I hear about it from time to time. Met a few people who've been pretty insistant on that term "Australasia". Not sure how that came about.

>I can't think of another country, including my own, where I'd leave my luggage exposed like that while I wandered around for a couple of hours.<

Austria

>Mexicans consider themselves "Norte Americanos" and are insulted that we think of ourselves as the only Americans in the hemisphere.<

Some Mexicans think ".... that Mexico does not stop at its border..." - Felipe Calderon.

((I)

Using the term "Australasia" doesn't mean that someone believes Australia is a part of Asia.

It's simply a term that includes Australia, New Zealand and a few of the other nearby islands.

I believe the name is derived from "South of Asia", which all those places are.

"I can't think of another country, including my own, where I'd leave my luggage exposed like that while I wandered around for a couple of hours."

Switzerland. And stuff does get stolen in Germany.

Of course, it depends on who you are. There's a guy in Brussels who's generally considered to be up there in the Russian mafia. On sunny days, he routinely leaves his Mercedes convertible parked on the street, unlocked, top down, full of shopping bags from all the high end designer shops nearby, while he has a few drinks at his favorite bar. Nobody touches even the car, much less the merchandise.

I have been to Germany few times on my own and also with the family. We have been to many places where I found almost all the people were friendly. However, I think from now on, I have to be careful where to go and at what time. This is mostly due to revival of young German skinheads who dislike people with dark skins. During the previous month a mob attacked Indians as shown in CNN and the papers. At Mainze wine festival skinheads attacked a young man from Sudan and an Egyptian who tried to help. Few days ago two Greece men where attacked at patrol station in East Berlin. I remember when I was student over 20 years ago in the UK, dark skins people have to be careful where to go because of racialism. May be this is not specific to Germany. It seems strange when it was shown in CNN about a week ago skinheads/nazies in Isreal were attacking dark skin people. This is to tell you that all these people have shit of brain who believe dark skins people came to take their job or polute their areas......etc.

We returned just yesterday from a three week tour of 5 cities in northern Germany and I am pleased to report that, consonant with our other visits to the country, the German people we encountered, in a wide variety of situations, were uniformly pleasant and courteous, and often downright engaging. In fact, the only instance of sheer rudeness I observed came from a woman in a hotel lobby who identified herself as being American. I noticed only because her rudeness was being directed (indirectly) to me by interrupting and insisting to question at length the person at reception who was checking me in. I surprised myself by holding my tongue as this ugliness played out.

I do not speak enough German to sustain a conversation, but before traveling anywhere I do make an effort to practice the language enough to communicate passably in rudimentary situations. For example, on this trip I can't count the number of waiters and bartenders who tried to help me with my pronunciation of "die Rechnung". As you know, "rechnung" requires making a sound that is not used in English, but I can report that my pronunciation seemed to improve as the amount of the bill, at least for drinks, increased. We found no unwillingness to converse in English, even from those who admitted to having only limited ability in the language.

Bis später. Gradyghost

>aught that N. and S. America were also one continent?
Yes, common knowledge over here. I don't think you'd find m(any) that regard north America as being a continent. North (=Canada, US, Mexico), central and south America form the continent of America.

Sorry to keep this going but I just have to say...Who cares about what "continents"?

The fact is we live in the "United States" OF America meaning in the Americas...This nation came into being long after these Americas were named and colonized.
The first thing you learn in Spanish is that the Mexicans take exception to our shortening the name ....so even though we think we are the only people that matter, Mexicans are entitled to that opinion. (not all Mexicans aspire to be illegal aliens and love their country)

I do think the world is not so friendly as they once were to us, so yes, I have noticed some of that...My partner was spat upon in Mexico City 20 years ago..by a native American (Mexican)

Pete, I agree. But Australiasia was being used by someone else (a European) during a conversation about continents as a replacement for Asia $ Aus.

logos - according to a post just above yours, your experience may not be as widespread as you might believe. But I'd still stand by my earlier post and couldn't begin to explain any logical reasons why you'd might have been taught that.

Well, what can you do about false facts tought in school :D. The Bavarian schools are up there with the best, the rest is.. :D

Take it from another German (non-native Bavarian, thank heavens): Everything is bigger and better in Bavaria. Our own lil' lone-star state...

One quick look at Wikipedia might have helped in this unbelievably important matter of continents to find out that there is more than one way to count them.

>Everything is bigger and better in Bavaria.
Agreed 100% :-)

I agree 100% with QUOKKA . Common sense is a good guide. I have always being treated very nicely in Germany , it is true that I have noticed like 30 years ago that they do not like that tourists asume that Germans must know English. A nice introduction that I always use in many other countries too, is : I am sorry I do not Speak your language, or that I do not speak it well depending of the case, it works marvels.

On the other hand I must say that sometimes while in other countries, for instance in Paris, I had to suffer in the hotel I was staying, very noisy German groups probably younger people making a lot of noisy in the middle of the night. I mean it seems that sometimes also Germans when being tourists do not behave themselve as they know they should.
This I agree it is a malaise of our time. Pity.

Clifton: It's important not to generalise too much from one example. If you met another American who was confused about the meaning of a word would you then assume that must be what Americans think or were taught?

Asia + Australia = Australasia is not a common European belief.

As for the number of continents, when I were a lad we were taught there were 7, including two flavours of America. But there is no real international consensus about what a continent is and even within a country the definition of a continent was changed over time. You said yourself that, geographically, it doesn't make much sense to split Europe and Asia but we do.

I think the only sure thing we can say about the continents is that there are somewhere between 5 and 7 of them.

Allright, my turn! :-) I find all this very interesting considering I am German. First and foremost, the most important thing you have to keep in mind is that between the US and Germany there are certain cultural differences. The whole "smile" thing is very true. Americans do, as a whole, smile a lot more than Germans and it does seem strange to us and many times we do question whether it's really genuine. Germans, for the most part, usually only smile when there is an actual reason to smile. To many people visiting Germany, Germans do come across as being rude, grumpy and negative, which they probably are compared to Americans. I have to admit that! Or at least that is the way Americans perceive it. It's all about misperception and misreading clues. Germans do like to keep their distance to people and it does take them a lot longer to warm up to people than Americans. You need to realize that most likely, most of the time when you see a German being "rude", he is just being himself, he is not purposely trying to be rude. That's just the way Germans are! And again, we can't generalize. There are quite a few Germans who are very happy and don't have that negative attitude that is so typical of Germany. And yes, there may very well be some Germans who will treat Americans with less respect because they don't like their government, it's not that they don't like you personally, it's that they don't like the government and unfortunately, they take it out on you, which is not right. But most Germans, in spite of their not so welcoming outward appearance are actually very nice people once you get to know them and their hospitality and generosity is something I am very proud of. Germans are just very genuine people, they don't like to put on masks. But please remember-we are just different, not better or worse than the other culture.

one more thing..a lot of Germans will even give each other those "looks" you mentioned. It doesn't necessarily mean that they only look at you that way because you are American. I have gotten plenty of those looks from my fellow Germans,most of the time it doesn't mean anything.

> The first thing you learn in Spanish is that the Mexicans take exception to our shortening the name ..<

I take exception to Mexicans calling Americans "gringos".

((I))

Ira you are funny!

My family is German and minimeike is dead on....I often get feedback from friends that don't understand the"serious and standoff-ishness". And now that I think about it , we were never taught that it was impolite to stare.

I just got back from Asia and I was so surprised that you could go on public transportation and no one stared! In Mexico everyone stares (at a blond) and I noticed it in Paris too (your clothes).

When I got back to LAX I was taken aback by all these Caucasians
smiling and chatting in elevators..

My hubby and I where married in Budapest. While having pics taken up at the Fisherman Bastion and Mathyas Church, we where lovingly serenaded by a tour of about 30 German gentlemen. After their serenade, they made a mock toast, and in one swoop all 30 of them threw us a kiss.

To this day, my DH and I still laugh about that incident.

We have also spent quite a bit of time in Germany, people where always friendly, and willing to help. We where invited numerous times to peoples homes, of course declined. I don't think you would get that in the US.

Anybody ever notice that German guys like orange pants?