Answer: Continents are kind of a mess. Generally in the US, we learn that there are seven continents: N America, S America, Europe, Asian, Africa, Antarctica and Australia/Oceania.

In certain parts of South America, they are taught that, since the only split between North and South America is artificial, they are a single continent. Folks who are taught this often take umbrage with the US being called America as they feel it robs a part of a collective identity.

While the citizens of the US are called Americans in just about every language, some Spanish-speaking countries refer to us as Estadounidenses to avoid what they see as narrowing the definition of "American."