I’ve seen multiple videos equivalent of Americans pointing where (country) is on the map, and there was an instance where the host asked the woman where the continent Africa is located (points to Asia) like WTF? That’s not even close at all.
I know there’s bias towards those types of videos since there are accusations of the host “handpicking” select strangers framing them as if they are representative of the US. But the truth is that their education system isn’t good as it lacks funding.
When you put it into perspective: how many Europeans can correctly locate & name countries adjacent to them within their own continent and globally? Is the education system within the EU that good or effective at teaching kids that subject?
Kansas, a state, is not the equivalent of Africa, A continent as pointed out by OP.
OTOH, EU education varies w I d e l y and the American system is overall mediocre
I would say Kansas as an American is roughly equivalent to a European country to a European. South America would be the equivalent of Africa, and while I agree that everyone should be able to name the continents, I’m very confident that I could find a European who could not point out South America if I cherry picked enough. I bet I’d get someone pointing to Mexico eventually.
What a weird thing to say. You think finding Kansas on a map is equal to finding france on a map?
Maybe not Kansas, but I could see an argument for California. Kansas is more Bosnia or Albania.
I think judging Americans for not knowing your local geography is pretty stupid, and I think judging Europeans for not knowing our local geography is also stupid, so in that sense yes, I think they’re equal.
Finding Kansas is equivalent to finding Thüringen, Graubünden or Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
Kansas is 5 times the size of Switzerland, comparing it to a small region of Switzerland isn’t exactly the same resolution, is it?
But the people of Switzerland are 5 times more educated. :)
Who gives a shit how large it is? Size doesn’t make it a country.
The question is about knowledge of geography. Geography isn’t limited to knowledge of countries.
Europeans will be quick to clown on Americans for not knowing where Luxembourg is, without any self-awareness of their lack of knowledge of North American geography at a similar (and often much larger) scale.
To put it another way, if your understanding of NA geography is “United States, Canada and Mexico”, you’re really not much better at geography than an American who thinks of “Europe” in vague terms. Do Chinese people know more about Asian geography than I do? I would guess so. So Europeans getting all high and mighty about their knowledge of geography because they can name the countries that are within driving distance has always been dumb and embarrassing.
The thing is most Europeans know your local geography. They know which continent, the part of it is the US and where and what (mostly) your capitol is.
Being able to point out the US on a map is like pointing out Russia. You can just throw a dart in the general right direction and you have a pretty good chance of hitting it just because of how absurdly large it is. Even if all you know is the continent and nothing else, you have more or less a 1 in 3 chance if you just guess a random spot. Calling the location of the country in North America and the general location of the capital “knowing our local geography” is like me claiming to know European geography (which I certainly don’t) just because I can point to Russia, Italy, England and a few other rather distinct locations.
Oh it’s about size you mean? What is is a reasonable size for you to learn where a country is? And I mean, can you even name all the countries in, say Europe, without putting them on a map?
Funny thing about Russia. It’s mostly in Asia so I mean you’re technically correct but 🤷
I’m not implying that size has any relevance to importance, merely to the general chance that someone can point to it on a map. It’s a lot easier to identify Greenland than it is to identify Guatemala purely because it’s a bigger target and it’s more visible.
No, I sure can’t name all of the European countries. Can you name all of the North American countries? (Why is either at all relevant?)
And what about it? Most know where the US and Russia is because of education, not because they’re big and they can hazard a guess.
Because you talk about size and pointing out on a map as defining for geographic knowledge. Of course Europe is confusing for you if you don’t even know what the continent contains.
Of course lol
Actually, unironocally, kind of? Like, maybe not equating those two examples specifically, but even just looking at the EU, not even all of Europe. There are 27 countries in the EU, and 50 states in the USA. I doubt the average American (USA) would be able to name and/or label all 27 countries in the EU, but would the average citizen of the EU be able to name and/or label 27+ states in the USA? I don’t know, I don’t know what the education system is like, but I doubt it. And while yes, a state is not the same as a country, just from the land mass and population counts, the comparison isn’t too far off.
Yeah, the education in the USA sucks. It is definitely sub-par to many other countries, and definitely lacks in “worldly” knowledge. Part of that is because of lack of funding and prioritizing education. Part of it is from lack of prioritizing foreign affairs and history in the average curriculum. But part of it is also from lack of proximity. An EU citizen learning about European history makes sense. How much do EU citizens learn about the history of China and its provinces? About African countries, their conflicts and politics, and histories?
So yeah, being able to find France on the map might be equivalent to finding Kansas, but it certainly is equivalent to finding Texas or California.
Except we’re talking about the USA, you know, a country created just yesterday by Europeans. Let’s not equate this with knowing who was emperor of China 3000 BC.
Who said anything about ancient history? Let’s just look at the last 200 years and see how much there is to know, or not know about those areas. Not to say anything about indiginous peoples. And geography related information? How does that have anything to do with 3000BC? I’m not saying the breadth of the history of the United States is anything compared to European or Asian histories, but unless you were alive for all of that your personal experience with recent history is just the same.
To be fair… My state, Oregon, is roughly 45% the size of France, 3x the size of Ireland and 6x the size of the Netherlands. And some states are much bigger than that.
Now I won’t argue Oregon is as culturally relevant as France to the world. But since we’re talking about geography, ignoring the subdivisions of the US and Canada means you are leaving some pretty fucking BIG gaps in your knowledge of the map.
A shocking number of Europeans seem to think that California is the entire US West Coast, despite the region being about the size of Scandinavia, culturally significant, and one of the largest economies on Earth.
So, I don’t think knowing states is equivalent to knowing regions of France. That’s a much finer level of detail.
France has about 15 times the population. The Netherlands has more than double. Even Ireland has more. So why not focus on that?
Size has nothing to do with anything. The only metric that counts is whether or not it is a country.
And Oregon is not a country.
Geography (the topic of this thread) isn’t primarily about people, it’s about land.
Plus, even if you did sort by population, there’d be states like California, Texas, Florida and New York that have a higher population and a larger economy than some European countries.
The point remaining that if you see the entire US as a monolith, then you’re really not as good at geography as you think. Certainly not good enough to be impressive.
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I’m sure you are very confident.
Rick Mercer got criticized for his “Talking to Americans” running gag on CBC for cherry picking, so he went onto the Harvard quad and got the same results from Harvard professors.
That was specifically a response to the point that someone thought Asia was Africa. I doubt Harvard professors are making that mistake.