I’ve lived in the Boston area for more than 20 years now (from New York originally) and I still can’t spell the name of the darned state.
I’m clear on the distinction between the city and the state (and whenever I look at a map it doesn’t even look like the city is in the state), but I have to admit to being completely spaced on how big the state is and what’s in it apart from the city.
I don’t think non-American Dopers are representative of the majority. I think ordinary people ( 
) here would know New York, LA, SF, Miami, Orlando (becuase it’s a tourist destination), Dallas… after that it would really tail off. Most people here seem to think that Omaha is a state, if they’ve heard of it at all, for example. As for the cities the OP specifically asks about, quite a few people would know Atlanta’s state, I think, from the Olympics. I really don’t think many people would know Seattle’s and definitely not Philadelphia’s.
I’d be willing to bet that Non-Americans are no less ignorant of American geography than many Americans.
I’m from Arkansas originally, and when that has come up in conversation here (DC area) and other more urban areas, I often get a befuddled “Is that near…Texas?”.
Of course it’s not all ignorance; some of it is that typical East Coast/West Coast arrogance.
When I lived in Britain I knew what was (roughly) in the “corners” of the US: Seattle, Washington ('cause of Nirvana/Soundgarden, natch); Orlando/Miami/Tampa (Tampa only because I liked watching American football on Sky Sports), Florida; LA/San Francisco, California; New York… er… I knew where it was, but not what state it was in.
I don’t remember too well, but I imagine I thought it was in New England, which most foreigners think is a state.
There were a few other city/state combinations I knew - New Orleans, Louisiana; Dallas, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota… if a city has/had an NFL team there was a good chance I’d know where it was.
A story I’ve told often (including here) is about my first day of Honors American History in 11th grade, my second year in America:
On the first day, the teacher gave us a pop quiz/test to see how much (American History) we already knew. This was the best high school in one of the ten best school systems in all of Florida… and yet, of 30 questions, I was the only person to get 20 or more correct, and everything I knew about American History I’d learned from The Simpsons- or Trivial Pursuit.
(due to a combination of Yank-hating teachers and switching schools at the right time I’d managed to avoid American history altogether while in school in Britain, with the exception of the New Deal)
You should have watched more Captain Kangaroo when younger.
<sings> Em-Ay-Double Ess-Ay-Cee-Aitch-U-Ess-Eee-Double Tee-Ess</sings>
Yeah.
I’m a postal worker (specialising in international mail) so I might have an advantage, but I suspect that even if I weren’t, I’d still know the large to medium cities’ states.
Australians say “Sydney” or “Brisbane”, rather than “Sydney, New south Wales” or “Brisbane, Queensland”, as a rule. But Americans always seem to include the state - and they come off as mnemonics.
I’ve mentioned this before on these boards, and had Americans say that it’s because smaller-sized cities need it. But I’m not sure: you guys still tend to say “Los Angeles, California”, or “New York, New york”.
I think it’s a good habit too. I’m glad you do it.
I went through a list there. I know the capital cities of about 2/3 of the states.
A lot of the major cities and capitals I know their associated State (San Diego, California; Austin, Texas; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Fargo, North Dakota). But if you were to ask me the opposite (“Name a city in the state of Virginia”) I’d probably have no ready answer.
It’s amazing how Australians seem to expect everyone to immediately know where all these obscure little country towns are, too. Whenever I have to get people’s details at work for Mobile Phone sales, they always seem to give me a slightly offended look when they name somewhere that I’ve never heard of and I have to ask where it is.
“Our address is 123 Anywhere St, Cobar.”
“Ok, thanks. Now, which state is Cobar in, and what’s the post-code there?”
(Strange look/rolling of eyes/disappointed sigh) “It’s in New South Wales, and the Postcode is 2835.” (Shake of head)
(Thinking to myself) “Well SORRY for not having an encyclopaedic knowledge of every country town and postcode in Australia, especially what with this being Queensland and you being from, you know, A TINY TOWN IN A TOTALLY DIFFERENT STATE”.
To be fair, most people have no excuse for not knowing where the Capital Cities and Major Centres are, though. It’s not like there’s that many of them.
How do non-Americans grasp the scale of the US?
I’ve heard a few say they’d like to visit the states and check out New York and Los Angeles. Do they realize they are nearly 4000 kilometers and 3 times zones apart?
That’s because there aren’t any cities in Virginia, just small towns and bedroom communities.
Only on my third visit to the US did I really appreciate the scale. The first time was confined to NYC and Connecticut, no great distances, the second I was in Northern VA and NYC/Conn. and although I remember being amazed at some of the road signs (ie Danville 275 miles) it didn’t really occur to me the scale until I visited Illinois. Heading west out of Chicago I went past miles and miles of nothing much at all. Then came Iowa!
I experienced this oddity once in a hotel lounge in London. This Brit was in town on business and we were chatting. He said he’d always wanted to go to America to see Disneyworld, LA and NY–in one road trip. I must have looked funny because he then asked me if those were suitable destinations. I asked him if he had that kind of vacation time (as in at least a month off) all at once and he said no. I had to explain to him that none of those places were at all close geographically speaking…
One of my mother’s friends once had an exchange student from Belgium (in the 80s). They drove to Texas from Chicago for Thanksgiving. This kid fell asleep outside of Champaign (about 2 hours south of Chicago) and woke up just outside of Cairo. He wanted to know if they were in Texas yet. His face fell when he was told they weren’t even out of Illinois yet! It takes about 7 hours to get out of IL, going straight south of Chicago.
Road trips by car in USA tend to be very long–I think Australians know what I mean. I envy UK and EU people–hop on a ferry and you’re in France or Holland or wherever. I love that.
I am impressed that so many non-Americans are as familiar with our states as they are. Given the abysmal state of history teaching in this country (and geography as well), I’m not surprised the foreigners know our history better.
I had never thought about the sing song of Nashville, TN or Omaha NE etc. I guess we don’t really hear York, Yorkshire or Durham, Northumbria. (not sure if Durham is IN Northumbria–sorry).
Personally, I do. If I ever visit the US my plan is to rent a car in New York and spend three weeks or so driving across the country, and I’m well aware that’s what it will take. But I do think a lot of Europeans don’t really grasp it, even if they know it intellectually. The US is the size of our entire continent. It feels… wrong, that you can’t just pop over to the other side of the country.
I was in Moscow during the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. We immediately started talking about going there to see it first hand. Thing is, Ukraine is barely closer to Moscow than to Sweden, but had we been at home in Sweden it wouldn’t have occurred to us to go. It feels closer. I think it’s the same deal with the US.
You have to wonder. And here’s the thing. It isn’t even sensible to try to visit three separate cities or attractions in Britain in one road trip. What made him think it was feasible in the US?
Maybe he was just making conversation, in his peculiar way.
Don’t forget our Canadian friends, who deal with similar scales of geography.
Of course in their case, you just follow the Only Road…
I had an experience a number of years ago when visiting a friend in London. I was telling him about my itinerary to get back home to California. I would be flying from London to New York, about eight hours, connect there, and then another six hour flight to San Francisco.
He said, “I can’t imagine taking off in a plane, flying six hours, and landing in the same country.”
Ed
The journey itself doesn’t seem that infeasible to me. My first trip to the states, I drove nearly 3,000 miles in two weeks. It didn’t actually seem that far, oddly enough, but in the southwest the towns are so far apart. True, I wouldn’t have had time to explore a big city like NYC or LA, but it was very much a road trip.
I’ve always wanted to drive from here to the Canuck border via US 1. You can do it in ~30 hours on Interstate 95, but it would take weeks on US1.
A couple of Europeans and a Brit have told me that they first truly understood the scale of the US when they saw a nationwide weather report with numerous complete weather systems within the same country. They are used to seeing fronts shown as a straight line approaching or departing their nation, rather than several interacting curves making their way slowly accross. Also mind-boggling for them to consider that California is being ravaged by wildfires at the same time the Midwest is facing widespread and serious flooding.