How good is your Geography?

How good is your Geography?

  • West

    Votes: 151 93.2%

  • East

    Votes: 10 6.2%

  • Dunno

    Votes: 1 0.6%
  • Total voters
    162
dexdog said:
Was that an Alscace and Lorraine joke? 🙂

I have always thought it odd that in English, the German city of Koln (mit umlaut) is always referred to by the French name, Cologne.
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Yes, I was being a SMARTASS with no mean intentions with that comment......

Reminds me of a time when (all of us in the US Army Signal Corps, 1990`s )
Had a manuver in Southwest Germany one time, and we shared a large tent with a section of German Army signal guys and some French Army signal guys....I heard the American Captain tell the First Sgt. that the German`s and the French will share the one end of the tent and we will take the rest, I KNEW personally that something bad was going to happen, I was a section Sgt and suggested to the First Sgt that the German`s and French should be separated, but they left it fly

Well that first night ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE between them with comments and slurs etc.

Needless to say after some quick planning and the German`s sleeping in end of the tent and the French at the other with the American`s in the middle, we all got along just fine for the next 14 days together......

Some clutures never change 😛

Tom

ps: I guess I do miss those good ole daze in the US Army......
 
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On numerous occasions, while traveling in the USA, we have tried to explain where we live in Canada relative to the USA . We start by saying that we are 200 miles north of Duluth Minnesota on Lake Superior and if we get a blank look we go to 400 miles north of Minneapolis Minnesota. You would be surprised how many blank looks we get at that stage, at least we were. At that stage we just give up and move onto something else of mutual interest. It has also been my experience that some Europeans are distance challenged when they travel to North America in that quite a few can not comprehend how far apart things can be here. We had relatives from Germany fly in to Toronto and told us not to bother picking them up at the airport as they would take the bus. They were a little puzzled when we said fine but be prepared for a 24 hour bus ride. At any rate you get to meet some interesting people and learn new things.

Bob
 
Nikon Bob said:
It has also been my experience that some Europeans are distance challenged when they travel to North America in that quite a few can not comprehend how far apart things can be here.
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This reminds me of a guy I met in Spain- he asked me if I ever drove to Los Angeles from Washington DC. I said no, it takes too long to do so. Surely not more than a day, he said. He looked incredulous when I told him that LA was approximately 5000 km from DC.
 
Hi Erik,
erikhaugsby said:
RML said:
Not to mention Corsica and various territories all over the world, both east and west of Germany. Anyone know where to find Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana or Réunion?
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All of them are near, on, or by the Carribean. French Guiana is on the North East shore of the South American mainland.

right?
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Only partly. Réunion is actually in the Indian Ocean, some way off the eastern coast of Africa. 🙂

Philipp
 
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Nikon Bob said:
It has also been my experience that some Europeans are distance challenged when they travel to North America in that quite a few can not comprehend how far apart things can be here.
Bob
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Think it goes both ways - sometimes visitors to the UK from the US can assume that everything is extremely close together. I was once asked by some US tourists which tube (London Underground) line to take for Edinburgh...In practice, Edinburgh is a 5ish hour (national) rail journey.

Not far compared to US distances, but certainly not local either.
 
ITD said:
Think it goes both ways - sometimes visitors to the UK from the US can assume that everything is extremely close together. I was once asked by some US tourists which tube (London Underground) line to take for Edinburgh...In practice, Edinburgh is a 5ish hour (national) rail journey.

Not far compared to US distances, but certainly not local either.
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Yeah, by North American standards, at least where I am from. that qualifies as a long day trip to go shopping by car. Personally I would not expect the London tube to go that far. We once met a Canadian University student who admitted that he was disappointed that you could not see the Eiffel Tower from London. He obviously had thought that possible. Every country has geographically challenged folks. Maybe it is a sign that our collective education systems may have a hand in this. Maybe I am wrong coming from a formal education that ended at grade 9.

Bob
 
colinh said:
...Ah, you're better at SE Asia, the middle east and Africa then? 🙂
...colin
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What are they?😀

No, most Americans are pretty hopeless with any Geography, myself included. I could probably get close with most countries, but I never had a single semester of Geography in school.
 
colinh said:
..

So, for US American's only please, (and no cheating, i.e. VOTE first THEN LOOK at the rsults)...

..
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Oh man, this is hilarious! LOL.. 😛

You shouldn't even be worried whether anyone cheats by first looking at what others have (possibly erroneously) guessed.. 😉

Now, checking with Google Earth first, that would be cheating.. 😱
 
" So, for US American's only please,"
That should be write above the poll. Please remove my West vote 🙂 . By the way, I always heard about Americans being silly for not knowing where is e.g. France but, what about a poll to see how many Europeans know where is e.g. Ohio?
 
alcaraban said:
" So, for US American's only please,"
That should be write above the poll. Please remove my West vote 🙂 . By the way, I always heard about Americans being silly for not knowing where is e.g. France but, what about a poll to see how many Europeans know where is e.g. Ohio?
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That's more akin to asking for knowledge of actual French provinces or Swiss cantons 🙂

(Have no idea about those myself though, and the only thing I know about Ohio it's somewhere north there)
 
alcaraban said:
" So, for US American's only please,"
That should be write above the poll. Please remove my West vote 🙂 . By the way, I always heard about Americans being silly for not knowing where is e.g. France but, what about a poll to see how many Europeans know where is e.g. Ohio?
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Give me one good reason why I should know where Ohio is.. 😀

All in good humour of course.. 😉
 
pvdhaar:

I guess you unintenionally get people confused between the Netherlands and Holland.

Me too. Yesterday I was at the post office. They couldn't decide whether my letter was going to England or Britain or the United Kingdom. I think we must do it to confuse people.
 
pvdhaar said:
Give me one good reason why I should know where Ohio is.. 😀

All in good humour of course.. 😉
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A joke I like to tell as if it really happened ... 🙂

We were walking along the docks in Cape Caaad one morning when we came upon an old fisherman, sitting on the dock, smoking his pipe, and working with an old net. We greeted him, and ...

Fisherman: Where ye be from?

Me: Council Bluffs, Iowa, ever heard of it?

Fisherman: Yes, but back here we pronounce that "Ohio"! 🙂
 
varjag said:
alcaraban said:
I always heard about Americans being silly for not knowing where is e.g. France but, what about a poll to see how many Europeans know where is e.g. Ohio?
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That's more akin to asking for knowledge of actual French provinces or Swiss cantons
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Is it quite unfair to have 30 or 40 countries (US state-sized, BTW) in Europe while there are only three in North America, isn't it?
 
sepiareverb said:
What are they?😀

No, most Americans are pretty hopeless with any Geography, myself included. I could probably get close with most countries, but I never had a single semester of Geography in school.
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When I was a kid (yeah, long, long ago and far, far away), it was considered smart to know all the states and their capitals. Many kids learned it to impress adults and other kids. Don't know that I could even remember all the states now. 😀 But we did have maps in the classrooms and teachers actually referred to them from time to time.

These days it seems educators know that the real smart kids know all the minority authors (good ones there were/are, but they tend to exclude all the other classics) and their stories, how bad the native Americans were treated (they were, but they weren't always blameless either), and geography has no place. No matter what the international relations teachers say. Do they still teach international relations in colleges?

My daughters are still amazed at times at what we were taught in grade school and high school, and I am dismayed at what they were not taught. Ain't life grand? I guess as times change, so do educational needs. Who cares how you hitch up a wagon? 😀 😀
 
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