My college German professor was down in Texas and the folks would ask him where he was from. “New Hampshire.” “Oh, that’s in Canada, isn’t it?”
Not quite. Frankfurt is in Germany.
The capital of Kentucky is Frankfort. 
(I lived there for five years.)
Still, I’m very impressed. It would take me a while to type out a list like that from memory, and I’m sure it would have some blank spots! Well-done!
And no, we don’t count the District of Columbia as a state.
Why?
Because it isn’t a state. 
But Puerto Rico, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa all have capitals. But DC doesn’t have a capital.
When my Texan husband arrived at the naval base at Great Lakes (just north of Chicago) he looked at Lake Michigan and asked, “What ocean is that?” :rolleyes:
I have a friend who has absolutely no concept of where Europe is, or even what it is. “Is that a country, kind of like England?”
Canadians drink a lot of beer and wear tuques all the times. Phrases such as “Take off, you hoser” are quite common. Other other sentence ends with “eh.”
That’s what I leaned from watching Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas as Bob and Doug McKenzie anyway.
I agree. There are millions of stupid Geography questions, only outnumbered by the amount of stupid people who insist on asking them and drawing conclusions about my intelligence from them.
Stupid Geography Questions:
- Where is this country?
- What is the capital of this country?
- How many states/provinces/territories does this country have?
Intelligent Geography Questions:
- Where is the closest 24-hour grocery store/pizza place/liquor store?
- Where is that cute guy/girl from? I need to brush up on the history of that country before I flirt with them.
- Where is the bookstore? I need to buy another atlas to avoid wasting my life memorizing pointless geography facts.
Do smart people believe that most life-threatening situations take the form of a criminal quiz show where you will be killed or injured if you don’t answer correctly?
Stop watching so much Dr. Who.
That said, last night I was chatting with a German couple visiting here who are planning a road trip to New Mexico. They thought it would be a three or four hour drive from Austin. Sorry, Germans. That won’t even get you to Ozona. Try ten or twelve hour drive.
-fh
Growing up in Alaska I never considered myself any less American than someone from the continental United States, affectionately referred to by us northerners as the “lower 48” 
However, I recall one instance in a small town in South Dakota when my father tried to purchase something on a credit card issued by an Alaskan bank. The sales clerk (an adult–and this town wasn’t that small) took one look at the card and informed us that she could not accept credit cards from “foreign” countries.
Probably the only time in my life when I’ve wanted to convince someone I was American.
Uh, Hazel? We’re talking basic civics and life competence here, not the capital of Mozambique (unless that is where you happen to live).
Well, there are just some things that foreigners shouldn’t be expected to know. I’m sure I don’t know how many first-tier political subdivisions there are in Costa Rica, or Mexico, or Germany, or any other country besides the U.S. or Canada.
That reminds me of a man-on-the-street interview I saw recently from Quebec City. The guy was bewailing Americans’ ignorance of Canada by pointing out that hardly anyone in the U.S. knows who the premiere of Quebec is. Huh? How many Canadians could name the current governor of Georgia, New Jersey, or North Carolina (states with similar population)? How many Americans could, for that matter?
That should be two sentences, Crunchy Frog.
Take off, eh. You hoser.
Easley for North Carolina–his most distinctive characteristic is he sounds just like Jimmy Carter.
Probably the saddest fact I know about U.S. geographical ignorance is the fact that New Mexico licence plates are stamped New Mexico USA. They had to add the “USA” because so many U.S. citizens thought the state was acually part of Mexico.
To amplify Crunchy Frog’s reply, not very damn much. I was a college graduate before I stumbled across the fact that Newfoundland had been a separate dominion until the 1940s. Completely embarassing.
I’m afraid that unless some very large political story is brewing (Quebec separatists gaining the upper hand,etc.) or there is an Olympics imminent, our major news outlets tend to pretty much ingnore Canada. That’s indeed a shame, but I doubt we’ll see any change soon.
That would be fine if anybody agreed on what basic civics consisted of. Usually it means “How dare you not know anything about where I’m from! You must be stupid.” That’s just weird intellectual arrogance.
Let’s unravel a few anecdotes:
OK. Here’s a basic civics lesson. No self-respecting Texan would publicly admit to having any specific knowledge about New England or anything north of, say, the Texas-Oklahoma border. When they said “Oh, that’s in Canada, isn’t it?” they weren’t being ignorant. They were insulting him.
And let’s consider New Hampshire. As states go, it’s odorless white paste, isn’t it? No famous cities. No sports teams (except the Patriots if you’re being generous). No sitcoms or reality shows are set there, they couldn’t even woo Newhart, Vermont got him! No distinctive accent. And what politicians do they have? Sununu? That’s so Reagan era. Sure you were probably hot stuff during the revolutionary war, but what have you done for me lately, New Hampshire? Until you shape up and get some kind of memorable symbol or catchphrase, like the thing Iowa has going with corn, you will be relegated to that vast grey twilight expanse in the average American mind that includes Canada, Australia, France and pretty much the rest of the world.
Really, Matt, I think you’re overestimating what a typical American should know about Quebec and Montreal. What happens there that would show up on American pop culture radar? Celine Dion (retch), Leonard Cohen (most people think he’s from New York), Men Without Hats (rarely thought about at all). New Englanders loved to go up there and get drunk/see strippers during Prohibition, but that was a while ago. What have you done for me lately, Montreal?
This isn’t so odd, Coldfire. He wasn’t being stupid, he was being friendly. When I worked at Dell Computers (who had about 22,000 employees at the time), I would mention it to people and they would say “Oh! Do you know so-and-so?” Out of 22,000? Not bloody likely.
Or when I tell people I’m from Houston and they say they have relatives in El Paso, do I know them? No, I don’t. Berlin is closer to Paris than Houston is to El Paso.
Luckily I can recognize the difference between social interaction and a game of trivial pursuit, so I didn’t point out the absurdity of the question. Because they were trying to be friendly by showing me we had something important in common. “Oh, you’re from Texas! Do you know my family in Texas?” It doesn’t matter what the chances are. Socially, the connection is valid, and I appreciate the gesture instead of sniping about geography. Basically what your response meant, in social terms, was this:
He says “Oh! You’re from Europe! I have a cousin in Europe!” (I want to have something in common with you, no matter how tenuous the connection! Like me!)
So you respond with “Sorry, Milan is far away from the Netherlands.” (I don’t want to have anything in common with the likes of you. Go away.)
Anyway, I’m just being silly, Matt. But really, it’s such a cliche and I don’t believe it for a second. Although the stories are funny.
-fh, who is not mentioning the times people have asked me how to get to the Alamo, which is not in Austin at all
Just so the USians aren’t the only ones being dumped on, things aren’t much better in Japan. A recent TV show went around Tokyo asking high school and college students to identify random countries. Just about everything got labelled either Hawaii or Guam.
Admittedly, this was for TV, so only the most amusingly stupid answers were aired, but I was still impressed that they were able to find as many as they did. The depressing part was that almost every one of them said they saw no reason to bother learning about anything outside Japan.
–sublight.
I have seen actual official maps and books that claim that Delaware actually exists. I keep expecting to see Atlantis as well on these maps.
The worst I heard was someone from Staten Island who was convinced that New Jersey was about the same size as California. (OK, he was originally from Iran, but had lived in the US for several years, and even went to college in New Jersey for a year)
Well, growing up in New York state, on the scenic shores of Lake Erie, I thought Canada was to the west of the U.S. Heck, I could see the sun set over Canada every evening. I was completely befuddled when I heard people refer to “our neighbors to the North.” I wasn’t sure who they were, but clearly, our neighbors to the west were Canadians. You’ll be happy to know that this little misconception was cleared up with the release of the Great White North album. Hockey fans in the U.S. also know the Canadian national anthem, usually in both English and French.
And on the topic of U.S. states, did anyone else learn the 50 States song in grammar school? List of the 50 states, in alpha order, set to a tune. I know 'em all, but only if I sing them. Sort of like the Preamble of the Constitution.
I grew up in northern New York, only a few miles from Quebec. The nearest large city to us was Montreal. And based on my personal experience I always assumed Canada was a French speaking country. I was probably a teenager before I found out that the majority of Canadians speak English.
An example of the ignorance of some of my fellow citizens about what is going on outside of their field of vision. There is no claim that this reveals some great truth.
Once upon a time my wife and I took leave to visit Norway. As part of the trip we ran into a tour group from Texas or Oklahoma (It could just as well have been New Yorkers).
We fell into conversation with some of them. They were very pleasant people and we had a nice visit on a ferryboat going up the Sonja Fjord. They asked were we lived. We told them we lived in Germany. They asked what I did for a living and I told them that I was a soldier. They asked if my wife worked and we told them that she was a teacher. This went on for a while. As we left the boat we said good bye to each other and our new acquaintances added that they were struck by how well we spoke English and especially that my wife and I spoke English to each other.
We cleared that up quickly, but these people apparently had no idea that the US had a serious military presence in Europe.
OK, I’ll give it a whirl:
- For your own major subdivision (state/province), know the name of the capital, the other major cities, and their location relative to one another. Know the major topographic features (mountains, rivers, lakes) and their location relative to one another. Know what states/provinces border your own. Know who your governor is, and who the provincial or state legislators are for your district. Know your mayor and local legislators as well.
E.G.: I live in New York City, at the southern tip of New York State. The other major cities are Albany, which is due north on the Hudson River, Buffalo, which is near Niagara Falls, and Rochester and Syracuse, which are inland from Buffalo. The Finger Lakes are due north of Albany, near Canada. Lake Erie and Lake Ontario are to the northwest. Canada is to the north and west. Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont are to the east, Pennsylvania to the south and New Jersey to the south and west. The governor is George Pataki, my state senator is Tom Duane, my state Assemblywoman is Catherine Abate. The Mayorissimo is Rudy Giuliani for 194 more days, not that I’m counting or anything and my council woman is Deborah Glick.
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For your own country, know the names of the major subdivisions (provinces, states) and their location. I agree with Hazel that capitals are optional, since generally knowing a capital will only be useful if you’re planning on filing taxes in that state and need forms. Again, know major cities and geographic features and their relative locations. (Denver is in the Rockies and is northeast of Los Angeles, which is on the Pacific Coast.) Know the names of countries on your borders and, if they’re in the news regularly, their leaders (sorry, but if you’re bordering Luxembourg you don’t need to care who the premier is; not fair but hey, that’s life). For your own country, name the head of state, the head of government (if different), your national legislators, maybe the heads of parliament, and the last couple of heads of government as well.
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For the world - now here it gets sticky. I don’t think it’s reasonable for people to have to keep track of the 190 or 200 countries that now exist. Instead, I think its reasonable to suggest that you should know the names, general locations and heads of state of (1) your country’s allies, (2) your country’s enemies, (3) the Big Countries That Could Toast Your Ass If They Really Wanted To, (4) your country’s major trading partners, and (5) other countries that get themselves in the news a lot (you get a grace period of three lead stories on the evening news in order to haul the almanac or atlas out; if it doesn’t lead for at least three shows in two weeks, the story isn’t important enough). So, for us 'Merrcans right now, the permanent list would include the G-7, Mexico, Russia, China, Taiwan, N and S Korea, Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel and arguably India and Brazil. Lately, we also might include Colombia (drug policy), South Africa (AIDS), Sudan (human rights), Macedonia, and Yugoslavia. At other times we might have included Indonesia, the Philippines, Rwanda, Burundi, Liberia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Egypt, Chile…etc.
Comments? And don’t be too harsh - under the Johnson Formula we’re already keeping track of more countries than existed at the turn of the last century.
Never!