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American's aren't alone in sucking at foreign geography
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Author:  Kaffis Mark V [ Wed Nov 27, 2013 11:25 am ]
Post subject:  American's aren't alone in sucking at foreign geography
http://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/its-t ... he-us-stat

Lots of images. British people trying to label US states produce hilarious results.
Author:  Mookhow [ Wed Nov 27, 2013 11:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: American's aren't alone in sucking at foreign geography
I wonder how many Americans could name all the counties of the UK. Heck, I wonder how many Americans can name the countries of the United Kingdom.

Edit: not UK geography, but close enough - http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/amer ... s-on-a-map
Author:  Arathain Kelvar [ Wed Nov 27, 2013 12:20 pm ]
Post subject: 
Sorry, but that's actually pretty good.
Author:  Elmarnieh [ Wed Nov 27, 2013 12:46 pm ]
Post subject: 
One them prolly has chester in it.
Author:  Stathol [ Wed Nov 27, 2013 1:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: American's aren't alone in sucking at foreign geography
Mookhow wrote:
Heck, I wonder how many Americans can name the countries of the United Kingdom.

Yeah....
Spoiler:
I wonder which is more common - not knowing the difference between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, or forgetting that Wales is an actual country?


On the topic, here's a great video for demystifying the differences between the UK, Great Britain, the British Isles, and the Crown. Includes bonus explanation of the Commonwealth Realm, Crown Dependencies, and British Territories.
Author:  Screeling [ Wed Nov 27, 2013 1:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: American's aren't alone in sucking at foreign geography
Stathol wrote:
On the topic, here's a great video for demystifying the differences between the UK, Great Britain, the British Isles, and the Crown. Includes bonus explanation of the Commonwealth Realm, Crown Dependencies, and British Territories.


Not having to keep that straight is probably reason enough to declare independence.
Author:  Kaffis Mark V [ Wed Nov 27, 2013 1:11 pm ]
Post subject: 
Counties in the UK isn't really an apples to apples comparison. Nor is it even really fair. How many counties in your State can you name, and if it's more than half, do you work for the State government in some way?

On the other hand, the European countries thing is probably pretty valid -- though there are more than 50 of them, they're at least more similar in size (and thus geographic relevance) to US States.

And, on that note, I said American's weren't the *only* ones bad at not-your-own-country's geography.
Author:  Talya [ Wed Nov 27, 2013 1:23 pm ]
Post subject: 
I wonder how many Americans can't name or label their own states any better than the british people in the OP...
Author:  Corolinth [ Wed Nov 27, 2013 1:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: American's aren't alone in sucking at foreign geography
Ultimately, you can't make an apples-to-apples comparison, because individual U.S. states are not like provinces or counties of European nations. Although we have drifted from our union of independent sovereign states, an individual state has much more in common with an entire European nation than it does with one of that nation's provinces. In other words, the state of California has more in common with the entirety of England than it does with Oxford.

The formation of the European Union involved looking at the United States and asking, "How do we organize all of these countries to function like that?" There is a vast ethnic and cultural disparity across the United States that nobody ever notices because we profess to have one national identity.

Asking Europeans to name U.S. states is not quite the same as asking Americans to name European countries, but it's much closer to an apples-to-apples comparison than asking Americans to name French counties. The states are much closer in scale to European nations than any other entity.
Author:  Talya [ Wed Nov 27, 2013 4:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: American's aren't alone in sucking at foreign geography
Corolinth wrote:
The states are much closer in scale to European nations than any other entity.


This isn't true, either, really. Do you really think Arkansas ever makes international news apart from its former governor becoming president?

Belgium does. France does. Germany does. Lichenstein, maybe not so much, but it's still in the CIA world factbook online.

The closest analogy to the US states would be the individual countries in the United Kingdom -- Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, England ... yet internationally they are treated like a single country.

The problem in using that as an analogy, is there aren't very many of them. It's much easier to remember and locate those four individual countries than it is to remember 50 states.
Author:  Kaffis Mark V [ Wed Nov 27, 2013 5:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: American's aren't alone in sucking at foreign geography
Talya wrote:
Corolinth wrote:
The states are much closer in scale to European nations than any other entity.


This isn't true, either, really. Do you really think Arkansas ever makes international news apart from its former governor becoming president?

But California does. Texas does. New York does. Michigan probably has, recently.

You're comparing Arkansas to Belgium. That's wrong. Compare Arkansas to Estonia.
Author:  Corolinth [ Wed Nov 27, 2013 5:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: American's aren't alone in sucking at foreign geography
Bingo. First off, because all of the states share a single national identity, you're unlikely to ever hear about one of them in international news. You're just going to hear about **** that happened in the U.S.

Most countries aren't making international news right now. What's going on in Albania? How about Hungary? Just like not every U.S. state is California or Texas, not every European country is England or France. As for Arkansas making international news, I suspect the last time that would have happened would be this right here.

Image

Which would be making news in a similar fashion to how Afghanistan or North Korea makes news - namely, news of the bad variety. Although since I specified European countries earlier, perhaps I should compare it to the manner in which Bosnia and Serbia have made international news.
Author:  Diamondeye [ Wed Nov 27, 2013 7:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re:
Talya wrote:
I wonder how many Americans can't name or label their own states any better than the british people in the OP...


If you seriously think Americans can't name their own state, you're carrying this way too far.
Author:  Corolinth [ Wed Nov 27, 2013 7:36 pm ]
Post subject: 
I think she means we show you a map, and you write in all fifty states.

Which I confess for myself, once we get up into New England, I would get a little fuzzy on what is where.
Author:  Amanar [ Wed Nov 27, 2013 8:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: American's aren't alone in sucking at foreign geography
Mookhow wrote:
I wonder how many Americans could name all the counties of the UK. Heck, I wonder how many Americans can name the countries of the United Kingdom.

Well, I could probably name over 50% of them by just naming the counties and cities in my own state. Then I'd think of any city in the US I've ever heard with the name "New *something*" and grab a few more. No way I could put them on a map though.

Anyway, people are more familiar with the geography that's close to them, there's no surprise there. It just happens that there aren't many countries near the US. The best test would be to compare knowledge of an area that's equally remote to both places, both geographically and culturally. I'd go with Southeast Asia if you want to compare Europeans to Americans.
Author:  FarSky [ Thu Nov 28, 2013 1:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: American's aren't alone in sucking at foreign geography
I know all of the states and their capitols. Because Animaniacs. Yes, I have to go through the song to get there.

Don't ask me to put them on a map though, unless you are angling for either disappointment or amusement. Never cared one whit for geography.
Author:  Raell [ Thu Nov 28, 2013 2:20 am ]
Post subject: 
I think the one that called Canada 'Big Scottland W/Polar Bears' was the best. That made me smile.
Author:  Corolinth [ Thu Nov 28, 2013 2:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: American's aren't alone in sucking at foreign geography
Because it's relevant (and also, **** Arkansas).

Quote:
Talya
i suspect most people in the world suck at geography outside of places they've been. Although I've noticed americans frequently sucking at geography INCLUDING places they've been.
i couldn't label all 50 states. I could label a lot of them, for sure.
For instance, i have no real idea where Arkansas is.
other than somewhere in the interior.
or idaho...other than northwest plains

Corolinth
That's okay, I can't find Arkansas, and it borders Missouri to the south.
Arkansas was only important while Clinton was president.
Author:  Mookhow [ Thu Nov 28, 2013 7:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: American's aren't alone in sucking at foreign geography
Since we're discussing geography knowledge:

US States
US Capitals
Canadian Provinces and Territories
States of Mexico

Countries of Europe
Countries of Africa
Countries of Asia
Countries of North America
Countries of South America

Countries of the World

:D
Author:  Mookhow [ Thu Nov 28, 2013 8:11 am ]
Post subject:  Re: American's aren't alone in sucking at foreign geography
US States = 50/50
US Capitals = 32/50
Canadian Provinces and Territories = 9/13
States of Mexico = 3/31 (Total blank on this one!)

Countries of Europe = 33/47
Countries of Africa = 13/54
Countries of Asia = 28/49
Countries of North America = 12/23 (wtf.. I thought I had most of these filled in)
Countries of South America = 7/12

Countries of the World

.... maybe doing these quizzes first thing in the morning wasn't a great idea
Author:  Corolinth [ Thu Nov 28, 2013 9:45 am ]
Post subject: 
It's easy to forget Central American countries. For one, we tend to associate them with South America.
Author:  Diamondeye [ Thu Nov 28, 2013 9:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re:
Corolinth wrote:
I think she means we show you a map, and you write in all fifty states.

Which I confess for myself, once we get up into New England, I would get a little fuzzy on what is where.


I think most people would do better writing it on a map than describing it or writing or something. Except Colorado and Wyoming, or New Hampshire and Vermont; people will always get those pairs backwards.

Oh, and I never forget Central American countries... I can't.
Author:  Midgen [ Thu Nov 28, 2013 9:31 pm ]
Post subject: 
I do pretty well with US State geography (I did the puzzle with 5 min to spare).

Capitals I used to have memorized. Not so much any more.

Asia isn't too bad for me, but I spent a lot of time there when I was on Active Duty.

Europe, Africa, and the Middle east? meh...
Author:  Talya [ Fri Nov 29, 2013 9:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Re:
Diamondeye wrote:
New Hampshire


New Hampshire is why I only got 49 out of 50 on the "name the states" quiz Mook linked. I couldn't remember for the life of me what was beside Vermont.


Now, the state capitals are another matter. We don't learn those in school in Canada (seeing as they aren't our states)... and state capitals are almost always little backwater villages you'd never hear of. I mean, I know Florida fairly well, and can name just about every city and town alongside Interstates 75 and 95, in addition to the Orlando area, even such insignificant places as Bradenton and Cape Coral. I could even approximately place most of them on a map without preparation.

But I had to look up, "Where the **** is Tallahassee?"

Most states seem to be this way. I can understand if the most populous or famous city is not your state capital. The capitals were set many, many years ago, and cities change. But it's like the states intentionally picked places nobody would ever hear of to be their administrative centers. For every Denver, Boston, Nashville or Indianapolis, there's a couple like Lansing (and I knew that one!), Springfield, Olympia, or Frankfort.
Author:  Diamondeye [ Fri Nov 29, 2013 10:13 am ]
Post subject: 
If by "backwater village" you mean "generally a city with a 6-figure population" then yeah. However, a lot of state capitals are nearer to the center of the state than the largest city would be.
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