If it was I wouldn’t mind the drive from San Diego to Sacramento quite so much.
A friend related this exchange with a woman in Florida who claimed to be a school teacher:
Woman: “So, where are you from?”
Friend: “West Virginia.”
“Oh, you mean the western part of Virginia?”
“No, the state of West Virginia.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t follow you. There’s a state called ‘West Virginia’?”
“Yes.”
“Oh. I’ve never heard of that!”
This exchange, by the way, did not take place pre-Civil War.
My mother knew a school teacher with the exact same problem. Apparently a lot of people who refuse to admit West Virginia exists. Conspiracy?
Europeans often express surprise (to me, anyway) that people in one part of the US are unfamiliar with other parts of the US, but I suspect this has more to do with scale than anything else. In Europe, you can drive a few hundred miles (or less) and be in a whole new country with a whole new language. In the US, you could still be in the same state.
Once, in Nebraska, we drove from Lincoln to Beatrice with a visiting British man to visit some friends. This is a distance of about 50 miles, or an hour’s drive. The visitor expressed surprise that Americans would drive so far for a day visit.
In the same way that Americans don’t have a sense of historical distance and feel that the 1950’s was ancient history, Europeans don’t really comprehend how BIG American is. Or, as someone else more succinctly put it,
In America, 200 years is a long time.
In Europe, 200 miles is a long way.
For some odd reason I feel compelled to point out that it’s Sognefjord. 
When I tell people I’m from Wichita Falls, they say, “Oh, so you’re from Kansas! You don’t sound like you’re from Kansas…”
Keep in mind that these people are Texans - you’d think they’d know where Wichita Falls is.
You’re not all lumberjacks or fur traders. Most of you don’t live in igloos, eat blubber, or own dog sleds.
Do you know Jimmy, Sally, or Susie? Are they really realy nice?
You have a Prime Minister, not a President. You speak English and French, not American.
You pronounce it “about”, not “aboot” (yeah, riiiight). You can proudly sew your country’s flag on your backpack.
You believe in “peacekeeping”, not “policing”; diversity, not assimilation; and that the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal.
A toque is a hat. A Chesterfield is a couch. And it is pronounced “zed” - not “zee” - “zed”!
Canada is the second-largest land mass, the first nation of hockey, and the best part of the northern third of North America.
Pete
Take off every .sig for great justice!!
No. Confederacy.
.
.
.
.
.
Thet don’t believe that WV had a right to secede.
“Fifty nifty United Staes
From the thirteen original colonies . . .”
That’s all I remember of the regular lyrics. I can also sing the list of states; it comes in handy a lot when I’m copyediting a list of addresses or agencies organized by state.
Other songs from “Let George Do It,” the little musical that spawned “Fifty Nifty” and that my fourth-grade class performed in 1976:
“Boston tea, Boston tea,
Come with me down the edge of the sea!
Boston tea, Boston tea,
Come to the party with me!”
“Let George do it!
He’s the man of the hour!
Let George do it!
He will give us the power!
First in war, first in peace,
First in the hearts of his countrymen . . .”
Regarding Alaska/Hawaii as foreign countries, I’ve heard of clerks refusing to ship to New Mexico for the same reason.
Oh but yes it does! The city of Washington is the capital of the District of Columbia! I sure wish they’d control their borders better though. Those darn “polititions” keep getting out!
Well, sorta. This was covered in another thread. Originally the District of Columbia included (at least) three cities: Washington, Alexandria and Georgetown. Alexandria reverted to Virginia in the mid-19th century and Washington absorbed Georgetown early in the 20th. The city of Washington and the District of Columbia are now coterminous.
My younger sister has no concept of geography. She was flipping through Instagram one day and showed me a comment in a non-English language (thought it looked like Spanish). Now, she knows I speak a little German, and she shows the comment to me and asks, “Hey, is that German?”
It wasn’t and I told her I couldn’t read it. A minute later I asked her, “Why did you think that was German? It didn’t look anything like that language.”
She keeps scrolling and says, “Oh, it was under a picture of that German castle building.”
I ask to see the picture. She shows me a picture of the Kremlin.
“That’s in Moscow,” I tell her.
She gives me a deadpan look as says, “Yeah–Germany!”
That wasn’t the only time she was like that–before she has asked me if Denver was in Minnesota.
Great, now we’re going to have to put up with a bunch of unfunny zombie jokes.
I’ve mentioned this in other threads: I have a cousin who think Alaska and Hawaii are near the coast of California, because that’s where they were in the big map they had back in school.
Went to a computer conference in Seattle many years ago (I forget exactly when - late 70’s/early 80’s) and upon mentioning to an American that I went to the University of Alberta, he asked me if that was in British Columbia. Ummm… No…
ETA Oh Shit! Didn’t realize this thread is a risen zombie. Oh well. I’ll leave my comment anyway.
I used to know a guy from India who thought that “New England” was a poetic term for the United States, not a name for a specific region of the United States.
This thread is from ZombieLand, but I can’t find it on a map.
When this thread was opened, people thought Kosovo was a part of Serbia & Montenegro!
Bwa ha ha!
And five new Nations have been declared since this thread began, to confound the geographers and the unwashed masses even futher…
•May 20, 2002 - East Timor (Timor-Leste) declared independence from Portugal in 1975 but did not became independent from Indonesia until 2002.
•June 3, 2006 - Montenegro was part of Serbia and Montenegro (also known as Yugoslavia) but gained independence after a referendum.
•June 5, 2006 - Serbia became its own entity after Montenegro split.
•Febraury 17, 2008 - Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia.
•July 9, 2011 - South Sudan peacefully seceded from Sudan following a January 2011 referendum. Sudan itself was the first to recognize South Sudan and did so one day early, on July 8, 2011.
Do you drop your Hs?
