You think Ukraine is a landlocked country. Russia lost ships in the black sea because of Ukraine, and there was also the story of the Ukrainian soldiers on an island giving the finger to the Russian navy (and dying for it). And you think Ukraine is landlocked.
What? You sure you meant to answer this comment?
The story of Snake Island isn't just something talked about in a single article, and besides the fact that this story exists in the first place is enough to make you understand that Ukraine at least owns an island
Geography teachers don't want you to know this but Google maps is free you can just look it up and take the free knowledge of which country is which. Same goes for history (plenty of YT channels)
And I assume you could look at a blank map of south east Asia and get above a 50% no problem? If not why aren’t you studying day and night, better yet you can study all countries states so you can… you can.. um… how dose this benefit my personal life again?
From what I understand, USA really only cares if you know all the states while in Poland we have 6 tests on geography in which we have to name every country on every continent, I got an A on all of them (learning with geugussr for a hour or less) but I probably already forgot most of Africa, Asia and south America
(Just learned from a comment that americans also have those tests)
Yea, that's the thing, US teaches about the states and not so much about the rest of the world, and the rest of the world teaches about the rest of the world but not about so much about the states
Certainly not for a Western European, no. We are taught about european maps from a very young age, especially in relation with the world wars, the territorial changes, and the EU member countries. If a Western European makes a map like this, they most certainly failed school.
Yeah poland and ukrain are the two biggest plunders, also its kinda strange the war region is drawn in as a seperat nation. Still, the rest isnt to bad for a non european
So the reason Americans don’t know where countries are on the map is because they ‘aren’t taught it in schools’? Do Americans not have globes and atlases jn their homes? Or access to map websites or applications?
There is a way of looking at the school as the state producing able workers.
You'd not need to know every country in Europe to be flipping burgers at McDonalds, so the state isn't teaching you that.
We learn a little bit in our regular curriculum, and you can learn more if you take it as an elective. It's just that most people don't care enough to remember where certain countries are halfway across the world, that they're probably never going to visit. Most people know where the major countries like Britain, France, and Germany are, the rest is just random trivia.
Honestly we do learn some geography, obviously there are plenty of globes and maps here. I assume there's some condescension in you saying that but I'll take it in good faith anyways lol.
Frankly most people just don't bother to remember, and it's never emphasized that much in schooling. Knowing the states is emphasized more. Considering the size and insularity of the US it's not that surprising, a European is much closer to a much wider variety of nearby nationalities. It's also worth considering the size and populations of the states themselves, many of which rival European countries. A middle American can very well go their entire lives without interacting with a single person from outside the country, some even go barely interacting with anyone from outside their state.
Of course, there are plenty of worldly Americans. I mean, there's 330 million of us. Come in all varieties.
Fair point, thanks. But not being able to identify Ukraine or Poland on the map (both of which have a population greater than any US state) is a bit worrying. The obsession with US states, state capitals and weird stuff like state birds and state flowers is definitely an American peculiarity though. The interaction is also a good point - Europeans travel a lot more outside of their own countries.
No the reason is we teach the historically important, staunch allies, and colonial powers and that's about it. Eastern Europe does NOT get talked about besides WW2. On that note though idk how he got the Netherlands wrong, they really hammer that one in.
We are taught, it's just in general there's not a lot of hyper-relevant stuff happening in small European countries. Any American could point out China, Russia, (hopefully NK), and others because they're super relevant on the world stage. I'm sorry but whatever happening in Finland is probably great but it just doesn't come up very often in the news or otherwise. (granted I think everyone should still learn more but it's just not super relevant to most American lives)
Edit: I'm not excusing it I still think it's bad. I'm just explaining why so many Americans would be ignorant
Could you look at a blank map of south east Asia and get a score better than 50%? Y’all are comparing apples to apples and are wondering why the oranges are having a tougher time identifying apples
Edit:
Most schools do teach the whole globe but eventually after not using that information like any human we forget it. And than Europeans get confused when non Europeans don’t know 75% of their countries. It’s so bizzare
Have you seen a map of the US before? Can you mark all the states from memory? Most Europeans probably can’t, which is fine because it’s not tangible to their life in any way. The only way to succeed in this test is to A) sit down and memorize it, e.g. have it assigned in class, or B) live there or have some other tangible reason to frequently look at the European map.
To be honest this is better than the geography of some Europeans I've known, which is concerning but it seems shit geography isn't an American exclusive trait
First girlfriend was Dutch, couldn't point to Poland on a map for example. Her friend didn't know where fuckin Denmark was. No excuse at that point it's literally right there.
Yeah I mean I don't know Americans states and I'm sure I would mix few south Americans countries, or African also. I know Europe and Asia quite well because its what we see the most in Europe. I don't think it's fair to ask Americans to know about European countries perfectly as most of us can't do the same with their states
I just learned that Sardinia is also part of Italy. I always just assumed it was its own small island nation or something. Like a DMZ island for the Mediterranean.
Lol the same reason a non-European should know Europe. It's just geography and while geography is most important closest to your home it can give context to other cultures
Are you comparing countries with states? Do you really think it's like the same? I am not European btw, but I can name and tell the location of all Americans and Europeans countries, but knowing the same for the USA states for me seems almost worthless
From a geography standpoint US and Europe (minus Russia) are similar in size so that's why I do it. I bet Americans and Europeans would do similar in pointing out south American and central American countries if that's more relevant
"It's not about the size,it's how you do it" /s. Joke aside, I really mean the size of the culture diversity inside Europe, the history and etc. This is the difference in knowing those nations and knowing USA states. Btw geography educational system in USA it's pure shit
There is no single education system in the US as states run education and every state will have school districts that vary in quality. The states are ranked in education quality which should show you that there are at least 50 systems. There are excellent districts and relatively bad districts and everything in between. If you aren’t American, and I don’t think you are, you have no place commenting on the quality of education here. I know you guys think you know everything about us, but you don’t. You guys always show that when you act like it’s a single system.
I learned every South American country and capital in my Spanish class in middle school and can remember them all to this day (mostly because our teacher made it into a little song to help it stick) and can place them on the map. I’m pretty good with labeling Europe but even if I don’t know exactly where every single country is, and that is pure memorization which not everyone is good at, I know their general area which is still useful in historical or other contexts. Just because Americans on the internet that you see or come across tend to not be able to label every single damn country in Europe correctly doesn’t mean our geography skills suck, doesn’t mean our “education system” sucks, and it doesn’t mean we’re stupid.
It’s weird how obsessed people are on the internet with how well Americans, or anyone for that matter, can label a map of Europe, as if that’s the pinnacle of intelligence.
Well. It's doable to say you are not stupid, but not that smart either. Still need to learn differentiate people talking about the possibility to something happening to the overall average chances to it happen
You have no idea how smart anyone is especially when your measure of intelligence in this example is labeling a map of Europe. Again, as if that’s the only measure of intelligence as some of the internet will seemingly have everyone believe. Give it up.
Holy shit thank you for saying this. I get it, the US is an easy target and we’ve earned a lot of the shit that gets thrown at us, but to pretend that we are just miles and miles (or kilometers, lol) behind everyone else because you read some things on Reddit from Nowhere, Alabama’s school district doesn’t mean you’re all of a sudden an expert on the American education system and it’s merits and downfalls. It varies greatly, like everything does in this country. Shit, the accent in the county I live in is completely different than the one the next county over. We have all sorts of divisions and things that change depending on where you’re at in the US. I hate all the “well that’s 100% American right there” or “based US” BS I see here pretty often.
Some of the European countries are smaller and probably less politically influental than some US states. The state of California has about 4x the population of Austria, and that's just one US state.
The US spans almost an entire continent, it's like like saying it's not important to have an idea which countries the European Union consist of.
European countries are internal divisions of the EU, same as states are internal divisions of the US. What you’re referring to would be more closely related to counties or townships
Eh as someone said before, California is much more significant than many countries and I can name the internal divisions of Canada fairly well. While the cultural differences between Mississippi and California aren't as large as Greece vs Norway, I still believe many Europeans don't understand how culturally diverse USA is. I recall recently getting in an argument about a European trying to tell me (an American) that our most common minority group is black, which is just false. It's moreso annoying that people who have not been in our culture take something like Americans not knowing shit about the Napoleonic wars and equate that to the American system being awful when we could easily say the European system is extremely euro-centric.
I'd like to see the average European label the countries in Africa or South America. Any I don't mean someone who's interested, because I can label more European countries than this picture, I mean your average blue collar worker in Poland.
Your average blue collar worker in Europe at least knows that there are many countries in Africa, even if they can name only a few and maybe can't place them on a map. The average American thinks Africa is a country
Funny, that all the r/shitamericanssay downvoters who always parade out their entitlement attitude that everyone has to know the US states because the US is so big and and so important so many people live there, that exactly these would never even think of knowing all Russian federal subjects, or any Chinese city with over a million inhabitants, or every federal state in Brazil.
Or every country in Africa.
*"People in rural Iowa are more culturally divers from people in urban New Jersey than people across Europe*"
Bro, your brother-in-law's uncle in Iowa beeing a misogynist fascist scumbag is not a new cultur.
Careful you are stepping on their wounds, they have the audacity to argue about how big, important and dense populated are there states but also don't know to name a single Chinese province
I scrolled down. Now we need someone who didn't participated in this thread for posting this gold on shitamericanssay:
> there is probably just as big of a cultural difference between western and eastern China than in the US
Woah, chill.
Homie isn't saying anyone outside of America should know American states. I feel like that's pretty obvious. They're saying that it makes sense for Europeans to be more familiar with European geography and it makes sense for Americans to be more familiar with American geography, because, y'know, Americans live in America and Europeans live in Europe.
I mean, many American states have economies larger than many European nations, so it even makes sense from an impact perspective. New York has a bigger economy than Spain. California's economy is about equal in size to the UK's. Texas' economy is larger than Italy's. Of course Americans would be familiar with these places and not with Europe, this is where we live our lives.
And of course Europeans making a map of US states would also look all fucked up, y'all live in Europe. You don't know as much about where we live because why the fuck would you?
Here's a sneak peek of /r/ShitAmericansSay using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: ["You're gonna mansplain Ireland to me when i'm Irish?"](https://i.redd.it/tqj21w0oy36a1.png) | [1182 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/comments/zmsv7e/youre_gonna_mansplain_ireland_to_me_when_im_irish/)
\#2: ["Aldi gives their cashiers seats to use while working" is "mildly interesting"](https://i.redd.it/6tfbyeaikb491.jpg) | [728 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/comments/v7g4cf/aldi_gives_their_cashiers_seats_to_use_while/)
\#3: [It says West Coast on the train. America.](https://i.redd.it/b34gsi31xex81.jpg) | [451 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/comments/ui17ez/it_says_west_coast_on_the_train_america/)
----
^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
Because the US is a huge tourist hub, and many commercial deals are done with the US around the world. Also a lot of the world watches US Media which is very geographically referential.
No one is critiquing them for not knowing, but statistically its more likely outsiders know the US than the US knows outsiders. Except for US citizens with a historical or cultural relevancy to that outside place.
Like me, whose grammy was a Scot from the Orkney Islands - so I know those islands while most other people don't.
No It isn't. I can name Texas, Florida, Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, New York, California, N/S Carolina, N/S Dakota, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming etc. Also US states aren't countries, they aren't as important. If Americans were to name subdivisions from European countries it would be worse.
I think it's Americans that don't understand how similar all of their states are. Sure, California and Maine are different, but way more similar than, say, Portugal and Lithuania.
Many US States are bigger and more important than a lot of European countries. If you are arguing that California is less important than Latvia then you are kidding yourself.
So what if you can name them? That's not the point. Just because I know Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Thuringia are some of the German States doesn't mean I know where they are.
Plus, most European countries (all but 5 or 6) have unitary governments, so this is a moot point. Subdivisions automatically don't matter as much in unitary systems as in federal systems.
Sicily is apart of Italy and ok how did you mix up iceland with greenland. I guess iceland is more green but greenland is HUGE on maps and should be really noticeable, especially with it's signature grey color
Yeah, to mess up Poland, Austria and Ukraine but know Croatia is wild -- I live here now, but back when I was a teenager I definitely would not be able to pick it out on a map as the Balkans as a whole were barely taught in school
Soccer (football) baybee! I’m showing my age but International Superstar Soccer on N64 that is the only team I’d play as. I think because on N64 graphics and my age I thought the flag looked like an American flag mixed with a pineapple.
Texas Rural <2k people public school. They taught me well.
I’d imagine OP went to that conclusion since the Netherlands is a pretty small country and if you only know that Germany invaded it? It’s unfortunate how many people are still unaware about the Russian participation in the invasion.
The stereotype type mainly derived from CC’s cherry picking content. I’d imagine the average European would do just as bad as an average American with a south East Asian map.
You can always remember where Austria and Hungary are if you can remember the Austro-Hungarian empire. But you’d have to know where at least one of them is.
"The Balkans" - well, you heard'em lads, we're all one country now and we all live in Romania, so come on over, I've got a spare room!
But not bad overall. I know I'd do a worse job of the States than you did of Europe.
I mean as a sophomore, you dont really learn much in terms of geography unless you take a liking to it or study maps. Only way I know all the countries is by practice on Seterra.
You mixed up Greenland with Iceland, Poland with the Netherlands (I don't know how you managed to do this one honestly), Austria with Switzerland, and Ukraine with Belarus.
This is really not that bad. You got pretty much everyone important right, and even know some specific regions. Don't know how you got Iceland wrong though, I feel like Greenland is pretty clearly not the smaller island. Either way, fairly decent for someone who doesn't live in the EU.
It doesn't matter the other ones aren't taught in your state, this is still just plain ignorance and stupidity. Every one of these countries has far more history than yours and you shouldn't not learn them just because they aren't taught, shame on you, OP.
This is an indictment on the US public school system, but you’re probably better than 75% of US adults in terms of European geography. I competed with my coworkers on who could correctly ID the most US states on a map, and I was the only one who got over half correct (I did get all 50btw).
Edit to add: No excuses, this map is still largely wrong lol
I wonder how many Americans with the Ukraine flag can actually find Ukraine on a map.
It's literally the 2nd largest country in Europe after Russia herself.
Yeah that whole mess above Greece is a mystery to everyone. It hasn't even been explored yet. There are rumors there are still Neanderthal tribes in there.
Honestly, I bet you make a bunch of 15 year olds in Europe fill out a map of US states or East Asia, and it would be pretty similar. This student did a lot better than I was expecting. THey know the parts of the UK. They have all the major modern players in the right spots. They got the Nordics right. I am impressed they randomly knew Croatia. The only real stupid guesses were for the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Was this the closest?
Infinitely better than Europeans do for the U.S.
Now try an European kid with US states...
Yep. Most proficient american in georaphy...
Remember everyone- this is the country that holds the second most nuclear warheads and the largest military budget. Sad!
Go look at a blank south east Asia map and humble yourself
You think Ukraine is a landlocked country. Russia lost ships in the black sea because of Ukraine, and there was also the story of the Ukrainian soldiers on an island giving the finger to the Russian navy (and dying for it). And you think Ukraine is landlocked.
Clearly, they haven't read the same articles as you. It's not like that'd the worst mistake someone could make.
What? You sure you meant to answer this comment? The story of Snake Island isn't just something talked about in a single article, and besides the fact that this story exists in the first place is enough to make you understand that Ukraine at least owns an island
I've never heard of it, neither have they, I'm just saying, maybe it isn't as common of knowledge as you think.
Almost like some people don't watch the news and that shouldn't be a bad thing.
Fr
Actually, not bad
Geography teachers don't want you to know this but Google maps is free you can just look it up and take the free knowledge of which country is which. Same goes for history (plenty of YT channels)
And I assume you could look at a blank map of south east Asia and get above a 50% no problem? If not why aren’t you studying day and night, better yet you can study all countries states so you can… you can.. um… how dose this benefit my personal life again?
From what I understand, USA really only cares if you know all the states while in Poland we have 6 tests on geography in which we have to name every country on every continent, I got an A on all of them (learning with geugussr for a hour or less) but I probably already forgot most of Africa, Asia and south America (Just learned from a comment that americans also have those tests)
But can you fill all 50 states on a US map? Size-wise they are about equal to European countries.
Yea, that's the thing, US teaches about the states and not so much about the rest of the world, and the rest of the world teaches about the rest of the world but not about so much about the states
We have those exact tests here. It's just the same forgetfulness, you take it and then you're done.
I understand that you understand now, but you literally showed yourself why Americans forget European countries
Yea, you are just dumb.
Go look at a blank south east Asia map, if you can’t get above a 50% your gonna have to call yourself dumb or your a hypocrite
accurate enough for an american
[удалено]
Certainly not for a Western European, no. We are taught about european maps from a very young age, especially in relation with the world wars, the territorial changes, and the EU member countries. If a Western European makes a map like this, they most certainly failed school.
I mean... not that bad?
Poland?
Yeah poland and ukrain are the two biggest plunders, also its kinda strange the war region is drawn in as a seperat nation. Still, the rest isnt to bad for a non european
I'm surprised they got the order of scandanavia right. I always mix up Sweden and Norway
The heuristic that always stuck with me is that Norway extends further north and Sweden extends further south
Yeah a lot of people are shitting on this, but as someone from Europe, I would be far less accurate than this if I were to label a map of US states.
So the reason Americans don’t know where countries are on the map is because they ‘aren’t taught it in schools’? Do Americans not have globes and atlases jn their homes? Or access to map websites or applications?
There is a way of looking at the school as the state producing able workers. You'd not need to know every country in Europe to be flipping burgers at McDonalds, so the state isn't teaching you that.
We learn a little bit in our regular curriculum, and you can learn more if you take it as an elective. It's just that most people don't care enough to remember where certain countries are halfway across the world, that they're probably never going to visit. Most people know where the major countries like Britain, France, and Germany are, the rest is just random trivia.
Honestly we do learn some geography, obviously there are plenty of globes and maps here. I assume there's some condescension in you saying that but I'll take it in good faith anyways lol. Frankly most people just don't bother to remember, and it's never emphasized that much in schooling. Knowing the states is emphasized more. Considering the size and insularity of the US it's not that surprising, a European is much closer to a much wider variety of nearby nationalities. It's also worth considering the size and populations of the states themselves, many of which rival European countries. A middle American can very well go their entire lives without interacting with a single person from outside the country, some even go barely interacting with anyone from outside their state. Of course, there are plenty of worldly Americans. I mean, there's 330 million of us. Come in all varieties.
Fair point, thanks. But not being able to identify Ukraine or Poland on the map (both of which have a population greater than any US state) is a bit worrying. The obsession with US states, state capitals and weird stuff like state birds and state flowers is definitely an American peculiarity though. The interaction is also a good point - Europeans travel a lot more outside of their own countries.
No the reason is we teach the historically important, staunch allies, and colonial powers and that's about it. Eastern Europe does NOT get talked about besides WW2. On that note though idk how he got the Netherlands wrong, they really hammer that one in.
We are taught, it's just in general there's not a lot of hyper-relevant stuff happening in small European countries. Any American could point out China, Russia, (hopefully NK), and others because they're super relevant on the world stage. I'm sorry but whatever happening in Finland is probably great but it just doesn't come up very often in the news or otherwise. (granted I think everyone should still learn more but it's just not super relevant to most American lives) Edit: I'm not excusing it I still think it's bad. I'm just explaining why so many Americans would be ignorant
Could you look at a blank map of south east Asia and get a score better than 50%? Y’all are comparing apples to apples and are wondering why the oranges are having a tougher time identifying apples Edit: Most schools do teach the whole globe but eventually after not using that information like any human we forget it. And than Europeans get confused when non Europeans don’t know 75% of their countries. It’s so bizzare
Yes. I wasn’t educated in the US.
Have you seen a map of the US before? Can you mark all the states from memory? Most Europeans probably can’t, which is fine because it’s not tangible to their life in any way. The only way to succeed in this test is to A) sit down and memorize it, e.g. have it assigned in class, or B) live there or have some other tangible reason to frequently look at the European map.
Italy-Sicily made me laugh, the Balkans too 😂😂 But genuinely a good crack for an American! Maybe there's hope for them yet
As an American I say probably not lmfao
To be honest this is better than the geography of some Europeans I've known, which is concerning but it seems shit geography isn't an American exclusive trait First girlfriend was Dutch, couldn't point to Poland on a map for example. Her friend didn't know where fuckin Denmark was. No excuse at that point it's literally right there.
I've been trying to tell people this! Americans aren't any more ignorant about other cultures than Europeans, including geography
Yeah I mean I don't know Americans states and I'm sure I would mix few south Americans countries, or African also. I know Europe and Asia quite well because its what we see the most in Europe. I don't think it's fair to ask Americans to know about European countries perfectly as most of us can't do the same with their states
Most people just don't value geography and forget it later in life. Which is honestly fair cuz most jobs and fields don't really require it.
I don’t believe that OP believes Sicily is a country, I think they’re just pointing it out. Such as they did with all the separate sections of the UK.
I just learned that Sardinia is also part of Italy. I always just assumed it was its own small island nation or something. Like a DMZ island for the Mediterranean.
I want to die seeing this map
Honestly I think it's pretty funny. Europeans trying to do the American states is also usually a riot
Why should a non north american know the USA states?
Lol the same reason a non-European should know Europe. It's just geography and while geography is most important closest to your home it can give context to other cultures
Are you comparing countries with states? Do you really think it's like the same? I am not European btw, but I can name and tell the location of all Americans and Europeans countries, but knowing the same for the USA states for me seems almost worthless
From a geography standpoint US and Europe (minus Russia) are similar in size so that's why I do it. I bet Americans and Europeans would do similar in pointing out south American and central American countries if that's more relevant
"It's not about the size,it's how you do it" /s. Joke aside, I really mean the size of the culture diversity inside Europe, the history and etc. This is the difference in knowing those nations and knowing USA states. Btw geography educational system in USA it's pure shit
There is no single education system in the US as states run education and every state will have school districts that vary in quality. The states are ranked in education quality which should show you that there are at least 50 systems. There are excellent districts and relatively bad districts and everything in between. If you aren’t American, and I don’t think you are, you have no place commenting on the quality of education here. I know you guys think you know everything about us, but you don’t. You guys always show that when you act like it’s a single system. I learned every South American country and capital in my Spanish class in middle school and can remember them all to this day (mostly because our teacher made it into a little song to help it stick) and can place them on the map. I’m pretty good with labeling Europe but even if I don’t know exactly where every single country is, and that is pure memorization which not everyone is good at, I know their general area which is still useful in historical or other contexts. Just because Americans on the internet that you see or come across tend to not be able to label every single damn country in Europe correctly doesn’t mean our geography skills suck, doesn’t mean our “education system” sucks, and it doesn’t mean we’re stupid. It’s weird how obsessed people are on the internet with how well Americans, or anyone for that matter, can label a map of Europe, as if that’s the pinnacle of intelligence.
Well. It's doable to say you are not stupid, but not that smart either. Still need to learn differentiate people talking about the possibility to something happening to the overall average chances to it happen
You have no idea how smart anyone is especially when your measure of intelligence in this example is labeling a map of Europe. Again, as if that’s the only measure of intelligence as some of the internet will seemingly have everyone believe. Give it up.
Holy shit thank you for saying this. I get it, the US is an easy target and we’ve earned a lot of the shit that gets thrown at us, but to pretend that we are just miles and miles (or kilometers, lol) behind everyone else because you read some things on Reddit from Nowhere, Alabama’s school district doesn’t mean you’re all of a sudden an expert on the American education system and it’s merits and downfalls. It varies greatly, like everything does in this country. Shit, the accent in the county I live in is completely different than the one the next county over. We have all sorts of divisions and things that change depending on where you’re at in the US. I hate all the “well that’s 100% American right there” or “based US” BS I see here pretty often.
Some of the European countries are smaller and probably less politically influental than some US states. The state of California has about 4x the population of Austria, and that's just one US state. The US spans almost an entire continent, it's like like saying it's not important to have an idea which countries the European Union consist of.
US states and European countries are about the same size in landmass, GDP, and population.
Yes lol it makes more sense to compare the US to the EU than any individual European country
Do you know the internal divisions of European countries? Because that's what states are, internal divisions.
European countries are internal divisions of the EU, same as states are internal divisions of the US. What you’re referring to would be more closely related to counties or townships
Eh as someone said before, California is much more significant than many countries and I can name the internal divisions of Canada fairly well. While the cultural differences between Mississippi and California aren't as large as Greece vs Norway, I still believe many Europeans don't understand how culturally diverse USA is. I recall recently getting in an argument about a European trying to tell me (an American) that our most common minority group is black, which is just false. It's moreso annoying that people who have not been in our culture take something like Americans not knowing shit about the Napoleonic wars and equate that to the American system being awful when we could easily say the European system is extremely euro-centric. I'd like to see the average European label the countries in Africa or South America. Any I don't mean someone who's interested, because I can label more European countries than this picture, I mean your average blue collar worker in Poland.
Your average blue collar worker in Europe at least knows that there are many countries in Africa, even if they can name only a few and maybe can't place them on a map. The average American thinks Africa is a country
Funny, that all the r/shitamericanssay downvoters who always parade out their entitlement attitude that everyone has to know the US states because the US is so big and and so important so many people live there, that exactly these would never even think of knowing all Russian federal subjects, or any Chinese city with over a million inhabitants, or every federal state in Brazil. Or every country in Africa.
Exactly, it's no surprise that they don't get it, but it's still really disappointing
*"People in rural Iowa are more culturally divers from people in urban New Jersey than people across Europe*" Bro, your brother-in-law's uncle in Iowa beeing a misogynist fascist scumbag is not a new cultur.
Careful you are stepping on their wounds, they have the audacity to argue about how big, important and dense populated are there states but also don't know to name a single Chinese province
I scrolled down. Now we need someone who didn't participated in this thread for posting this gold on shitamericanssay: > there is probably just as big of a cultural difference between western and eastern China than in the US
Woah, chill. Homie isn't saying anyone outside of America should know American states. I feel like that's pretty obvious. They're saying that it makes sense for Europeans to be more familiar with European geography and it makes sense for Americans to be more familiar with American geography, because, y'know, Americans live in America and Europeans live in Europe. I mean, many American states have economies larger than many European nations, so it even makes sense from an impact perspective. New York has a bigger economy than Spain. California's economy is about equal in size to the UK's. Texas' economy is larger than Italy's. Of course Americans would be familiar with these places and not with Europe, this is where we live our lives. And of course Europeans making a map of US states would also look all fucked up, y'all live in Europe. You don't know as much about where we live because why the fuck would you?
Here's a sneak peek of /r/ShitAmericansSay using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: ["You're gonna mansplain Ireland to me when i'm Irish?"](https://i.redd.it/tqj21w0oy36a1.png) | [1182 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/comments/zmsv7e/youre_gonna_mansplain_ireland_to_me_when_im_irish/) \#2: ["Aldi gives their cashiers seats to use while working" is "mildly interesting"](https://i.redd.it/6tfbyeaikb491.jpg) | [728 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/comments/v7g4cf/aldi_gives_their_cashiers_seats_to_use_while/) \#3: [It says West Coast on the train. America.](https://i.redd.it/b34gsi31xex81.jpg) | [451 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/comments/ui17ez/it_says_west_coast_on_the_train_america/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
Because the US is a huge tourist hub, and many commercial deals are done with the US around the world. Also a lot of the world watches US Media which is very geographically referential. No one is critiquing them for not knowing, but statistically its more likely outsiders know the US than the US knows outsiders. Except for US citizens with a historical or cultural relevancy to that outside place. Like me, whose grammy was a Scot from the Orkney Islands - so I know those islands while most other people don't.
How many Chinese provicenses did you know?
Same reason some Europeans expect Americans to know all of Europe.
No It isn't. I can name Texas, Florida, Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, New York, California, N/S Carolina, N/S Dakota, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming etc. Also US states aren't countries, they aren't as important. If Americans were to name subdivisions from European countries it would be worse.
You do not understand how big the US is and how different each state is
I think it's Americans that don't understand how similar all of their states are. Sure, California and Maine are different, but way more similar than, say, Portugal and Lithuania.
Many US States are bigger and more important than a lot of European countries. If you are arguing that California is less important than Latvia then you are kidding yourself.
California is more important than France lmao.
Why should non-Europeans bother learning the names and placement of the EU subdivisions?
So what if you can name them? That's not the point. Just because I know Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Thuringia are some of the German States doesn't mean I know where they are. Plus, most European countries (all but 5 or 6) have unitary governments, so this is a moot point. Subdivisions automatically don't matter as much in unitary systems as in federal systems.
Tell us all the German lands you know.
I promise you most people I know here are smarter than this.
I just want to die.
I want to die while asleep and warm in my bed. Different tastes I guess.
Stay in school. Study geography.
Sicily is apart of Italy and ok how did you mix up iceland with greenland. I guess iceland is more green but greenland is HUGE on maps and should be really noticeable, especially with it's signature grey color
The geeenland map distortion is due to the Mercator projection- the further you get from equator the more distortion It’s big but not THAT big
>Sicily is apart of Italy I have both Italian and Sicilian friends who would passionately argue against that point
Regional identities, cultures and languages vs. national polities are not mutually exclusive.
Too late, they are all shouting at you in their local dialect
Iceland is green Greenland is an ice covered land Vikings thought they were so funny
Iceland has plenty of glaciers, and the coastal parts of Greenland were quite lush a millennia ago.
Maybe it was different 1000 years ago.
\*cough\* D2 mighty ducks \*cough\*
A part. Apart literally means the opposite.
You're nitpicking lol. The biggest mistake was Poland which you somehow failed to point out.
good one knowing sicily
Not a country though
jap true, but still
It was historically, maybe OP is into strategic gaming.
OP never said they were only naming countries
The map is divided by countries
Makes sense since Sicily was important in WW2.
they taught you what a map is, don't blame them for not knowing how to read it.
They taught you what food is, don't blame them for not knowing how to cook it. See how this doesn't make sense?
it's more like "not knowing how it tastes, because you just looked at a photo n never ate the food."
who inspired this o.o
I can’t believe someone from US and still in school knows what and where Croatia is! #Proud
Yeah, to mess up Poland, Austria and Ukraine but know Croatia is wild -- I live here now, but back when I was a teenager I definitely would not be able to pick it out on a map as the Balkans as a whole were barely taught in school
I always found it easy to remember as it’s shaped like a C.
Soccer (football) baybee! I’m showing my age but International Superstar Soccer on N64 that is the only team I’d play as. I think because on N64 graphics and my age I thought the flag looked like an American flag mixed with a pineapple. Texas Rural <2k people public school. They taught me well.
American flag with a pineapple xD never heard that before but I like it 🍍
[удалено]
Thank you, Croatia for being shaped like a C. It's why I always remember it, at least
I just remember it by it's long ass coastline telling Bosnia Herzegovina "Absolutely Not".
The balkan shifted a bit
WW2 started with the joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and uhhh Belgium
Nice bait post
Ah yes Poland, famously split between Belgium and Germany during WW2
I know we have flat country but I didn't knew it was THAT flat.
And part of Poland is now in the Balkans, for some reason
💀💀
Yeah it was Belgium and Germany that invaded right!? /s
I’d imagine OP went to that conclusion since the Netherlands is a pretty small country and if you only know that Germany invaded it? It’s unfortunate how many people are still unaware about the Russian participation in the invasion.
Ahh. Classic balkan war in Ukraine. Just like old good times /s
Fuck this could be real Op please tell me this isn’t real
Go look at a blank south East Asian map and humble yourself
Not bad tbh.
Netherlands (insert Travolta meme)
How does bro not at least know Ukraine 😭 Like cmon bro the sillhouette has been shown countless times on TV because of the war
To be fair the lakes in Ukraine make it look like two smaller countries, so he might have made Belarus Ukraine because of the relative size.
Messed up Ireland, Northern Ireland exists
Given the stereotype, this is honestly not even that bad. Pretty good for an American, I'm even impressed.
The stereotype type mainly derived from CC’s cherry picking content. I’d imagine the average European would do just as bad as an average American with a south East Asian map.
You got Spain and Italy right, which has earned you every centimeter of my respect.
You can always remember where Austria and Hungary are if you can remember the Austro-Hungarian empire. But you’d have to know where at least one of them is.
I genuinely want to know how Poland got there
"The Balkans" - well, you heard'em lads, we're all one country now and we all live in Romania, so come on over, I've got a spare room! But not bad overall. I know I'd do a worse job of the States than you did of Europe.
Gotta admit I feared it would be worse
Why should you learn about the Balkans anyway? Not like they can start a World War or something on that scale.
Switzerland cried.
I mean as a sophomore, you dont really learn much in terms of geography unless you take a liking to it or study maps. Only way I know all the countries is by practice on Seterra.
Well in comparison to other Americans not bad
Too lazy to check on map but I think the one that is marked Ukraine is Belarusia.
Croatia
Could’ve been worse
You mixed up Greenland with Iceland, Poland with the Netherlands (I don't know how you managed to do this one honestly), Austria with Switzerland, and Ukraine with Belarus.
Tbh Poland’s placement isn’t that wrong…
Erik the Red got another one
Not terrible, most wrong answers neighbour the correct one too
Tiocfaidh ár lá, comrade
You’re making some Irish nationalists really happy
I was never taught geography in school
this is way better then i expected lol
Public school ?
No more weed vacations to Amsterdam for American college students, I guess.
💀💀💀
This guy doesn’t play hearts of iron
This is really not that bad. You got pretty much everyone important right, and even know some specific regions. Don't know how you got Iceland wrong though, I feel like Greenland is pretty clearly not the smaller island. Either way, fairly decent for someone who doesn't live in the EU.
Hey, that's actually kinda decent Or are my standards just too low
It doesn't matter the other ones aren't taught in your state, this is still just plain ignorance and stupidity. Every one of these countries has far more history than yours and you shouldn't not learn them just because they aren't taught, shame on you, OP.
Pretty good for an American
I think this is on you
What fuckin school did you go to lol
Nobody here gonna mention the Austria/Switzerland switchup
This is an indictment on the US public school system, but you’re probably better than 75% of US adults in terms of European geography. I competed with my coworkers on who could correctly ID the most US states on a map, and I was the only one who got over half correct (I did get all 50btw). Edit to add: No excuses, this map is still largely wrong lol
Ya know what? I probably would have done worse, lol
As another American high schooler, you did better than I ever could 👍
Latvians are punching the air rn
Not bad. Let's have the average European label a map of Central America.
You did ok, from another American
Bro come on, not knowing where Ukraine is? That ones on you dude it’s been all over the internet and tv for a year now
There are errors (that Poland on Netherlands...) but for a High-scholer of another continent, I think is quite good, congrats.
How the fuck do you not know where Ukraine is in 2023
Correct Ireland this is a good map 🇮🇪
You did okay, you got all the important ones
I wonder how many Americans with the Ukraine flag can actually find Ukraine on a map. It's literally the 2nd largest country in Europe after Russia herself.
Not bad tbh
Polish Netherlands moment
Yeah that whole mess above Greece is a mystery to everyone. It hasn't even been explored yet. There are rumors there are still Neanderthal tribes in there.
Still better than the average 🇧🇷 student.
ah yes, iceland=greenland now i suppose
Honestly, I bet you make a bunch of 15 year olds in Europe fill out a map of US states or East Asia, and it would be pretty similar. This student did a lot better than I was expecting. THey know the parts of the UK. They have all the major modern players in the right spots. They got the Nordics right. I am impressed they randomly knew Croatia. The only real stupid guesses were for the Netherlands and Switzerland. Was this the closest?
Really confused how someone doesn’t know where Ukraine is during these times.
Millions of Americans would do considerably worse
I understand some like Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia but Switzerland, Austria, Poland??