Two summers ago, I went on a work-study tour visiting Belgium, Germany and the UK. It was planned months in advance, so I had lots of time to babble excitedly to my cow-orkers, an incredible number of whom were amazed to learn that I spoke European.
C’mon, guys, let’s all sing a rousing chorus of “Proud to be an American!”’ :rolleyes:
I have put up some nations-of-the-world type trivia in this thread if anybody is interested. No map clickies, just factoids and trivia about various countries.
This way we can settle this Americans Are Ignorant Of Geography thing once and for all. 
How do you think we got rid of all that water?
A thread concerning Norway, and it has taken three pages before anyone has mentioned Slartibartfast.
I mean the dude designed the frickin place, the least we could do is acknowledge him.
Take a bow Slartibartfast.
…really fighting ignorance there…
Here goes…
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missoury
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Norh Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
…but I do not know all the state capitals, but then again, who needs to?
I do know where the most important cities are located, thats’s good enough for me!
Now you name all the county’s in Norway! All 20 of them!
Considering that they are the seats of government, anybody who has any interest in what happens in the U.S. Not everything of importance happens in New York City (not a capital), Los Angeles (also not a capital), Chicago or Dallas or Miami or Detroit or Philadelphia (also not capitals) or even in Washington DC (also not a state capital).
Really? So which is further south, New Orleans or Miami? Closer to Canada: Boston or Detroit? 
Are you suggesting that there is even a nominal similarity between U.S. states and Norwegian counties?
Are we getting a little carried away here?
I’m not too fond of the fact that some people think I live in an igloo, fight polar bears on a regular basis and speak “european”, but I’ll be damned if I insist that everyone know the lenght of our coastline, our GDP or if Reykjavik is further south than Akureyri.
In my view, most Americans don’t need to know a damned thing about Europe, Asia and Africa. Hell, I don’t know the first thing about African, Asian or American geography and I’m in no hurry to learn. I do think it’s a shame that Americans don’t know more about Canada (if that’s true, I just know what I’ve read here) since they are their neighbors, but it’s hardly a neccesity. It’s just a matter of showing your neighbours some respect by knowing some basic facts about them but I think knowing the culture is more important than knowing trivial geography.
I like pointing and laughing at the “stupid Americans” as much as the next guy but …C’mon people.
Could be difficult, there are only 19 Fylker.
There used to be 20 which one does not exist anymore Willander?
Nitpick: Australia is a continent, not an island.
I actually was chatting with a Canadian last night, and we mentioned states and provinces. I actually guessed 12? 13? provinces, and I believe she said 10, but 3 territories. I’m counting it. I don’t expect them to know too much about ours. If they guess 45 states, or 55, that’s close enough. If I asked her where cities were, I’d expect a rough idea of NY, LA, and Washington. The biggest ones, the capital. I can roughly tell her where Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa are. I asked her where say, Atlanta is, I don’t expect much accuracy. (and no, not because she’s blonde…)
I don’t think most Americans can name all 50 (though a sizable minority could). I doubt 5% could name the capitals, and they’re likely mostly 5th graders just tested on it. Asking a Euro for state caps? No. Scandinavian caps would be like "Name the capitals of the US, Canada, Mexico, and Cuba. Had my friend said NYC was the capital of NY, I would not think her stupid. Albany is relatively small and insignificant.
Exactly. Has anyone here ever been one of the polled? I haven’t, nor do I know of anyone who was.
And FTR, I seem to recall a Norway restaurant too. I do know of a Sparta diner. If I were near there, and someone asked me where Sparta was, I probably wouldn’t say Greece, it’d be “Left at the light, four blocks up on your right.”
BTW, is it just folklore than Williams Jennings Bryan invited the Swiss Navy to the opening of the Panama Canal? (didn’t see it in Snopes)
And don’t worry. I know where Amsterdam is.
Between Broadway and Columbus.
Just so I don’t look so f’ing stupid, I didn’t fully read it and was looking at getting a Hostel in both cities in a book that was talking about Holland and got wooshed. There happy? 
Not to the ‘Abanians’! I used to work for a branch plant of a large American corporation. I dealt with many Americans in a number of states on a daily basis. It always made me laugh when I was told I had a British accent. Not even close, eh? Atlanta is in Georgia. I’m fairly certain there’s no East Virgina. 52 States is too darn many. I had to consult a map to find Nebraska.
The capital of Denmark is Copenhagen. Finland has fjords and it’s capital is Helsinki. Swedes are blonde and the women run around in bikinis; it’s captial is Stokholm. Norway… Oslo! Iceland and Greenland were Danish colonies??? Doesn’t matter, hardly anyone goes there.
I fail to see the joke here. Is it because people don’t know that Switzerland does indeed have a navy or is it because they don’t realise that being confined to the river Rhine and a couple of lakes it isn’t really ocean-going?
BTW: Here’s the Swiss Navy homepage (unfortunately only in German). I don’t know if it’s official or not, but there it is.
Of course the Swiss have a navy. Saskatchewan does too… according to Americans.
I think the latter, more. A few rescue boats, lake patrols, more like a coast guard, would be somewhat out of place with, say, a German or English ship of the line.
I dunno most of us Americans know about that. That’s one of those Norway provinces, right?
Okay just for information’s sake…Alberta (which is an INLAND province with no contact with oceans) has a larger number of Sea Cadets, which are like kids under 18 who learn to sail and boat and stuff, than British Columbia, the province above Washington State, not Washington, DC. It’s amazing how many people confuse the two. I’m expected to know general information about the United States in school, such as locations and climates. Jeeze, it’s not THAT bad.
Comic Rick Mercer questioned ordinary Americans about Canada. In one question he referred to our Former Prime Minister as Jean Poutine. (The man had been in office at the time for two terms I think.) No one caught it, at least not on tape.
lurkernomore
Is that near the Holland tunnel?
Nope, it’s the largest island in Australasia. We don’t want those Kiwis feeling left out, now, do we?