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?
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.
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
Can you? All 23 of them? If so, good for you (not being sarcastic), but I’d be willing to bet very good money that if I went and picked 10 random Europeans that at least 8 if not all 10 would not be able to do so.
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.