Wednesday: Hili dialogue

June 17, 2015 • 5:32 am

It is Hump Day, and I have nothing except that I learned I am not supposed to refer to Canadians as “Americans,” although a reader once chewed me out for referring to US citizens as “Americans,” noting that that was exclusionary of other North Americans (like Canadians). Since then I’ve been careful about that, but now learn it was a postmodern ruse, and that USains, as they’re called, can properly be called “Americans” in Canada. Live and learn. Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is among the blossoms, ignoring Andrzej’s Biblical warning that “blessed are those who have not touched but have believed” (modified from scripture).

A: There are no roses without thorns.
Hili: Are you sure?

P1020952

In Polish:
Ja: Nie ma róży bez kolców.
Hili: Czy jesteś tego pewien?

 

22 thoughts on “Wednesday: Hili dialogue”

    1. PS Hili is right – of course! There are thornless varieties of rose now it seems, namely Amadis!

    2. I’ve heard we might have been Vespucians, save for the fact that Amerigo was easier to latinize.

      Thank gawd!

  2. With due apologies to the inhabitants of the remaining American continental landmass (also known as the “AmericaS”), the use of “America” and “Americans” to denote the USA and its citizens is so widespread and accepted that to complain about it is like yelling at the Moon, and more ridiculous still than protesting that the millennium began on 1 January 2001. The Germans, however, will not accept this, and think it necessary to refer to “US-Amerikaner” as well as translating the works of Faulkner, Roth and Franzen from a mysterious language known as “Amerikanisch”.

  3. Don’t let any Canadian tell you we celebrate “Benedict Arnold Day” which is what my dad told his friend in Arizona for the LOLz.

  4. Yet we do have Columbus Day, mostly because they love three day weekends. Christopher Columbus sailed four times beginning in 1492, financed by Isabella and Ferdinand who jointly ruled Spain. Most U.S. peoples think he discovered “America” but he never touched ground in any of the 50 states.

    The outcome of these voyages was generally not good for the native people of the Caribbean or for those that came. Columbus was in search of riches…mostly, what would make him rich and famous.

    Little know item that I recently learned – the money to finance all of this came from the rich all over Spain. Some of the money these well to do had obtained came from the Inquisition in Spain and from the Jews who were either killed or converted or both.

  5. It’s not an uncommon problem when (if like the Canadians) you live with a big neighbour. We here in Ireland have never been comfortable with the term “British Isles”, even where limited to a geographical context. On the other hand, I have worked with English people who, eager to avoid offence, clumsily described Britain and Ireland as the “island archipelago to the north west of Europe”. Maybe we all need to thicken the skin and not take umbrage where none is intended. And after all, it can lead to fascinating conversations.

    1. Not sure but Canada may be larger, geographically, than the U.S. However, if you took a survey in the U.S. most would think Ireland as part of the U.K.

        1. Best you don’t say that in South Carolina. Might be as bad as calling them Atheist.

        2. Extreme US southerners would take exception to that, but then again I’ve heard them call Canadians “yankees”. 🙂

      2. Well, Northern Ireland is part of the UK but the republic isn’t.

        And Northern Irish protestants would mostly insist that it is part of Britain, too, though catholics would disagree.

        And if Scotland secedes it will be part of Britain, but not the UK. Probably.

        Maybe we should call everywhere Bruce to keep things clear.

  6. “…exclusionary of other North Americans…”

    No problem – I’m happy to be excluded. On the subject of living with a big neighbour I can only quote a former PM who said “you feel every twitch and grunt”.

    1. For whatever it is worth, I’ve had students from countries in what we call South America insist that there is no South America and no North America, either — only America.

  10. Americans are what we Canadians call those from the USA. ‘Mericans are what we call them when they are brandishing pistols and referring to Canada as ‘The USA’s Hat’.

    (By the way, just to be clear, I’m an American-born Canadian citizen).

Comments are closed.