Geography in US schools?

Because you have been here firsthand and witnessed this for yourself? Didn't think so. What I find ignorant is you making generalizations based on your own preconceived notions with no concrete evidence to support it. Unless you have polled the majority of Americans on this subject, or at the very least even visited this country, you have no case.

Two years! That's so great. And I'd love to learn Japanese one day. I wanted to a few years ago but finally didn't. I keep telling myself I will someday, tough as everyone says it is

Being French - have you read Amélie Nothomb's books? Especially her autobiographical ones where she talks about her life in Japan?

Just like Americans think we are all like the Queen and sit drinking tea all day? lol

Have you been eveywhere and spoken to everyone? Have you polled every American? Most of us here have not, even within our own country, so all we can do is generalise and make stereotypes. Even normal research figures are crap because they take very small samples of the population.

This is the first I hear of us thinking this way. I've never heard anything like that here. But I did hear the other day that the population of the UK is more anit-American than any other European country.

So I am under the generalization that all Brits have bad teeth. Does that make it true?

You don't *have to* generalise, though. Most of the time generalisations are plain mistaken and based on blurry mistook concepts and such.

Says who? You? The media? Give me a break.

this whole thread is very toughie everyone wants to defend oneself ..LOL .... I don't know all americans nor american ppl KNOW everyone around .. but it's always UNBEARABLE to hear or read critics about your own country by somone who is NOT from your country (how dare they !!! :P) ..(and I say that as a victim or as a witness of it I travelled a lot as a kid lived abroad too married a non french person and had my kids going to an international school )
so yes the usa friends here will think *this is BS we know geography as well as you do folks* .. is this gonna be true ? maybe yes maybe not .. but what is true is that the subject is taboo ... autocriticism is fine being watched and then critized by other is always a big no no from whatver country you can be from ...

it's not ok to generalize but like Neil said it's unevitable ... it's IMPOSSIBLE to decide that not everyone is like this or like that as well as the opposite ... though there are cultural differences that will make more ppl doing this and that in spain than in UK and same in the usa and finland or france ...... --> so to say don't generalise is very admirable but impossible ... Uk ppl don't have the same humour as the french .. australian and american are not the sames and so on .... there are ALL TYPES of ppl living in the usa and there are certainly geography nobel price there (is that existing ? lol ) for sure I have many friends that have a general culture absolutely AMAZINGLY BIG but maybe I said *maybe* as a trade mark usa citizen are less concerned with who lives where and why ... it's not a problem to accept differences the problem is to make with differences a scale with the good and the bad humans... JMO

I love to travel I love to meet different ppl I love THE DIFFERENCES and I love the fact they exist unless it will be boring .... SO if globally said (we need a reliable result on this geography knowledge wolrd wide)the usa citizens are not the best at geography this is not the end of the world I know where is Idaho or Montana but that is just for my own comfort it doesn't change anything in my life ....and it doesn't make me a good or a bad person ....

sorry i didn't see your post ... I read Amelie Nothomb books .. her life in japan is exuding from every pore of her body ...LOL


I love Japan ... I studied japanese language when I entered university then I married a japanese student in Paris it was in 1981 ...time flies ...
I speak understand and can read japanese ..I loved living there it was a great experience (one of the best experience is to deal with the fact you are an unsignificant stranger and not a dominator or an imperialist like when you are "at home" )

I agree, I'd like to add though (albeit it is in a different scale regarding territory) that it is a bad comparison. I am sure that most Americans don't know all the states of Germany (nor how many there are at all) nor their capitals.



Another example:



Enough said.

Isn't it in Texas?