Why do Americans always mention state they're from?

'Cause America.

*pew*

Im from Springfield ( not really). Guess which one? en.m.wikipedia.org...


Seriously though, I never hear people say what city and state they're from if it's a pretty well known city. It's either, or, usually.

a reply to: homeskillet

I always list city,, county, state, country, hemisphere and of course, water district.

Then if they're standing there I dance until they give me money.

Only co fusion I've ever had with an telling where I'm from and just saying LA is when I was online gaming and someone thought Louisiana, also abbreviaton for the state.

Page 3 and I have already had my evening meds...

My mind can't get past irony in Croatiaguy's question.

OP, you're joking right ?

originally posted by: croatianguy
I can understand when they mention a small town, then the state..like Flint, Michigan. But why say "I'm from LA, California or Chicago, Illinois?" Do some people in US not actually know which state LA or Chicago might be in?

It's like saying you are from
London dude...

There are like how many Durhams here?? I can think of about 5 states with Durham in them...
I can drive 8-9 hours and still be in North Carolina.. It's 500 miles long.... 800 kilometers.. What are there like 300 or 400 towns in North Carolina? I have no clue, but I know it's something like that..

And we don't know all the towns people are from... Hearing the town.. OK.. Then the state.. Gotcha you're way over there in that corner..

It's the same reason people from outside of the states think "American" means something..

I'm from east side of my small town of what 65,000?? I say that for people to know I'm not a west side cat..

my STATE has 10,000,000 people in it...

Does that help.

You'll find that a lot of Americans do not use the state name unless they are out of state, talking to someone from out of their state, or in another country.

When you're talking to others that live in the same state, you tend to just say the name of the city. However, some of those names might be confusing to someone who is not a native of that state, or from America.

Like here in South Carolina, we have a city called Florence. So does Italy.

There's a small town on the way to Charleston called Denmark.

You've seen others on here post about Athens, Ohio, right? Guess what. Next door to me in Georgia is a city called Athens.

I live here in Aiken. If I'm talking to someone from Columbia and they ask where I'm from, I don't say "Aiken, South Carolina" because both of us are in South Carolina.
But if I'm talking to say someone from Nevada, if they ask where I'm from, I'll tell them Aiken, South Carolina.

Last census shows that there are over 35,000 cities and towns in our country. A country that has 3.8 million square miles to it. And that's not counting all the small townships or unincorporated places.

Just saying the city name to those that do not live near you can get confusing.

originally posted by: whyamIhere
Page 3 and I have already had my evening meds...

My mind can't get past irony in Croatiaguy's question.

OP, you're joking right ?

Nah not joking man. I heard people say it on American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance.

Actually, an to prove a point, LA is

El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles.

I don't think there is another in the world.

So no - we don't add the state except on mail.

originally posted by: FyreByrd
Actually, an to prove a point, LA is

El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles.

I don't think there is another in the world.

So no - we don't add the state except on mail.

LA also means Louisiana
btw..

originally posted by: eriktheawful
You'll find that a lot of Americans do not use the state name unless they are out of state, talking to someone from out of their state, or in another country.

When you're talking to others that live in the same state, you tend to just say the name of the city. However, some of those names might be confusing to someone who is not a native of that state, or from America.

Like here in South Carolina, we have a city called Florence. So does Italy.

There's a small town on the way to Charleston called Denmark.

You've seen others on here post about Athens, Ohio, right? Guess what. Next door to me in Georgia is a city called Athens.

I live here in Aiken. If I'm talking to someone from Columbia and they ask where I'm from, I don't say "Aiken, South Carolina" because both of us are in South Carolina.
But if I'm talking to say someone from Nevada, if they ask where I'm from, I'll tell them Aiken, South Carolina.

Last census shows that there are over 35,000 cities and towns in our country. A country that has 3.8 million square miles to it. And that's not counting all the small townships or unincorporated places.

Just saying the city name to those that do not live near you can get confusing.

Yeah I understand that for towns as it makes sense to say the state. Thats not my issue. I am just talking about main big cities like LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami and Dallas which I have all heard people say the state after saying these main cities.

a reply to: croatianguy

Because it's a TV show and they're nervous and or excited to be there. Normal American conversation hardly goes like TV.

originally posted by: homeskillet
a reply to: croatianguy

Because it's a TV show and they're nervous and or excited to be there. Normal American conversation hardly goes like TV.

I'm not completely convinced people don't know that.

What I want to know is why are Australians confused about which side the fanny is on?

All I want to know is why is it every person from new York city have to unsolicetedly mention they are from new York city within the first 2 minutes of talking to you. Do they really think anybody wanted to know or cared that they are from new York city.

originally posted by: croatianguy

originally posted by: opethPA
I took my reply out because its actually an unincorporated land in Texas.

So basically people say they are from LA, Cali so as not to be confused with LA, Texas?

I've met a lot of people from L.A., and none of them specified California. Could be that I'm American so they know I know. Being that.you're from Croatia, many people from LA. assume you don't know. But that's Californians for ya.....arrogant S.O.B's

But when I tell people that I'm from a certain small town in Indiana, I specify northern Indiana. I dont want to be confused with those in the southern part. Hillbillies. Not that they're bad people, I'm just not one of them.

a reply to: croatianguy
It's basically a confusion-avoidance habit, because so many names are duplicated.
And haven't you noticed that the same habit gets applied to cities elsewhere in the world?
Americans are probably more likely than other people to specify "London, England" or "Paris, France".
Whereas in England, for example, we would only bother in the case of known ambiguities like Richmond (Surrey, Yorkshire) or St. Ives (Cornwall, Huntingdonshire).

a reply to: BASSPLYR

You and the OP, I'm from the Bronx, New York - didn't even take two minutes

It's just how it is. We all like to specify where we hail from.

a reply to: croatianguy

It's a hold over from our postal system. That's part of how you write your address, it mostly comes up as a habit. For the record, I'll either just say I'm from Maryland or Baltimore. I don't remember the last time I've told someone I'm from Baltimore, Maryland.

originally posted by: mikeone718
You and the OP, I'm from the Bronx, New York - didn't even take two minutes

You have to tell him that because if you said you were from the Boogie Down he would be very confused.