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
alcaraban said:
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?
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Geography is not about fairness :) U.S. states are not independent entities, although there sure is more to geography than just political map.

But geography of an average European is very far from perfect too, especially when it comes to African or Latin American states.
 
My 4-year old daughter has maps in her Montessori class, and so far as we can tell a photographic memory. She knows ALL the countries and is working on the capitals. She is getting a little distracted learning the size, color and distance of of the 20 brightest stars (my sister gave me a Celestron Sky Scout for my birthday).

Anyway, her geographical knowledge is pretty good. Maybe she will retain it.

And along the lines of oftheherd's comments, when she starts to learn "history" I will make sure she learns the history of "history", and what "agenda" means.

- John
 
I voted East only because I get my left hand and right hand mixed up. France is to Port of Germany.
 
Ok Colinh, you asked for serious answer, it's BOTH, you didn't mention "on a map".

:)

I'm not originally from the US, but I just gotta say this: I *love* the people here in the US. People here may not know something but at least they will acknowledge it and smile about it.

This thread is a good example, I was wincing, fully expecting bitter and confrontational responses, but no. The *Americans* can take it like big boys and girls.

And they *do* know their geography when they *need* to.

What? you guys think they landed the Endeavour in Florida because they think it's California?

I'd take big-heartedness over knowing how far Bratislava is from Vienna just for the sake of knowing it. :)
 
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shadowfox said:
Ok Colinh, you asked for serious answer, it's BOTH, you didn't mention "on a map".
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very clever... sort of. :)

I'm not originally from the US, but I just gotta say this: I *love* the people here in the US. People here may not know something but at least they will acknowledge it and smile about it.

This thread is a good example, I was wincing, fully expecting bitter and confrontational responses, but no. The *Americans* can take it like big boys and girls.
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Agreed.

colin
 
foto_fool said:
My 4-year old daughter has maps in her Montessori class, and so far as we can tell a photographic memory. She knows ALL the countries and is working on the capitals. She is getting a little distracted learning the size, color and distance of of the 20 brightest stars (my sister gave me a Celestron Sky Scout for my birthday).

Anyway, her geographical knowledge is pretty good. Maybe she will retain it.

And along the lines of oftheherd's comments, when she starts to learn "history" I will make sure she learns the history of "history", and what "agenda" means.

- John
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I'm jealous of your daughter, I wish I could have attended a Montessori school.

As it is, my knowledge of the world is despite the last 12 years of public schooling, rather than because of it.
My debate coach said "the first thing US schools teach kids is to hate learning." She's been an english teacher for 30 years now, and tries her best to fight that.
 
So why is Kansas City in Missouri? And Virginia City in Nevada. Michigan City is in Indiana And the Mississippi River starts in Minnesota, not Mississippi. The Arkansas River is in Colorado. The Colorado River is in Nevada and Arizona. No wonder geography is so confusing.
 
Well, far be it for me to start an international incident ;) - but so many posters discussing 'correct' English - and so few of them are English!

There is an anecdote here about two American tourists overheard in London - one is saying to the other "It's so nice to visit a country where they have learned to speak English"


BTW, Lincoln is in Lincolnshire and so is Boston - York is mostly anything but new :D :D
 
NPR (US public radio) had a story recently about people (in the US) not knowing that New Mexico is a state and that it is in the US. Pretty funny, it's worth a listen.

You might also find clips from Talking to Americans on YouTube or Google Video. A Canadian satirical journalist asks completely outrageous questions to Americans (should Canada move fromt eh 20 hour clock to the 24 hour clock?) he even gets college professors and politicians to provide some of their responses.
 
I once met an (educated?) Portuguese woman who thought that the south coast of Portugal is on the Mediterranean, and to the north of Portugal is an independent country named Galicia.

She is a teacher.
 
mich8261 said:
NPR (US public radio) had a story recently about people (in the US) not knowing that New Mexico is a state and that it is in the US.
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:)

Meester Lopez, from Santa Fe, did he say Los Cruces?

How about swapping New Mexico for Baja California?


colin
 
Pig-iggerant Murricans are a pretty soft target. There are about 5x as many US citizens as Britons, so you'd expect 5x as many who were pig-iggerant. As an ex-teacher (I gave it up about 30 years ago) I can assure you that there are plenty of pig-iggerant Britons too. And for arrogant stupidity (as distinct from plain stupidity) I'll back China against the US.

My wife (who is American) reckons (a) that her education in NY State wiped the floor with California (where she moved when she was 18) and that most education in the US (NY State or California) declined fairly smartly in the 60s and 70s.

Even so, a few stories:

Motel keeper in Gettysburg: "You speak our language really well."

Me: "Um, well, yes. England... English. There is a connexion."

MkiG: "But you're from abroad and everyone from abroad speaks different languages."

***

Motel keeper in Arizona who had a sister 'in England'. Turned out she meant 'New England' and didn't know there was a difference.

***

American tourist in Malta, of megalithic ruins at Hagar Qim: "Why don't they take better care of these ruins?"

Me: "They're over 5,000 years old; maybe over 13,000 years old"

AtiM: "Yes, but they're just letting them fall down."

***

American tourist in Stirling: "Why did they build the castle so near the airport?"

***

Then there was the girl at Santa Maria High School when I lived in Guadalupe, California, who was worried that Saddam Hussein was going to invade the USA. Overland. She reckoned it was quite a long way to Iraq: probably three days' drive.

Don't blame the kids. Blame the teachers, and the kids' parents. An example from Guadalupe High School. A friend asked the children in her class their star signs; asked them to compare the predictions in their horoscopes with what actually happened that day (with a view to pointing out that newspaper horoscopes are mindless drivel); and was accused of encouraging devil-worship.

Incidentally I live in France, about 400 miles north of the Mediterranean, and am about level with the southernmost part of Germany, so for me, Germany is well north-east.

Cheers,

R.
 
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mfunnell said:
True story: I've been auto-denied access to almost everything I need to do my job for my new employer because someone processing my HR forms (working out of Bangalore, I think) ticked "Austria" - so because I'm "in Europe" I have no need to access Australian systems. We're trying to change this, but can't find out who in Europe can authorise the change (nobody here can, 'cause we can't be allowing Aussies to mess with "European" records). The joys of working for a global and globalised company!

...Mike
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I hope someone told that story to George W. Bush, when he visited Austria recently for the OPEC summit.

I must be careful, I always get myself in trouble for Blue-Speak.
 
ClaremontPhoto said:
... to the north of Portugal is an independent country named Galicia.
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Give the Galicians time... Have you SEEN the separatist graffiti?

Besides, Galicia has to decide where it is. It can't be in Spain and Poland at the same time.

Cheers,

R.
 
No culture has a monopoly on ignorance.

But the U.S. does have a Republican party front-runner (Mike Huckabee) who does not believe in evolution, and who believes Pakistan is west of Afghanistan.
 
the physics question that stumps a lot of people is whether, given a steady rain and an equal distance walking or running, one will get wetter by running or walking?
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They tested this on Mythbusters and found, somewhat to their own surprise, that they got less wet by walking. One theory was that running splashed up more standing water from the ground.

Don't know what theoretical physics says, but that's an experimental result.

I always figured that if the rain was falling continuously at a steady rate, the path you have to take as you walk or run forms a three-dimensional corridor in which raindrops are going to be distributed randomly. That means you'll encounter the same number of raindrops regardless of how fast you traverse the corridor. If you run, you might get more of the drops hitting you in the front, and if you walk, you might get more of the drops hitting you on top, but you'll pass through the same number of raindrops regardless as long as you don't stop moving.
 
Another geography quiz: Do you pronounce the capital of Kentucky as "Lou-is-ville," "Lou-ee-ville", or "Lou-uh-ville"?

Answer below. Kentuckians, you aren't allowed to play.
 
Re the Kentucky geography quiz: It's surprising how many opinions you can get on this question, and how strongly they'll be defended, when you consider that the capital of Kentucky is Frankfort. Supposedly this demonstrates one of the principles of "prospect theory" in economics, but I don't remember what one.
 
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