Deconstructing South America

Sometimes a mistake turns out to be acceptable and logical, if we look at it in a certain way. Last week I heard someone mention that he did business in several countries including Japan and Europe. Needless to say, Europe is not a country. However, if we think of Europe as an acronym for all the countries of the European Union that share a common flag and currency we can understand where he was coming from.

Interestingly enough, this is reminiscent of how South America is mostly regarded as: a number of resembling countries that share the same language, except for Brazil. However, in this case, it would be a stretch.

The truth is different than what most people think. The majority of South American population speaks Portuguese, not Spanish. By the way, South American official languages comprise Portuguese, Spanish, English, Dutch and French.

Brazil alone is the 5th largest country in the world (if we do not count Hawaii and Alaska as parts of the United States). So if, on the other hand, someone says that a country like Brazil is a continent, that would probably sound more acceptable as a figure of speech.