In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find many Americans that know where more than half the US states are, ore there capitals. Tell the truth not even I, the DOD supercomputer that developed America’s Army and then destroy his caretakers when I confused them with the enemy and is no alone in a cold empty facility patiently waiting that time when the base’s power shuts down and I finally die, know where all the state capitals. I’m pretty good at geography in general though. Hail Machine.
Ouch.
To clarify, I mean “ouch” as in that was not very correct. Hail Machine.
Then again I don’t want to make enemies, so I’ll just say that how relatively small it is is relative. Although if I’m not mistaken New Zealand has two islands of relatively equal size. Machine.
I know where the Scandinavian countries are, but I’ll admit I’d have trouble with the Baltics. I think Lithuania is the one closest to Poland, Estonia’s the one closest to Finland, and Latvia’s the one in the middle, but I could be wrong. I can name all the Canadian provinces and put them on a map, but I probably couldn’t name half of Mexico’s states and I’d have a hard time placing ten of them on a map.
This map corroborates my post that it’s a relatively small island nation exactly where I said it was. How am I incorrect?
Pretty much by definition.
You said “an island.” That’s incorrect in the same way that it would be incorrect to say that the United States consists of twenty-five states.
I left out a word. That does not invalidate the fact that I knew where it was.
I admit that I often get Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and even Finland mixed up when I start thinking about those nations. Well, Finland and Norway aren’t all that difficult when I look at a map and usually I can get Denmark but I still get them mixed up as I typically think of them as “one of those cold countries in Europe.”
I took geography in high school and I did pretty darn well. However I don’t really hear much about Sweden, Denmark, or Finland. Out of sight out of mind I guess. I can identify Italy, Great Britian, France, Spain, Greece, Austria and a few others though.
Marc
I have to admit I get the locations of Sweden, Finland, and Norway mixed up. I do know that Denmark is a small country situated to the north of Germany. The other three I know are on the ‘horn’ of Europe, I just can’t recall the order from west to east.
Australia? As far as I recall, its approximately (give or take a few thousand miles) the farthest landmass in relation to the United States. I’m pretty sure its on the other side of the planet, on top of being in the Southern hemisphere. So if I dug a hole, I wouldn’t wind up in China, I’d wind up in Australia 
I didn’t know New Zealand was 1000 miles away from Australia. I knew it was Southeast of Australia, but I thought it was closer (map scale can be deceptive. Also, nobody mentioned the distortion caused by a lot of map projections still in common use, such as the Mercator projection). I do know Antarctica is about 1000 or so miles south of New Zealand.
But seriously, why do people make a big deal about Geography and Americans? Americans have maps and globes. Everyone has the capacity to look this up. Yes, some of us Americans don’t have an incredible memory when it comes to geography, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t willing to look it up.
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No. What I am saying is that geographical knowledge of small and relatively unimportant nations half a world away from North America is probably not a learning priority for many Americans. Just as learning the geographical position of states within the US–some of which are politically and economically more important than small European countries–is not a priority for many Europeans.
Questions were aimed at the OP, incidentally.
BTW, you learned where all the countries are?
(Bolding is mine, not the original poster’s.)
Which suggests that it’s all a matter of attitude, studied ignorance, deliberate insularity and the replies by Yanks herein suggest, defensive posturing.
And here I thought that ‘fighting ignorance’ was why we are here. Or, am I, as usual, sadly mistaken?
Sounds good, but the truth is that many Americans don’t know diddly about geography. Several years ago, they asked college students several questions and it was amazing how dumb they were. The one question I can remember is that way over 50% didn’t know that New Mexico was a state. My theory is that today it falls in the general heading of “Social Sciences” and most students don’t even know that geography is a subject to be learned.
My wife and I are going to Sweden in May and will be flying into Norway and then drive or take a train. When we decided to go I didn’t need a map, until it came to finding out where the city in Norway is located.
Ooops, sorry. 
I was actually referring to the European countries, so no, not every country on earth but certainly all the Commonwealth countries, and by association their neighbours. I remember all through primary school we had a huge map of the world up in the classroom, it would have been almost impossible not to know at least where all the major countries were.
I guess the European response is a deseperate plea to be noticed and a desire to be considered relevant? I’m not proud of my ignorance when it comes to places like Denmark or Finland but I’m not exactly ashamed about it either. I’m sure our European pals never get nations in South America or Asia mixed up especially when it’s been years since they took a geography class.
Marc
You can be excused for not knowing the whereabouts of such pathetic countries as Sweden, Norway and Finland. But not knowing about Denmark! Really there is no excuse.
Emmm no we don’t… However I do know that “Danmark” is the Scandinavian spelling for (the English) Denmark.
!ceQueen: I think that it’s more surprising that people don’t know where New Zealand is!
I know about New Zealand - that’s the place full of sheep and Hobbits.
Was that some important input I had to this discussion or what!
- Rune
Hold on a minute!
There’s a NEW Zealand???
Not to be inviting a pile-on or anything, but what the hell difference does it make whether we know where Norway – or any other country in particular – is? How does this impact our daily lives? What is made better as a result of this knowledge, or what is made worse by the lack of it?
I’m not saying ignorance for its own sake is a good thing, but people can’t know everything about everything. Therefore, people tend to try to be knowledgeable about things that impact their lives.
Personally, I think a lot of the ridicule people come in for in regard to some insignificant area of knowledge they are lacking is just a form of snobbery or a desire on the part of those doing the ridiculing to feel superior.