, LOL at your Central America question. I have actually wondered the same thing. It is North America, fwiw, which extends down as far south as Panama. This is just a crazy debate, though. I thought it was scientific proof (of any of the systems).

.-= Benny the Irish polyglot´s last blog ..Summary of month 2: on the final dash to see if I make it to fluency! =-.

Interesting … wonder what they mentioned!
.-= Travelingsuep´s last blog ..Good, bad, and slightly dangerous? =-.

Prego! Let me know how it goes if you bring it up.

.-= Laura at Ciao Amalfi´s last blog ..The Dog (or Cat) Days of Summer on the Amalfi Coast =-.

I remember being shocked when I was teaching English in Hungary, that my students told me that the U.S. had 52 states (as their geography teacher had drilled into them). My protests that there were 50 did not penetrate. “But what about Puerto Rico and Hawaii?” they would retort (I never did figure out what was the 52nd state). I tried to explain to them there were 50, and it was just one of those things that was true, like Budapest was the capital of Hungary, but they didn’t believe me for a minute!

That is crazy funny! ha

This web page says SIX or Seven ….

http://geography.about.com/od/learnabouttheearth/qt/qzcontinents.htm

I am just wondering what search engine you used, I cannot find one link to 5 continents …but I found this and it goes down to 4……..

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070714014445AAdJI1T

So so far, I have found 4, 6, or 7 continents…sorry to confuse the matter even further.
.-= anne´s last blog ..Two wonderful Awards….. =-.

No worries! I used Google, but I Googled it in Italian to see what the Italians would get! I am pretty sure I also saw it in English, though…