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?

  • mrmaplebar@fedia.io
    3·
    5 days ago

    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.

    • Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      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.

      • mrmaplebar@fedia.io
        1·
        4 days ago

        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.