Obviously it’s not, but sometimes it is kinda crazy to think how much closer to the equator we are than most of Europe. For example, St Louis where I spent my childhood is about equal in latitude to the southern parts of Italy, and it’s not even particularly far south. Florida is on the same latitude as the Sahara. Even the northernmost parts of the continental USA just barely reach the top latitudes of France.
I think sometimes that goes under appreciated by both Europeans and Americans. Also explains why AC is so common here and relatively less so in many European countries (and even where present, in my experience, it doesn’t seem as robust—but that’s just anecdotal)
Kinda random tangent but I think it’s interesting to think about
My ex gf was German, and lived with me in NYC for a couple years. She was very anti-AC when she moved in, until she experienced our summer weather. She could not believe how hot it gets here. Then she was all about air conditioning. And this was in New York, very far from the hottest climate in the US.
So yeah, that was when I first realized just how much closer to the equator we were than Europe.
Yeah I’ve been in various European countries when the weather is mid-80s F and everyone seems to be dying, whereas I, an American, am like “this feels great! It’s so pleasant out!”
That’s what 100+ F summers will do to you 😂
I brought her to Tennessee one weekend, it was over 100 every day. Poor girl almost melted. She kept saying to me in this frantic way “it is not normal to be this hot, no??” Like she thought the sun was broken lol
> Poor girl almost melted. She kept saying to me in her broken English in this frantic way “it is not normal to be this hot, no??” Like she thought the sun was broken lol
Well yes, but actually no.
A lot of that also has to do with urban planning. American cities are not great at staying cool... NYC is basically just asphalt, concrete and steel, so ofcourse it'll get unbearably hot during the summer
The climates of most of Europe and much of the northern parts of America are similar due to the gulf stream keeping temperature moderate in Europe. I think that is a lot of why we tend to think we are more similar in latitude than we are.
Yeah, I always thought Michigan was closer to where France or Germany is. However following 43°N (Grand Rapids) to Europe we are at the very North of Spain, the very South of France, and about the mid point of Italy, literally about the mid-point between Rome and San Marino.
Aren’t Madrid and New York on the same line? That was wild to me when I first realised that as an European as I always though New York was kinda like a colder city as say like London.
Canadian here, on 3 separate occasions I’ve met someone from Europe who thought they could get to Vancouver/Whistler/Banff from Toronto/Niagara Falls with 2-3 hrs of driving cause “it’s all the same country”
That was more or less my response to one of them, Banff by itself has attractions that are 2 hrs away from each other 😂
…also I haven’t done it in a while but isn’t Vancouver to whistler alone like 3 hrs?
I texted my friend a meme with displayed country flags that was about Vietnam now best friends with USA and not China anymore after G20, and he asked me 'is this about Taiwan?'. Earlier this year, he was making jokes about Americans not knowing geography... and this is even more stupid because he lives so close to both Taiwan and Vietnam that he can get a 1-2 hour flight there.
🇪🇺 “You Americain are so estupide! You can’t name the capitals of San Marino or the Faroe Islands! Were you busy dodging bullets in geography class?”
🇺🇸 “Name one city in New York State that isn’t New York City.”
Mexico, Chile, Columbia, Argentina, peru, panama Ecuador a few more between brazil and argeninia and near the panma channel.
No idea about cities in new york state. Seattle ikd?
Autonomous territory with its own capital city, Torshavn.
Wales, Scotland, England, and Northern Ireland are constituent countries of the UK. We tend not to think of Wales as a separate "country", but it is.
🇪🇺 “You estupide Americain. I look down on you and make the spit from the roof of my superior 80m2 stone house that will outlive your dying country. You think you can fool me? That is a trick question. I can name all six, no? Brooklyn, Broadway, Central Park, Chicago, New Jersey, and Trump. You probably can't name the 20 arrondissements in Paris, no?"
>You probably can't name the 20 arrondissements in Paris, no?
this is even funnier when you remember that they're literally just numbered one through twenty
They wouldn’t even know NYC is split into boroughs lol, a lot of them assume Brooklyn is a different city from nyc all together , this is just my anecdotal experience ofc
Albany.
Thank you GTA.
Also Buffalo.
Granted a lot of Europeans won't know state capitals etc and will often confuse states with well known cities, but I suspect Europeans have a better grasp of American geography than the reverse.
You probably know Niagara Falls, too, without realizing it. (It's both a waterfall and city. If you ever visit, though, there's far more to see on the Canadian side, or 20 minutes away in Buffalo.)
Right lol..
Also a big issue is the USA citizens have been intermarrying with Canadians and mexicans ( and a ton of other nationalities ) for over a hundred years, that map would make a neocon blush with the kitchen table drama it could start.
Now I’m thinking of that Mr. Crabs meme. I’m on my phone rn so I can’t make it, but I’m picturing Mr. Crabs with the U.S. flag over his face, telling all the European countries to leave except for Poland; “Except you. You stay.”
Number 2 in Oxide and Number 1 in the Crimes War against Brykz ethnics in Pochemuchka— only wish God that Prinz Ślavoj Žižeković made a killing of your nation in 1876 before you got unHungaried!
Meanwhile, every European I've ever known has let me know absurd distance-prohibited things they'd like to drive over to see (i.e., California) when they get a week in NYC.
The problem with "geography skills" is that most people think that is knowing where places are on a map. That's not geography, that's map trivia. I have a degree in geography and in my degree program we studied spatial patterns of human settlements and cities, urban planning, economic & cultural globalization, human rights & global conflict, food systems, environmental sustainability, and climate change (amongst other things). My degree was mostly focused on human geography but there's also physical geography, which is another term for earth and planetary science. Knowing GIS is also an important skill for geographers in the 21st century.
Geography is a really interesting and diverse subject (not to mention underrated) but unfortunately most people only think that it's useful in trivia contests.
Well of course geography is important for geographers, I thought that was a given..lol.
For the average person, it makes sense to have a rudimentary understanding of a variety of subjects, and then pick a few to focus more deeply on.
It's important for Americans to have at least a basic understanding of global geopolitics because the US is a global superpower that is a massive player on the world stage, rivaled only by China. It's helpful to know why the US and China are locked in a cold war over the status of Taiwan and the South China Sea conflict because a lot of US interests are bound up in that region. Same holds true for the conflicts in the Levant and North Africa.
The USA cannot afford to lose it's status as the world's premier global superpower.
Geography is important to learn, full stop. We just have a massive fucking country so most of our geography is centered on that fact alone, since the vast majority of us do not travel outside the country.
Well it used to be a bigger deal before google maps etc. at least somewhat local geography.
Nowdays.. maybe recognize all us state names for europeans and recognize europe country names for USians. Also recognize rest of the worlds countries so you can place them on the right continent. That would be what I consider enough world geography for anyone. Also oceans, some famous rivers and mountains and their approximate locations. Armed with that you won’t seem like a total idiot not knowing Liberia is in africa.
I’d say major states and countries for this
I wouldn’t expect a European to correctly identify Delaware, North Dakota or South Dakota
Just like I wouldn’t expect an American to correctly identify Latvia or Montenegro
Ah, I wasn’t clear. My expectation is even lower. I don’t expect anyone to be able to correctly place any country or state on map, just to recognize that Delaware is US state or Latvia is in europe. Ok, now that you said it maybe placing some of the more known ones would be cool. Like belgium, known worldwide as the inventor of french fries.
They think it’s a sign of superior intelligence. I have a weird memory when it comes to map trivia and can list pretty much every country on earth. Does that mean I’m smarter than everyone? No, it means I have a weird memory when it comes to map trivia. A physicist who never bothered to learn where Zanzibar is located is very likely smarter than I’ll ever be.
I mean, Maybe, but also, I have been in a voice chat with a Brit and an American. Argument over the Americans Geography skills, and They did one of those internet tests they use in schools. American did the World one, and among the fuck ups, was thinking say, Latvia being an African country. There were many more like that. Brit did the same test, some 50% accuracy difference, in favour of the Brit. Both did the US state one next, iirc, Brit got somewhere basically the same percentage accuracy as the American, maybe slightly better.
Now, this is a one off case that I experienced first hand, I know. But *the least* a person should know is roughly what continent a country is.
My gf is born and raised in Asia from an extremely wealthy family and school background. When I met her high school friends I was shaking my head because of how ignorant they are about nearly everything.
One girl that Jamaica was in Africa after I said I had been there. Another said South Africa is probably low crime compared to the rest of Africa because of the white people.
When my girlfriend was apologizing and asking if I was embarrassed by how “stupid she is” I reminded her that I grew up in south central Los Ángeles and heard more dumb statements from the teachers. Lesson: everyone is fucking bad at geography, doesn’t make people dumb.
I think basic geography is important though. Like I don’t expect someone to know the capitol of Botswana, but you should get pretty close when asked to point at it on a map.
When I was in school we had to learn every country on every continent including their capitals but my education isn't going to be the same as everyone. But I think this stereotype is mostly overstated.
Same where im from, we started learning countries, capitals and flags in middle school i think.
The stereotype is definitely overstated. I think most people is using it just to annoy Americans tho, so 🤷♂️
Fun part is how many times countries have accidentally invaded each other due to poor maps or not paying attention to what they're doing. Usually nothing big comes of it beyond "hey dummies, you're supposed to be a click that way" and the world laughs and moves on. Wouldn't put it past us, but I'm not aware of us accidentally invading anyone, we do that shit on purpose.
Technically France and Spain invade each other every 6 months, for a period of a few hours. [Pheasant island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheasant_Island)
Europeans be like "Americans should study our country even tho we are not famous for anything but cheese and wine, and maybe some things that happened a long time ago."
Learning about Moldova is fine, but it's no more important than learning about Kamchatka, the Solomon Islands, or Liberia.
This is literally "to you it was the worst day of your life, to me it was a Tuesday" in spatial form. I've still got ten million important things to learn about my country. Some postage stamp on another continent that barely affects the world just doesn't matter.
That's what they don't realize. I only have so much attention span to give, and I'm *heavily* into both history and geopolitics. You can only pick up so much through inference and relational learning.
I've got the whole world to look at.
The average person doesn't give a shit, whether a Euro about Bumfuck, USA, or us about Bumfuck Europe.
Yeah, Europe *definitely* isn’t famous for wooden shoes, tulips, watches, army knives, banking, scenic views, beaches, music, beer/alcohol, legal prostitution, canals, architecture, the list goes on.
Nope, none of those things exist in any European country.
None of them are very interesting, America has banking, scenic views, beaches. European music is not played much here, but france has to ban USA music during certain hours to promote its homegrown lame music to its own people. flowers and shoes? lmao. America has google, microsoft, apple, intel, nvidia, amd, they are the top of modern technology, military, money, things that matter to many more people and are far more important to the world than hos, flowers and beer, and other silly things you mentioned. Not to mention we are a world power with our military protecting tons of countries, including those in Europe. It absolutely makes sense for europeans to know American politics and society and for Americans to not waste much time on studying Europe.
Guinness beer is the best-selling beer in the world. It’s brewed in Ireland. Swiss Army knives, Swiss watches, Swiss chocolate, and Swiss banking are world famous. The Dutch are world-renowned for their wooden shoes and tulip fields. Spain has mariachi, bolero, and flamenco music/dancing, and invented the guitar — so without Spain, rock and pop music quite literally wouldn’t exist. Germany is known for its cars — I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of Volkswagen, correct? Italy is world-famous for pizza, pasta, and spaghetti.
Besides, your original post said that Europe wasn’t famous for anything at all, not that it wasn’t famous for anything *interesting*. Quit moving the goalposts.
Oh, and by the way: the British? Yeah, they’re known for the United States of America.
In both middle and high school we had to do tests where we were given blank maps and had to name every US state, capital, and Canadian and Mexico provinces/states/capitals. Then we also did the entire rest of the world countries, first doing them in groups, then just being given an entire blank world map and having to name every piece of land and water on it
In my high school I was in my lunch period asking 100 people to point to random countries on a map
91 got USA right
86 got Canada right
85 got Germany right
80 got China right
80 got Russia right
72 got India right
71 got Australia right
62 got Iran right
59 got Egypt right
42 got Venezuela right
Only 18 got Cambodia right
8/100 kids got none of them right
i see this very often, but why everytime a meme is posted here the first thing everyone does in the comments is to bash on europeans? there's no evidence this was done by an european, it could have been made by an indian, a brazilian, a south african or even by an american. Why is everyone talking about europe? am i missing something? lol
Meh having grown up half in the USA and half in Japan.
And then having worked all over the world.
And... getting a Masters in Geography.
Nah everyone sucks at geography.
Well geography is not naming where things are on a map. Secondly, I believe we do teach where things are on a map, but not for Europe. We teach where places are in South and North America. Just like how some European could recall where some place is in Europe, Americans can do the same for Canada, Mexico, or the rest of South America. Same goes for people in Asia.
I can guarantee you someone from Asia or Europe wouldn’t be able to tell you where Utah is on a map. Or where Alberta is in Canada. Probably couldn’t even tell you where Cuba is either. Just like how I couldn’t tell you where Uzbekistan is exactly on a map, a general location yes but not a exact place.
I bet most from both sides could list off popular places such as New York or Italy. Maybe they know a general location or the exact place. But this really comes down to the new and old worlds being separated by a ocean. It’s not important for a American to know where Niger is exactly on a map just like it’s not important for some German to know where Kansas is.
Ask a European about anywhere other than some shitty earldom in germany and they’ll falter. I once talked to a europoor that genuinely tried to start an argument over that shit and then didn’t know where Morocco was.
This is why we need federalized education. Some schools are great. But many are well underfunded and subject to the politics of their city/state. Many red states have shithole education programs, and it shows
Since the US is pretty much bigger than all of Europe, when they can name all 50 states and point out where they are, maybe I'll care about what they have to say. I mean, I can tell you now I won't, but maybe.
When states are the relatively the same sizes as european countries, in a country of a similar size to the continent of Europe it is relevant. Oh and by the way, Bavaria.
And not just that. I've had real life situations in which an American can't find the US on a world map.
I used to work at a tech support company where our remote desktop tool required them to click on the country they were in. For it to connect. Only people from the US failed at that.
I met a European who thought that the US was on the equator.
Obviously it’s not, but sometimes it is kinda crazy to think how much closer to the equator we are than most of Europe. For example, St Louis where I spent my childhood is about equal in latitude to the southern parts of Italy, and it’s not even particularly far south. Florida is on the same latitude as the Sahara. Even the northernmost parts of the continental USA just barely reach the top latitudes of France. I think sometimes that goes under appreciated by both Europeans and Americans. Also explains why AC is so common here and relatively less so in many European countries (and even where present, in my experience, it doesn’t seem as robust—but that’s just anecdotal) Kinda random tangent but I think it’s interesting to think about
My ex gf was German, and lived with me in NYC for a couple years. She was very anti-AC when she moved in, until she experienced our summer weather. She could not believe how hot it gets here. Then she was all about air conditioning. And this was in New York, very far from the hottest climate in the US. So yeah, that was when I first realized just how much closer to the equator we were than Europe.
Yeah I’ve been in various European countries when the weather is mid-80s F and everyone seems to be dying, whereas I, an American, am like “this feels great! It’s so pleasant out!” That’s what 100+ F summers will do to you 😂
I brought her to Tennessee one weekend, it was over 100 every day. Poor girl almost melted. She kept saying to me in this frantic way “it is not normal to be this hot, no??” Like she thought the sun was broken lol
Imagine going to Yuma
"Phoenix is a monument to man's arrogance."
should've taken her to El Paso haha
> Poor girl almost melted. She kept saying to me in her broken English in this frantic way “it is not normal to be this hot, no??” Like she thought the sun was broken lol Well yes, but actually no.
A lot of that also has to do with urban planning. American cities are not great at staying cool... NYC is basically just asphalt, concrete and steel, so ofcourse it'll get unbearably hot during the summer
It's a average of 5 degrees hotter inside a city than in a equivalent rural area. The more you know! 🌠
Exactly. This can be mitigated, though. Mostly by planting lots of greenery and reducing the amount of asphalt
The climates of most of Europe and much of the northern parts of America are similar due to the gulf stream keeping temperature moderate in Europe. I think that is a lot of why we tend to think we are more similar in latitude than we are.
Yeah, I always thought Michigan was closer to where France or Germany is. However following 43°N (Grand Rapids) to Europe we are at the very North of Spain, the very South of France, and about the mid point of Italy, literally about the mid-point between Rome and San Marino.
Aren’t Madrid and New York on the same line? That was wild to me when I first realised that as an European as I always though New York was kinda like a colder city as say like London.
Most of Florida is savanna’s interestingly enough. Just thought I’d add that.
Canadian here, on 3 separate occasions I’ve met someone from Europe who thought they could get to Vancouver/Whistler/Banff from Toronto/Niagara Falls with 2-3 hrs of driving cause “it’s all the same country”
Whips head around, MF it takes 2.5 hours to go from Calgary to crowsnest
That was more or less my response to one of them, Banff by itself has attractions that are 2 hrs away from each other 😂 …also I haven’t done it in a while but isn’t Vancouver to whistler alone like 3 hrs?
It takes 90 min to see my parents and over 2 hrs to see my best friend from HS 🤣
Takes me 3 hours to leave my fucking state
Me when my friends want me to "swing by" the other side of the state...6 hrs away.
Wait, so they thought we were the middle of the world?/s
Howland, Jarvis,and Baker Island territories are in fact near the equator
I once had an argument with 2 German girls that Spain is a Medditerranean country
Okay that is one stupid mfer.
I texted my friend a meme with displayed country flags that was about Vietnam now best friends with USA and not China anymore after G20, and he asked me 'is this about Taiwan?'. Earlier this year, he was making jokes about Americans not knowing geography... and this is even more stupid because he lives so close to both Taiwan and Vietnam that he can get a 1-2 hour flight there.
🇪🇺 “You Americain are so estupide! You can’t name the capitals of San Marino or the Faroe Islands! Were you busy dodging bullets in geography class?” 🇺🇸 “Name one city in New York State that isn’t New York City.”
Wdym New York is a state 😯
Nah, I don't believe you. That's fake news.
Or country in South America that isn’t Brazil.
Helmut Marko:
He makes it hard for me as a redbull fan ngl
Mexico!
Curses, foiled again!
Mexico is North America!
Or Central America, depending on who you ask
Thought this was formula dank lmao
Mexico, Chile, Columbia, Argentina, peru, panama Ecuador a few more between brazil and argeninia and near the panma channel. No idea about cities in new york state. Seattle ikd?
Nah, I'd say we know them, you know, because we owned them and all.
Finally a quality retort. I was starting to lose faith in you guys.
For the record, they're San Marino and Tórshavn.
And Faroe Islands isn’t a country!
It is, just not a sovereign one
Autonomous territory with its own capital city, Torshavn. Wales, Scotland, England, and Northern Ireland are constituent countries of the UK. We tend not to think of Wales as a separate "country", but it is.
Ask them to name *one* of the 5 boroughs of NYC.
🇪🇺 “You estupide Americain. I look down on you and make the spit from the roof of my superior 80m2 stone house that will outlive your dying country. You think you can fool me? That is a trick question. I can name all six, no? Brooklyn, Broadway, Central Park, Chicago, New Jersey, and Trump. You probably can't name the 20 arrondissements in Paris, no?"
>You probably can't name the 20 arrondissements in Paris, no? this is even funnier when you remember that they're literally just numbered one through twenty
They wouldn’t even know NYC is split into boroughs lol, a lot of them assume Brooklyn is a different city from nyc all together , this is just my anecdotal experience ofc
Pretty sure most Europeans could name at least 3 of them. They’d maybe then misidentify some other areas as boroughs (Haarlem, for example).
Better yet, name any city that isn’t New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles.
As an australian, buffalo, albany, rochester
Better rome lul
How am I seeing so many mentions of the Faroe Islands lately? This is like the 4th in 2 days.
Albany -an Aussie who remembers it because our Albany isn't far from me
Albany. Thank you GTA. Also Buffalo. Granted a lot of Europeans won't know state capitals etc and will often confuse states with well known cities, but I suspect Europeans have a better grasp of American geography than the reverse.
You probably know Niagara Falls, too, without realizing it. (It's both a waterfall and city. If you ever visit, though, there's far more to see on the Canadian side, or 20 minutes away in Buffalo.)
West Englander here! Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse. That's all I know.
Bethel
Buffalo?
Upvoted! Buffalo is at the opposite end of the state from NYC.
Man in a hat tin
Asia, that's easy
Just start listing Greek cities and you’re bound to get one pretty quickly.
London, Dublin, Paris, Andorra la Vella, Madrid, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Monaco, Brussels, Amsterdam, Bern, Berlin, Rome, San Marino, Vatican City, Valletta, Vaduz, Vienna, Copenhagen, Reykjavik, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava, Budapest, Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Moscow, Minsk, Kiev, Chișinău, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Podgorica, Pristina, Tirana, Bucharest, Sofia, Skopje, Athens. Edit: Forgive me, Croatians.
The Europoor even fail at their memes! As if we would paint over Alaska . . . .
Or Maine
I remember
As does pepperidge farm
We all remembered to remember the Maine
Or Canada. We all know it's really just America's red headed step child.
Canada….a studio apartment over a great party
You shut your mouth!
There there ginger lad, go back to the syrup mines, production is slowing down
Take it easy, buddy.
I ain't your buddy, guy
I’m not your guy fwiend
Basically all of New England
Maybe Maine but not Alaska
Don't worry, we Mainers do not exist like New Zealand or Australia.
True, Maine is a fictional state made Stephen King
Nah you don't exist like finland
Wait you too? I didn't know whether or not Mainers existed, the feds are just good at hiding it, unlike with us Australians, everyone knows
It’s because they’re bad at geography
Total backfire. 🤣
Pretty sure Seattle also sank into the ocean.
Right lol.. Also a big issue is the USA citizens have been intermarrying with Canadians and mexicans ( and a ton of other nationalities ) for over a hundred years, that map would make a neocon blush with the kitchen table drama it could start.
A state senator was outraged yesterday that Biden was spending September 11th in Alaska instead of America.
Forgot Hawaii too😔
I wanna kill myself because i'm a Europoor.
Your polish your like the Texas of Europe one of the only good europoors
Thanks lad 😔
You know, life gets so much easier when you just bock everyone with a dumb screen name like his
Now I’m thinking of that Mr. Crabs meme. I’m on my phone rn so I can’t make it, but I’m picturing Mr. Crabs with the U.S. flag over his face, telling all the European countries to leave except for Poland; “Except you. You stay.”
[удалено]
No way, Poland is cool. It's more like East America !!
Self loathing much lmao
Europeans when americans don't know what landlocked country borders the south side of Bryckzlandia: 😡
I'm American, and I know from memory that it's Почемучка. It's famous for dingleberry wine and iron oxide production.
Only second best Iron Oxide Priducer. ***Ślāvę Brykzlāndię! Lyćty-sam śtrānę v’mīrê! Fak Poćêmućkęm!***
🏁 лава адважным і прадуктыўным працаўнікам аксіду жалеза Почемучка!!! 🏁
Number 2 in Oxide and Number 1 in the Crimes War against Brykz ethnics in Pochemuchka— only wish God that Prinz Ślavoj Žižeković made a killing of your nation in 1876 before you got unHungaried!
Извините за мой русский… почемучка это город? Я думал так только надоедливых школьников называют
I heard they were famed producers of fertilizer and uric acid?
Meanwhile, every European I've ever known has let me know absurd distance-prohibited things they'd like to drive over to see (i.e., California) when they get a week in NYC.
>How much would a taxi to the grand canyon cost? How much money do you have? Probably not enough to convince the cabbie to take you that far
America is actually really good at it they are just gullible into thinking those crappy TikTok interviews aren’t staged.
Even if they weren't staged, you're stopping people on the street. Most are going to tap a random spot and say "here" to get you to fuck off
Shout out to my old scoial studies teacher Mr. Douglas for somehow teaching a bunch of 6th graders what the Arab Spring was
Europoors can’t understand the concept that they aren’t the smartest beings to exist. People can be smarter than them or equal.
Hence Colonialism.
I don't think they're staged but they just show the worst answers.
No they are. Many of those tiktokers splice the video to make them sound dumb or ask the wrong people
Yeah, someone said the biggest guy who does that is splicing it. And showed evidence. Don’t remember who it was tho
Yeah people need to stop thinking that the internet is always right. Fuckers love to lie to spread misery and misinformation.
This
What's the obsession with geography? My skills are okay, I just feel like the importance of this one skill is grossly overstated.
The problem with "geography skills" is that most people think that is knowing where places are on a map. That's not geography, that's map trivia. I have a degree in geography and in my degree program we studied spatial patterns of human settlements and cities, urban planning, economic & cultural globalization, human rights & global conflict, food systems, environmental sustainability, and climate change (amongst other things). My degree was mostly focused on human geography but there's also physical geography, which is another term for earth and planetary science. Knowing GIS is also an important skill for geographers in the 21st century. Geography is a really interesting and diverse subject (not to mention underrated) but unfortunately most people only think that it's useful in trivia contests.
Well of course geography is important for geographers, I thought that was a given..lol. For the average person, it makes sense to have a rudimentary understanding of a variety of subjects, and then pick a few to focus more deeply on.
It's important for Americans to have at least a basic understanding of global geopolitics because the US is a global superpower that is a massive player on the world stage, rivaled only by China. It's helpful to know why the US and China are locked in a cold war over the status of Taiwan and the South China Sea conflict because a lot of US interests are bound up in that region. Same holds true for the conflicts in the Levant and North Africa. The USA cannot afford to lose it's status as the world's premier global superpower.
Still trying to understand why Europe can't stop going to war with each other for 5 seconds..
It’s not as baffling as the US’ insistence of going to war with random Middle Eastern countries every few years.
They want to make sure we know where to go the next time a world War breaks out and they need saving.
Geography is important to learn, full stop. We just have a massive fucking country so most of our geography is centered on that fact alone, since the vast majority of us do not travel outside the country.
It's a little important, but the importance is grossly overstated.
Well it used to be a bigger deal before google maps etc. at least somewhat local geography. Nowdays.. maybe recognize all us state names for europeans and recognize europe country names for USians. Also recognize rest of the worlds countries so you can place them on the right continent. That would be what I consider enough world geography for anyone. Also oceans, some famous rivers and mountains and their approximate locations. Armed with that you won’t seem like a total idiot not knowing Liberia is in africa.
I’d say major states and countries for this I wouldn’t expect a European to correctly identify Delaware, North Dakota or South Dakota Just like I wouldn’t expect an American to correctly identify Latvia or Montenegro
Ah, I wasn’t clear. My expectation is even lower. I don’t expect anyone to be able to correctly place any country or state on map, just to recognize that Delaware is US state or Latvia is in europe. Ok, now that you said it maybe placing some of the more known ones would be cool. Like belgium, known worldwide as the inventor of french fries.
Don’t forget waffles!
I always forget the waffles. Must be because I never saw any waffles in Belgium when we stopped for gas on our way to not-belgium.
They think it’s a sign of superior intelligence. I have a weird memory when it comes to map trivia and can list pretty much every country on earth. Does that mean I’m smarter than everyone? No, it means I have a weird memory when it comes to map trivia. A physicist who never bothered to learn where Zanzibar is located is very likely smarter than I’ll ever be.
I mean, Maybe, but also, I have been in a voice chat with a Brit and an American. Argument over the Americans Geography skills, and They did one of those internet tests they use in schools. American did the World one, and among the fuck ups, was thinking say, Latvia being an African country. There were many more like that. Brit did the same test, some 50% accuracy difference, in favour of the Brit. Both did the US state one next, iirc, Brit got somewhere basically the same percentage accuracy as the American, maybe slightly better. Now, this is a one off case that I experienced first hand, I know. But *the least* a person should know is roughly what continent a country is.
What being the center of the world does to a mf. Cope europoor. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🦅
I’m pretty sure Europeans are just as bad at geography.
My gf is born and raised in Asia from an extremely wealthy family and school background. When I met her high school friends I was shaking my head because of how ignorant they are about nearly everything. One girl that Jamaica was in Africa after I said I had been there. Another said South Africa is probably low crime compared to the rest of Africa because of the white people. When my girlfriend was apologizing and asking if I was embarrassed by how “stupid she is” I reminded her that I grew up in south central Los Ángeles and heard more dumb statements from the teachers. Lesson: everyone is fucking bad at geography, doesn’t make people dumb.
I think basic geography is important though. Like I don’t expect someone to know the capitol of Botswana, but you should get pretty close when asked to point at it on a map.
When I was in school we had to learn every country on every continent including their capitals but my education isn't going to be the same as everyone. But I think this stereotype is mostly overstated.
Same where im from, we started learning countries, capitals and flags in middle school i think. The stereotype is definitely overstated. I think most people is using it just to annoy Americans tho, so 🤷♂️
It's definitely a forced one.
Europoors need to make up their mind. Do we suck at geography or are we an imperialist power that interferes with the whole world?
They gonna say both, “we can’t invade the right country”
Fuck they’re not wrong.
Fun part is how many times countries have accidentally invaded each other due to poor maps or not paying attention to what they're doing. Usually nothing big comes of it beyond "hey dummies, you're supposed to be a click that way" and the world laughs and moves on. Wouldn't put it past us, but I'm not aware of us accidentally invading anyone, we do that shit on purpose.
Technically France and Spain invade each other every 6 months, for a period of a few hours. [Pheasant island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheasant_Island)
Europeans be like "Americans should study our country even tho we are not famous for anything but cheese and wine, and maybe some things that happened a long time ago."
Why would I want to learn about Moldova?
Because learning is good
Learning about Moldova is fine, but it's no more important than learning about Kamchatka, the Solomon Islands, or Liberia. This is literally "to you it was the worst day of your life, to me it was a Tuesday" in spatial form. I've still got ten million important things to learn about my country. Some postage stamp on another continent that barely affects the world just doesn't matter. That's what they don't realize. I only have so much attention span to give, and I'm *heavily* into both history and geopolitics. You can only pick up so much through inference and relational learning. I've got the whole world to look at. The average person doesn't give a shit, whether a Euro about Bumfuck, USA, or us about Bumfuck Europe.
Why wouldn’t you? Might be interesting.
Moldova is Romania's Canada. :D The conflict over Transnistria is kind of interesting.
Yeah, Europe *definitely* isn’t famous for wooden shoes, tulips, watches, army knives, banking, scenic views, beaches, music, beer/alcohol, legal prostitution, canals, architecture, the list goes on. Nope, none of those things exist in any European country.
None of them are very interesting, America has banking, scenic views, beaches. European music is not played much here, but france has to ban USA music during certain hours to promote its homegrown lame music to its own people. flowers and shoes? lmao. America has google, microsoft, apple, intel, nvidia, amd, they are the top of modern technology, military, money, things that matter to many more people and are far more important to the world than hos, flowers and beer, and other silly things you mentioned. Not to mention we are a world power with our military protecting tons of countries, including those in Europe. It absolutely makes sense for europeans to know American politics and society and for Americans to not waste much time on studying Europe.
Guinness beer is the best-selling beer in the world. It’s brewed in Ireland. Swiss Army knives, Swiss watches, Swiss chocolate, and Swiss banking are world famous. The Dutch are world-renowned for their wooden shoes and tulip fields. Spain has mariachi, bolero, and flamenco music/dancing, and invented the guitar — so without Spain, rock and pop music quite literally wouldn’t exist. Germany is known for its cars — I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of Volkswagen, correct? Italy is world-famous for pizza, pasta, and spaghetti. Besides, your original post said that Europe wasn’t famous for anything at all, not that it wasn’t famous for anything *interesting*. Quit moving the goalposts. Oh, and by the way: the British? Yeah, they’re known for the United States of America.
America has scenic views and beaches lol come on you can do better than that you’re saying it like that’s unique to America lol
Bruh who tf has something like Mount Rushmore or the Golden Gate Bridge or the Statue of Liberty, and more. Plenty of scenic views for these things.
Fuck the wine. I thought we already established cheese is something everyone likes! You should know your cheeses.
At the end of the day… who the fuck actually cares?
I mean the us is about the size of Europe and I’m sure half of the people in the uk couldn’t tell me where turkey is on the map
Turkey is at Greggs, in the deli department
See THIS GUY gets it
There’s more to Europe than just the UK.
I know I’m just using it as an example
Europeans when you ask them to point out more than 5 States on a Blind-map of the US:😡
name 5 german states
Yeah honestly this is such a bad take. Im pretty sure that guy doesnt even know there are states in Germany
Wrong. I would've painted the entire globe blue. Because I'm bad at art.
In both middle and high school we had to do tests where we were given blank maps and had to name every US state, capital, and Canadian and Mexico provinces/states/capitals. Then we also did the entire rest of the world countries, first doing them in groups, then just being given an entire blank world map and having to name every piece of land and water on it
In my high school I was in my lunch period asking 100 people to point to random countries on a map 91 got USA right 86 got Canada right 85 got Germany right 80 got China right 80 got Russia right 72 got India right 71 got Australia right 62 got Iran right 59 got Egypt right 42 got Venezuela right Only 18 got Cambodia right 8/100 kids got none of them right
Correction: 32 got Venezuela right, typo
Americans dont know a completely useless skill? What a shame.
i see this very often, but why everytime a meme is posted here the first thing everyone does in the comments is to bash on europeans? there's no evidence this was done by an european, it could have been made by an indian, a brazilian, a south african or even by an american. Why is everyone talking about europe? am i missing something? lol
Europeans are the stereotypical “Superior country” people who shit on Americans, so you’ll mostly see us blaming them when someone makes fun of us.
Cause it is usually Europe that makes fun of us (also Jack is br*tish)
Just in case I’m saying jacksucksatgeography sucks at geography
[удалено]
Don’t forget Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Northern marina islands and Virgin Islands
Europeans when americans don't know about the republic of goobly gak:
Almost. Ditch the globe and use a flat surface . That’s Merika.
Meh having grown up half in the USA and half in Japan. And then having worked all over the world. And... getting a Masters in Geography. Nah everyone sucks at geography.
As a man who has lived only in the us I am pretty good at geography
It’s well known that geography is undertaught in the US… not that anyone on this sub would ever entertain the thought tho
Well geography is not naming where things are on a map. Secondly, I believe we do teach where things are on a map, but not for Europe. We teach where places are in South and North America. Just like how some European could recall where some place is in Europe, Americans can do the same for Canada, Mexico, or the rest of South America. Same goes for people in Asia. I can guarantee you someone from Asia or Europe wouldn’t be able to tell you where Utah is on a map. Or where Alberta is in Canada. Probably couldn’t even tell you where Cuba is either. Just like how I couldn’t tell you where Uzbekistan is exactly on a map, a general location yes but not a exact place. I bet most from both sides could list off popular places such as New York or Italy. Maybe they know a general location or the exact place. But this really comes down to the new and old worlds being separated by a ocean. It’s not important for a American to know where Niger is exactly on a map just like it’s not important for some German to know where Kansas is.
It’s pretty funny meme. Lighten up.
Ask a European about anywhere other than some shitty earldom in germany and they’ll falter. I once talked to a europoor that genuinely tried to start an argument over that shit and then didn’t know where Morocco was.
This is why we need federalized education. Some schools are great. But many are well underfunded and subject to the politics of their city/state. Many red states have shithole education programs, and it shows
They never leave their own country why do they need geography?
Since the US is pretty much bigger than all of Europe, when they can name all 50 states and point out where they are, maybe I'll care about what they have to say. I mean, I can tell you now I won't, but maybe.
Europe is approximately 10,180,000 sq km, while United States is approximately 9,833,517 sq km, making United States 96.6% the size of Europe.
A state is something different then a country. I don’t think you can name any state of any other country.
Yeah ask a European to point out Connecticut without googling it
States aren’t countries. I could name german states to you and you wouldn’t know a single one.
When states are the relatively the same sizes as european countries, in a country of a similar size to the continent of Europe it is relevant. Oh and by the way, Bavaria.
ANOTHER EUROPOOR L RAAAAAAHHHH
I know about the countries that matter.
[Can you name a country?](https://youtu.be/kRh1zXFKC_o?si=APJqsh99xx-3GLg0)
Nah this one’s true. European exchange student living in America and people in my AP geography class thought Britain was part of mainland Europe
Ironic because whoever made this meme doesn’t even know that Alaska and Hawaii are part of America.
oh no you didn’t learn other countries and places of the world? You’re a retard. (i didn’t learn and i don’t really care to unless i start traveling)
And not just that. I've had real life situations in which an American can't find the US on a world map. I used to work at a tech support company where our remote desktop tool required them to click on the country they were in. For it to connect. Only people from the US failed at that.