• stebo
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    4011 months ago

    meanwhile we laugh at Americans for not being able to tell where germany lies

      • Nepenthe
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        11 months ago

        Also American. I know where Germany is because I’ve had buddies from Germany, which made it useful information. Ditto Romania, Nigeria, and South Korea. I will remember X country when there is something of personal significance about it and apparently not before.

        I don’t know where Ohio is and will never learn, because there is nothing IN Ohio, and they know there’s nothing in Ohio because they’re still LYING ABOUT THE AIRPLANE.

        • @AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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          111 months ago

          There are two things in Ohio. Kings Island, and Cedar Point, though both are close enough to other states that Indiana could annex Kings Island, and Michigan could annex Cedar Point, but then they’d have to take Cincinnati and Toledo respectively and ain’t nobody got time for that shit.

      • genoxidedev1
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        1811 months ago

        Yes this one is honestly a bit apples to oranges-ish, I can kinda understand though because Germany is about the size of a single US state.

        Though it’s very hard to fuck up western Europe if you ever looked at a world map. Western Europe only has a handful of countries.

        Compared to a country of 50 or so states where only 3 have a memorable shape (California, Texas, Florida), one has a memorable location (Alaska) and NYC being a household name.

        • @Takumidesh@lemmy.world
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          611 months ago

          Includes Alaska but not Hawaii for memorable locations.

          Completely disregards Michigan for memorable shapes.

          Refers to NYC as a state.

          I’m starting to think you may be an imposter.

          • genoxidedev1
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            711 months ago

            Hawaii is way further away from the US than Alaska I forgot it belonged to the US because of that, I am sorry if that offended anyone.

            I would consider Michigan a memorable shape if it wasn’t cut in half. As someone that’s not from the US, without specifically going out of my way to learn about Michigans shape I would have expected the shape that actually represents Michigan to be two different states.

            And yes, technically NYC itself isn’t a state but honestly it’s close enough to the actual name, that if I told natives I’m going to the state of NYC they’d know I’m talking about New York and am just being ignorant, and knowing where NYC is, most people could point out the state of New York on a map.

            And yes, I am an imposter because I am from Germany and not the US.

            • @AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              No worries! If you ever saw the Hawaiian flag that would be all kinds of confusing because they are clearly claiming to be a British Commonwealth state, despite never being part of the British Empire. They just liked the Union Jack so much that they slapped it in the upper left corner of the flag. That was back when they were still a kingdom though.

          • @Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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            511 months ago

            Hawaii and alaska are simply forgotten as states entirely, and in my experience the same goes for new mexico which blends together with texas and arizona.

            Seriously who the fuck thought it was a good idea to have a state called “new mexico” right next to a COUNTRY called “mexico”?

          • @GlitterNinja@lemmy.world
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            211 months ago

            In addition to Michigan and the three op named, I would also argue Minnesota and Louisiana (shaped like an L, the first letter of the state’s name) have distinctive/memorable shapes.

        • @Clent@lemmy.world
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          111 months ago

          Europe has all those small weird countries. Trying to label them as an American is impossible.

          • stebo
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            411 months ago

            Only just as hard as labeling the US states

            • @Deuces@lemmy.world
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              111 months ago

              We can’t do New England much better than we can Eastern Europe. But at least we’re relatively consistent. I wasted so many brain cells on Piedmont Sardinia, French Netherlands, Poland, Poland again, Poland the third, Prussia, and the UK but now none of them are part of Europe.

          • genoxidedev1
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            311 months ago

            I agree, I have trouble labeling most south eastern european countries correctly as a European myself. Though I was specifically talking about western Europe in this case which isn’t as fragmented.

            • @Clent@lemmy.world
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              111 months ago

              Can you find Andorra on a map? What about without border outlines?

              I doubt 90% of Americans know it exists.

      • stebo
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        511 months ago

        Sure but that’s only equivalent to an American knowing where Europe is, as a lot of US states are as large as a lot of European countries.

        • @SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1211 months ago

          But they’re still states. States are internal divisions and only meaningful within the US. From an outside perspective there are very few differences between states, nowhere close to the differences between different countries.

          Similar to how we don’t talk about states or other divisions of china, even though there are probably divisions with more people than half of Europe.

          • mar_k [he/him]
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            11 months ago

            (some) Americans are so self-important when they mention states being the same size as other peoples’ countries lmao. "Why should we have to point to Germany on a map if Germans can’t even point to le bigger Montana? smuglord "

            It’s like, do they feel the same about knowing other big countries’ internal divisions? Canadian provinces? Russian federal subjects? Brazilian states? Chinese provinces? Australian states? Cuz the average subdivision in all those countries is larger than the average US state.

            And people usually know the most important ones, anyways (Cali, Texas, Florida, NY)

          • stebo
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            111 months ago

            fair enough, it’s just that learning all countries in North America is a lot easier than those in Europe

          • @AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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            111 months ago

            You might not. As an American I’ve found it useful to know the difference between Sezchuan and Fouzhou. I do know and have worked for a fair number of Chinese immigrants though.

        • ThenThreeMore
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          511 months ago

          Not really, as a European I can tell you where all the countries in the north American continent are.

    • Neato
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      411 months ago

      The John Oliver bit will never get old for me.

        • @thepaperpilot@beehaw.org
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          611 months ago

          Talking about a location with a map showing where it is, then revealing that the audience doesn’t know geography / the place is not well known, because the map was wrong.

        • Neato
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          511 months ago

          Can’t find a good video but it’s the one where he names a country and places its name on a world map. Then shows that it wasn’t that country at all to show his viewers are bad at world geography.

          That was a terribly unfunny explanation by me. But I like the bit.

    • autismdragon [he/him, comrade/them]
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      311 months ago

      This is really alien to me because I’m american and I’ve been able to point out Germany on a map since I was like, 10? Its a very distinctive shape and position on the map. Idk, maybe its just my brain.

    • UhBell
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      311 months ago

      Because we’re like the 2nd worst state in the country so it sticks out. Whenever I get depressed about being stuck in Arkansas, I tell myself “at least I don’t live in Florida”

    • 🐱TheCat
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      111 months ago

      Also west virginia. Why do they know about west virginia?!?!? Who told them?

    • @Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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      511 months ago

      The only memorable ones are California, nevada, washington, texas, florida, and maine.

      Washington and Maine are only memorable because of very easy locations, being in the top corners of the country.

  • Roundcat
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    1211 months ago

    I’m just wondering how you mislocate “Virgin,” yet somehow get West Virginia right.

    • Neato
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      1711 months ago

      American on Germany: other countries have states?

  • @Poob@lemmy.ca
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    1011 months ago

    Americans are very sensitive about you knowing which state they’re from

  • @Sharkwellington
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    1011 months ago

    Is nobody going to mention the absence of Alaska?

  • @argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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    1011 months ago

    As a resident of Oreo, I can confirm that my state is tasty as fuck.

    I imagine Minnesotans would take offense to being called “Texas 2”. In both climate and politics, it’s the opposite of Texas.

    “Uh” and “Minne-sota” are the same state: Michigan. It’s the only state whose land is divided by a huge lake spanning the entire state.

  • NormalC
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    511 months ago

    Mfw New York isn’t even labeled on the map.

    • @H2207@lemmy.world
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      111 months ago

      Its to the left of the Great Tower of Kansas, sharing real estate with New Jersey and New Mexico.

      Now that’s a sentence and a half

  • autismdragon [he/him, comrade/them]
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    411 months ago

    I was pretty good at maps in highschool but I forgot a lot of it and never got good at Africa. I have no trouble with the 50 states but I’m american so that tracks. I’m also decent at South America (central america is beyond me though), most of Europe, and Asia.

    • @CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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      211 months ago

      I used to be pretty bad at European countries, apart from the UK, Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, and Italy, until I started playing EU4. Good with most of the countries around the world now save for some of the ones in Central and western Africa, and a few of the smaller -stans, bit still only can label maybe half the US states.