Americans and the World Map

Maine and Louisiana have the same culture too, right?

If you want to test yourselves:
http://lizardpoint.com/geography/europe-quiz.php

I wonder how many non US citizens could locate Iowa on a blank US map...or Delaware. I'm not really sure what the point of the post is.

I think there's a difference between recognizing countries with distinct cultures, languages and histories and recognizing the subdivisions of a single, and more or less homogeneous, country.

Lol homogeneous. I dare you to put natives from Boston, El Paso, Portland, and Detroit in a room together and tell them they're the same.

Freely admitting my map would look pretty much exactly like the second one.

I could do western Europe pretty well, eastern europe and the middle east not so much.

I am pretty sure this is real!
My european husband is going to school in the usa and his International Business professor gave them a list of European countries and it still had: USSR, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia on it. And he still referrs to the EU as EC - and that is a college professor . Nuf said

Dang, now I want crab cakes and gumbo.

Fortunately the US is so homogeneous that you can get those anywhere. :laugh:

Dang, now I want crab cakes and gumbo.

Fortunately the US is so homogeneous that you can get those anywhere. :laugh:

Campbell's chunky soup and a box of frozen crab cakes.

That thought just made me sad, lol.

I can't get even decent crab cakes in Washington, D.C. and that is incredibly close to their real home of Baltimore. I don't bother ordering them outside of Baltimore anymore. It just makes me sad.

Who cares?

Clearly this was a well-controlled study. I like that they didn't ask participants to leave countries blank when they don't know the answer but instead asked them to write apologies, smart *kitten* remarks, and self-deprecating humor.

I would fail the world map test miserably. I would fail labeling my own nearby cities on a map terribly. I focus my attention on what is relevant to my life. Since I'm not wandering in an isolated location with no access to technology to help me find my way, and I'm not in charge of delivering anything to anyone, geography is low on my list of priorities. It's true that I'm not interested. There are a lot of things I do find interesting and useful that others often don't.

I'm sure if I wanted to, I could study a world map and memorize where to put everything. I'm just not sure what value that would have to me, or how that value would outweigh the value in whatever else I was spending my time doing. (Yes, including MFP. Leisure and interpersonal interactions count as worthwhile.)

I also learned the same dates in American history year after year after year growing up, and there's still only a couple that mean anything to me. You could make assumptions based on my education, intelligence, motivation to learn from this. But those assumptions would be based on some very limited information. I'm ok with admitting I'm not good at everything.

Dang, now I want crab cakes and gumbo.

Meh.
You can have mine.

I'd love fresh brats.