I'm a bit of a geek, and spent many lunches in the library glossing over the world atlas, so I am pretty good at this. Not only do I know the maps, but I know most of the FLAGS of the world as well.

x 1,000

SUPRMAN said:

deebee said:

^ Thanks to my trusty old atlas from the mid-80s, I can still point out loads of countries all over the world: Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Zaire, and, of course, the USSR, to name but a few.

Only Zaire is still has the borders outlined in your atlas. The rest, no longer exist except in history.

Relax, he is making a jokey-joke.

maja2405 said:

babynoz said:

...unlike math, which was invented by satan himself.

SUPRMAN said:

JoeTyler said:

oh, and maybe central asia, you know, the Stans countries, I don't know shit about them, I only know they're terrible countries to live in...

What makes them more terrible than say South African nations, Middle Eastern nations or South Asian?

never said they are worse than...

don't look at me like WHUT

but i've watched yako sing the

states and countries of the world...

Lyrics to Yakko's World (Countries Of The World) :

SUPRMAN said:

Dave1992 said:

A couple of days ago I decided to write down as many U.S. states as possible (and, believe me, it's difficult, because it is not taught at school over here in Austria!) and I managed 48, which is probably a much better effort than most middle-Europeans would achieve, sadly.

Then I took a map of northern America and tried to name each state's geographical position and failed quite miserably. Especially the states in the bible belt and mid-west's position I had hardly any clue about.

When it came to guessing the capital cities of each state I failed even more miserably. I guessed the largest city per state right more often than not, but many capital cities are not the largest in that state, as I have found out, so I didn't know too many.



This makes me ask:

- What about the American's geographical knowledge about Europe? Would you be able to name the Europeans countries and their capitals?

- What about the American's knowledge about the U.S.? Are there many people who still do not know where which states are? I'm sure that there are enough Europeans who do not know where Lithuania, Estonia, Andorra, Bulgaria and Albania are, for instance, or what their respective capital cities are called.

I could probably name every country in Europe and most of their capitals.

Can name all 50 states and most of their capitals too

Vilnus, Kallin (?) Andorra City, Sofia, Tirana are my guesses for the capitals.

I think I'm close on Estonia, but spelling it wrong.

Yep, good guesses. Especially for an American, I must say! it's Vilnius, Tallinn, Andorra I'm not too sure of (I always thought the capital was called Andorra too, as there's not much else there than a small town inbetween some hills...), Sofia and Tirana!

JoeTyler said:

SUPRMAN said:

What makes them more terrible than say South African nations, Middle Eastern nations or South Asian?

never said they are worse than...

Didn't say you did, but if you quantify them as terrible, there is an understanding that something makes them terrible. What makes them so terrible as opposed to horrors elsewhere is what I was asking.

You defined them as terrible, what makes them terrible and worthy of being labeled as a group as such opposed to other countries that may or may not be equally terrible by whatever standard you are using?

If I say Mississipi and Texas are the worst states in the U.S. I think it would be on me to say by what standard they are worse and not just say I didn't say Louisiana was terrible.

KingBAD said:

don't look at me like WHUT

but i've watched yako sing the

states and countries of the world...

Lyrics to Yakko's World (Countries Of The World) :

Announcer:
And now the nations of the world, brought to you by Yakko Warner!

Yakko:
United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama
Haiti, Jamaica, Peru,
Republic Dominican, Cuba, Carribean
Greenland, El Salvador too.
Puerto Rico, Columbia, Venezuela
Honduras, Guyana, and still,
Guatemala, Bolivia, then Argentina
And Ecuador, Chile, Brazil.
Costa Rica, Belize, Nicaragua, Bermuda
Bahamas, Tobago, San Juan,
Paraguay, Uruguay, Surinam
And French Guiana, Barbados, and Guam.

Norway, and Sweden, and Iceland, and Finland
And Germany now one piece,
Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia
Italy, Turkey, and Greece.
Poland, Romania, Scotland, Albania
Ireland, Russia, Oman,
Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia
Hungary, Cyprus, Iraq, and Iran.
There's Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan
Both Yemens, Kuwait, and Bahrain,
The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Portugal
France, England, Denmark, and Spain.

India, Pakistan, Burma, Afghanistan
Thailand, Nepal, and Bhutan,
Kampuchea, Malaysia, then Bangladesh (Asia)
And China, Korea, Japan.
Mongolia, Laos, and Tibet, Indonesia
The Philippine Islands, Taiwan,
Sri Lanka, New Guinea, Sumatra, New Zealand
Then Borneo, and Vietnam.
Tunisia, Morocco, Uganda, Angola
Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Botswana,
Mozambique, Zambia, Swaziland, Gambia
Guinea, Algeria, Ghana.

Burundi, Lesotho, and Malawi, Togo
The Spanish Sahara is gone,
Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Liberia
Egypt, Benin, and Gabon.
Tanzania, Somalia, Kenya, and Mali
Sierra Leone, and Algiers,
Dahomey, Namibia, Senegal, Libya
Cameroon, Congo, Zaire.
Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar
Rwanda, Mahore, and Cayman,
Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Yugoslavia...
Crete, Mauritania
Then Transylvania,
Monaco, Liechtenstein
Malta, and Palestine,
Fiji, Australia, Sudan

The bolded are not nations.

SUPRMAN said:

KingBAD said:

don't look at me like WHUT

but i've watched yako sing the

states and countries of the world...

Lyrics to Yakko's World (Countries Of The World) :

Announcer:
And now the nations of the world, brought to you by Yakko Warner!

Yakko:
United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama
Haiti, Jamaica, Peru,
Republic Dominican, Cuba, Carribean
Greenland, El Salvador too.
Puerto Rico, Columbia, Venezuela
Honduras, Guyana, and still,
Guatemala, Bolivia, then Argentina
And Ecuador, Chile, Brazil.
Costa Rica, Belize, Nicaragua, Bermuda
Bahamas, Tobago, San Juan,
Paraguay, Uruguay, Surinam
And French Guiana, Barbados, and Guam.

Norway, and Sweden, and Iceland, and Finland
And Germany now one piece,
Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia
Italy, Turkey, and Greece.
Poland, Romania, Scotland, Albania
Ireland, Russia, Oman,
Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia
Hungary, Cyprus, Iraq, and Iran.
There's Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan
Both Yemens, Kuwait, and Bahrain,
The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Portugal
France, England, Denmark, and Spain.

India, Pakistan, Burma, Afghanistan
Thailand, Nepal, and Bhutan,
Kampuchea, Malaysia, then Bangladesh (Asia)
And China, Korea, Japan.
Mongolia, Laos, and Tibet, Indonesia
The Philippine Islands, Taiwan,
Sri Lanka, New Guinea, Sumatra, New Zealand
Then Borneo, and Vietnam.
Tunisia, Morocco, Uganda, Angola
Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Botswana,
Mozambique, Zambia, Swaziland, Gambia
Guinea, Algeria, Ghana.

Burundi, Lesotho, and Malawi, Togo
The Spanish Sahara is gone,
Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Liberia
Egypt, Benin, and Gabon.
Tanzania, Somalia, Kenya, and Mali
Sierra Leone, and Algiers,
Dahomey, Namibia, Senegal, Libya
Cameroon, Congo, Zaire.
Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar
Rwanda, Mahore, and Cayman,
Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Yugoslavia...
Crete, Mauritania
Then Transylvania,
Monaco, Liechtenstein
Malta, and Palestine,
Fiji, Australia, Sudan

The bolded are not nations.

Back then Czechoslovakia was, though!

Dave1992 said:

SometimesIwonder said:

Been entertaining myself a bit this evening testing my knowledge!! Try this site: http://www.lizardpoint.co...a-quiz.php I loved reading maps as a child, & I still do. Think it's fascinating trying to remember the facts!! I mean how many countries have a border with Russia? It's more than u'd think! Check it on a map sometime! [Edited 11/28/13 13:48pm]

I loved reading mads too. I remember wanting a big, fat, heavy atlas for my birthday and I was so happy when I got it. I could hardly carry it back then, because it was so huge and heavy, but boy it fascinated me so much.

I read The Book of Lists 1 & 2. That a fun fascinating read even if you have no interest in what's being listed. For me other lists made me do more research into the subject. I recommend keeping that around the house because even someone who doesn't read may glance at the lists on different topics.

We also had a set of encyclopedias in the hallway outside the bathroom. If I went in the bathroom to sit down, I just grabbed one and found something to read while I was in there. Always something new to find.

I'm not as good as I used to be, but I could probably still ID all European nations and their capitals with the exception of some former Soviet countries.

Same goes for the American states and their capitals, as well as Canadian provinces/territories and their capitals. I'm less good at the Mexican states and Caribbean countires of North America.

At one point, I easily could rattle off the vast majority of the globe. For all the flaws of the public school system where I grew up, its geographic curriculum was actually pretty good in retrospect. Also, my mother always kept globes and atlases in our home library. (Perhaps somewhat strange, because in her 72 years, she's only ever visited five American states and Toronto, Canada, to my knowledge -- and she's shown little interest in other parts of the world.)

SUPRMAN said:

KingBAD said:

don't look at me like WHUT

but i've watched yako sing the

states and countries of the world...

Lyrics to Yakko's World (Countries Of The World) :

Announcer:
And now the nations of the world, brought to you by Yakko Warner!

Yakko:
United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama
Haiti, Jamaica, Peru,
Republic Dominican, Cuba, Carribean
Greenland, El Salvador too.
Puerto Rico, Columbia, Venezuela
Honduras, Guyana, and still,
Guatemala, Bolivia, then Argentina
And Ecuador, Chile, Brazil.
Costa Rica, Belize, Nicaragua, Bermuda
Bahamas, Tobago, San Juan,
Paraguay, Uruguay, Surinam
And French Guiana, Barbados, and Guam.

Norway, and Sweden, and Iceland, and Finland
And Germany now one piece,
Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia
Italy, Turkey, and Greece.
Poland, Romania, Scotland, Albania
Ireland, Russia, Oman,
Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia
Hungary, Cyprus, Iraq, and Iran.
There's Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan
Both Yemens, Kuwait, and Bahrain,
The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Portugal
France, England, Denmark, and Spain.

India, Pakistan, Burma, Afghanistan
Thailand, Nepal, and Bhutan,
Kampuchea, Malaysia, then Bangladesh (Asia)
And China, Korea, Japan.
Mongolia, Laos, and Tibet, Indonesia
The Philippine Islands, Taiwan,
Sri Lanka, New Guinea, Sumatra, New Zealand
Then Borneo, and Vietnam.
Tunisia, Morocco, Uganda, Angola
Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Botswana,
Mozambique, Zambia, Swaziland, Gambia
Guinea, Algeria, Ghana.

Burundi, Lesotho, and Malawi, Togo
The Spanish Sahara is gone,
Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Liberia
Egypt, Benin, and Gabon.
Tanzania, Somalia, Kenya, and Mali
Sierra Leone, and Algiers,
Dahomey, Namibia, Senegal, Libya
Cameroon, Congo, Zaire.
Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar
Rwanda, Mahore, and Cayman,
Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Yugoslavia...
Crete, Mauritania
Then Transylvania,
Monaco, Liechtenstein
Malta, and Palestine,
Fiji, Australia, Sudan

The bolded are not nations.

apparently no one told yako warner

KingBAD said:

SUPRMAN said:

The bolded are not nations.

apparently no one told yako warner

Poor Wales lol

i would recommend that google earth be a required course in high school. it is a great way to learn about planet earth. thank you, that is all

XxAxX said:

i would recommend that google earth be a required course in high school. it is a great way to learn about planet earth. thank you, that is all

Awesome resource. And since we now can virtually visit certain places, with a 360° ground-level view, it really enriches the experience of learning. Puts you right there!

Hell, I'd have never left geography class if I had such toys.

[Edited 12/1/13 6:19am]

If anyone finds themselves in the Yarmouth, Maine, area (I know. Who would? ), I recommend a visit to the DeLorme headquarters. They are a producer of mapping, GPS systems and topographic research technologies. They've got the world's largest rotating globe, "Eartha," in their lobby, and years back they published the fantastic Eartha World Travelog. That travelog remains one of the most informative, yet accessible, I've seen, though it's now sorely in need of an update from its latest 2000 edition...

Another resource I've found awesome is Lonely Planet's The Travel Book. it covers some 229 countries with great maps, sociopolitical and demographic info, travel tips, and wonderful photos. For something a bit less sprawling, there are area-speciific editions available as well as a Not for Parents kid's version. I've repeatedly found myself moved to pad my travel fund after spending hours with this book...

SUPRMAN said:

KingBAD said:

don't look at me like WHUT

but i've watched yako sing the

states and countries of the world...

Lyrics to Yakko's World (Countries Of The World) :

Announcer:
And now the nations of the world, brought to you by Yakko Warner!

Yakko:
United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama
Haiti, Jamaica, Peru,
Republic Dominican, Cuba, Carribean
Greenland, El Salvador too.
Puerto Rico, Columbia, Venezuela
Honduras, Guyana, and still,
Guatemala, Bolivia, then Argentina
And Ecuador, Chile, Brazil.
Costa Rica, Belize, Nicaragua, Bermuda
Bahamas, Tobago, San Juan,
Paraguay, Uruguay, Surinam
And French Guiana, Barbados, and Guam.

Norway, and Sweden, and Iceland, and Finland
And Germany now one piece,
Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia
Italy, Turkey, and Greece.
Poland, Romania, Scotland, Albania
Ireland, Russia, Oman,
Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia
Hungary, Cyprus, Iraq, and Iran.
There's Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan
Both Yemens, Kuwait, and Bahrain,
The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Portugal
France, England, Denmark, and Spain.

India, Pakistan, Burma, Afghanistan
Thailand, Nepal, and Bhutan,
Kampuchea, Malaysia, then Bangladesh (Asia)
And China, Korea, Japan.
Mongolia, Laos, and Tibet, Indonesia
The Philippine Islands, Taiwan,
Sri Lanka, New Guinea, Sumatra, New Zealand
Then Borneo, and Vietnam.
Tunisia, Morocco, Uganda, Angola
Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Botswana,
Mozambique, Zambia, Swaziland, Gambia
Guinea, Algeria, Ghana.

Burundi, Lesotho, and Malawi, Togo
The Spanish Sahara is gone,
Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Liberia
Egypt, Benin, and Gabon.
Tanzania, Somalia, Kenya, and Mali
Sierra Leone, and Algiers,
Dahomey, Namibia, Senegal, Libya
Cameroon, Congo, Zaire.
Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar
Rwanda, Mahore, and Cayman,
Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Yugoslavia...
Crete, Mauritania
Then Transylvania,
Monaco, Liechtenstein
Malta, and Palestine,
Fiji, Australia, Sudan

The bolded are not nations.

Tobago isn't a nation either, it's Trinidad and Tobago

Serious said:

SUPRMAN said:

The bolded are not nations.

Tobago isn't a nation either, it's Trinidad and Tobago

cough cough,

he sang the COUNTRIES of the world...

he SANG them...

you people are visious

coutries, not nations

KingBAD said:

Serious said:

Tobago isn't a nation either, it's Trinidad and Tobago

cough cough,

he sang the COUNTRIES of the world...

he SANG them...

you people are visious

coutries, not nations

But the country is called Trinidad and Tobago ..... so he better not forget about Trinidad

Serious said:

KingBAD said:

cough cough,

he sang the COUNTRIES of the world...

he SANG them...

you people are visious

coutries, not nations

But the country is called Trinidad and Tobago ..... so he better not forget about Trinidad

one day, i'm gonna read a book and become truely DANGEROUS!!!

KingBAD said:

Serious said:

But the country is called Trinidad and Tobago ..... so he better not forget about Trinidad

one day, i'm gonna read a book and become truely DANGEROUS!!!

good idea

I would not insist so much if it was about any other country but Trinidad will forever have such a special place in my heart

In junior high and high school, we had to learn:

-provinces and province capitals of Canada

-states and state capitals of USA

-countries and country capitals of Europe

-countries of Africa, rest of world

I certainly can't plot them on a blank map of only borders anymore, but I still have an idea where they are when I read a news story.

Darn Org!

[Edited 12/2/13 16:23pm]

ZombieKitten said:

kewlschool said:

I would think a majority of Americans couldn't name all the states and/or the capitals.

I could name most of the countries in Europe but not the real small ones except Vatican City or Monaco.

My mum and I play name the United States as a drinking game, we aren't too bad. We are TERRIBLE at Africa though

We may not be the best at Africa-but in our defense, countries change more frequently in Africa in the last 30 years than any where else in the world.

KingBAD said:

Serious said:

Tobago isn't a nation either, it's Trinidad and Tobago

cough cough,

he sang the COUNTRIES of the world...

he SANG them...

you people are visious

coutries, not nations

I was going easy, hence allowing Tobago.

What is the difference between a country and a nation?

kewlschool said:

ZombieKitten said:

My mum and I play name the United States as a drinking game, we aren't too bad. We are TERRIBLE at Africa though

We may not be the best at Africa-but in our defense, countries change more frequently in Africa in the last 30 years than any where else in the world.

That I disagree with.

Not an acceptable defense anyway.

SUPRMAN said:

kewlschool said:

We may not be the best at Africa-but in our defense, countries change more frequently in Africa in the last 30 years than any where else in the world.

That I disagree with.

Not an acceptable defense anyway.

eastern europe is as guilty, and I don't know any of those so well either

anything that changed since I did geography in high school 30 years ago I can forget about

ZombieKitten said:

SUPRMAN said:

That I disagree with.

Not an acceptable defense anyway.

eastern europe is as guilty, and I don't know any of those so well either

anything that changed since I did geography in high school 30 years ago I can forget about

babynoz said:

SUPRMAN said:

Only Zaire is still has the borders outlined in your atlas. The rest, no longer exist except in history.

Relax, he is making a jokey-joke.

There is something I always find quite poignant, though, in thinking about just how much the world has changed, even in a few short decades. Maybe it's because I'm starting to feel old! My memories of the Cold War, and even the Berlin Wall coming down, are pretty vague, but I have a much stronger recollection of those events that defined that turbulent post-Cold War period of the early-/mid-Nineties - and I remember being very affected by the news images, night after night, of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia (and the Miss Sarajevo documentary they showed on MTV, which I think Bono produced), as well as the regular BBC reports by the journalist Fergal Keane during the long three months that the world looked on at the unfolding Rwandan genocide. These things - weirdly - get bound up with one's own personal narrative, and attached to other memories of the time, etc.

My serious point, re: this whole discussion about lines and names on a map, is that I never took much from the abstract exercise of learning by rote where all the labels go (and I don't really think we should derived too much from the fact that most people can't do that, tbh). But if someone can connect those changing names and the shifting lines to the human stories behind them - and how human stories always play out on a stage set by history, politics, geography, etc, and sometimes remake that stage - they'll have me hooked, and I'll have some reason to care about these abstract facts, because I'll be able to connect them to something meaningful.

I was drawn, when I got the chance, to study the politics of the conflicts I'd been moved by seeing reports about (Rwanda, Somalia, etc), and I've always valued getting the chance to meet and talk to people from those places, as that adds a much more tangible dimension to these all-too-abstract subjects. I think we sometimes lose sight of the fact that the point of learning about geography, history, politics, etc, isn't just to generate a bunch of facts and figures we can use to rank people according to how well they regurgitate them in tests, but to help us to understand better the world we live in (and, if you're inclined towards such flights of idealism, to perhaps get a slightly clearer sense of how we might make it a better place for actual flesh-and-blood human beings to live in).