We did a fair amount of geography in grade school in the eighties. I remember at one point we had to be able to fill in blank maps of the continents with the names of the countries.
I suspect that the difference in geograpical knowledge is not due to what Americans are taught in school, but how much we see outside of it. If you live in a small European country, you probably have been to several neighboring countries, and your news probably involves more stories about other countries then US news does. If you live in Kansas, you probably learn the name of the Pacific rim countries in 4th grade and never think about it again, so when someone comes up to you 30 years later in Disney World and starts grilling you on where Australia is, you haven’t a clue.
Plus, we’re still better then Canda, and catching up to the UK.
I agree with your main point, although not with the idea that living in a big country justifies the introversion of most of the American media.
Edit and apologies for multi-posting:
I probably could have picked better examples, but that one came to mind because it’s my sister’s name, and she is irked by the double-whammy of many people either using the mispronounced ‘see-ara’, or on hearing the correct version being influenced by Keira Knightley’s weird spelling.
Precisely my point. What I’m saying is that most people questioned were probably interpreting the question as asking what is the most spoken, or what is the most understood language.
Again, yes I agree. The question I proposed is not the same one at all.
The thing is, it’s quite difficult to ask a question about native languages non-ambiguously (check out how much wriggling they have to do on the Wikipedia page ).
I very much doubt it, precisely because of the word ‘native’. Totalling the populations of all the major English-speaking countries, throwing all of South Africa in for good measure, and you’re still under half-a-billion. Get a bit desperate and add on 350m Indians speaking English as a lingua franca, and you’re still not getting anywhere near the over one billion Mandarin speakers, the majority of whom are surely native speakers in any interpretation of the phrase.
To answer the question asked as ‘English’ simply shows an ignorance of the vastness of China and of the Chinese population.
In my experience, history and current events are shoved way down the list of importance once you get to high school here. Only one full year of “social studies” was required (which focused very strongly on U.S. History, particularly the Civil War), as opposed to four years each of math, science, and English.
Foreign language classes tended to be where you could pick up information about other countries. I picked up a lot about Mexican and South American history in my Spanish class. Of course, such classes aren’t generally a requirement in a high school curriculum.
I don’t think ‘geography’ is taught as a seperate subject any more. I learned all my geography from Carmen Sandiego.
I think most educated people ARE aware of this fact.
lol…well, perhaps the folks at Disneyland aren’t representative. Or maybe they are. Again, I think most educated people in the US know where Australia is on a map…though it’s less of a surprise that they don’t know the names of cities in Australia (I’m guessing that their ‘surprise’ that there were other cities was mostly feigned…only a true idiot would think that an entire continent only has once city on it).
I think there is a difference between what people ‘learn’ and what they actually absorb. In school I learned world geography (both US and world, but mainly focused on such need too know items as the names of all the states and their capitals, with a smattering of the major countries and their capitals) and Western History, mainly the condensed history of democracy in Greece moving on too the history of Europe during the middle ages up through WWI. The main focus on the history I was taught seemed too be British history for whatever reason, with a smattering of continental history and some stuff about the French Revolution.
After that history mainly focused on US history.
What is funny is that when I’ve traveled too other countries they seem fairly ignorant of the US as well. I remember telling people I lived in Washington DC (is that the capital?) and being asked how often I go too Disneyland or the beach in California. When I tell them I was born in Mexico and raised in Arizona, they sort of recognize that Mexico is a different country too the south some where…but ‘Arizona’ draws a blank. Recently when I traveled I told someone I was currently living in New Mexico and they got all confused…‘I thought you were an American??’.
While I agree that American’s are worse than most at the whole geography thingy (as well as history, both our own and that of other countries), I have seen enough out there in the wider world too know this isn’t simply an American problem. I think part of the problem with American’s is that they focus on different things as being important. History and geography (even the geography of our own country) being fairly far down the list of priorities.
In Texas, the social studies curriculum goes:
7th grade: state history
8th grade: US History to 1877
9th grade: world geography. Emphasis is much more on types of governments, natural resources, current international relations than placement on the map.
10th grade: world history
11th grade: US history, 1878-present
12th grade: semester government, semester economics
Those 5 high school courses are required for graduation: European history, Psychology, and Sociology are all sometimes offered as electives.
About ten years ago, The College Board, which gives the Advanced Placement tests that are used in admissions decisions and to award college credit to kids, started offering an AP Human Geography course. That course is much more of a sociology course than a physical geography class–think “Guns Germs and Steel”–and that is the direction I suspect geography classes will tend to drift towards. College board doesn’t have any power, but they have a lot of influence and they define what the capstone version of the class is–and the effects trickle down.
While I am happy to rail at insular American education, I don’t think that not knowing of the existence of an Irish language is terribly damning. Ireland is the 121st biggest country by population. Looking at the countries ranked 118 - 120, how many people know if they have their own language in Georgia, United Arab Emirates and the Central African Republic?
Here’s the list of enemy countries whose asses we kicked in various wars.
Here’s the list of friendly countries whose asses we rescued in various wars.
Here’s the list of enemy countries who did not surrender quickly under our attacks in various wars and from which we gracefully retreated and allowed to continue to exist let’smoveon.
Occasionally, here’s the list of countries that make stuff for us to buy.
Any countries we didn’t mention, you don’t need to know about.
Here’s the list of reasons America is the best country in the world.
I’m only partly joking. Most of what I know about history and geography I have learned myself after my so-called education.
Really? We learned about that in eighth grade and then again in eleventh grade. Our AP U.S. history specialization that year was on the years 1947 up to the 1970s.
Not a fair comparison. Rather than look at population size, how many American people talk about their Irish background, and how many about their Central African one? (Basically what I said earlier, actually.)
Even I know that they celebrate Thanksgiving in Canda, just on a different day. They go around the table saying “Thank God we’re not Americans, Ay, they’re such hosers”.
They do not have 4th of July however, so they tack an extra day on to February. I think that’s why it’s so cold there: they take a summer day and put it in winter.
That’s 'cause you didn’t go to a school run by the Christian Brothers. They’d have taught you all the stuff you didn’t get. Of course, they’d also have smacked you around for having a not-properly-tied tie, so you may not consider yourself deprived.
I got quite a good, broad education in American public schools - in South Carolina, no less. I certainly knew Irish was a language. It depends on the school and how much attention you paid. Probably more on how much attention you paid, honestly.