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LeftistMuslimObama posted:Seriously, how many people know that Kazakhstan is not a fictional country made up by Sacha Cohen? Maybe this is unrealistic, but I hope a lot, even if they couldn't find it on a map.
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Jul 11, 2013 20:34
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Kalos posted:If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure most of the US thinks England, the United Kingdom, and Great Britain are all completely interchangeable terms that mean the exact same thing. Vegetable fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Jul 11, 2013 |
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Jul 11, 2013 20:42
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Kalos posted:If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure most of the US thinks England, the United Kingdom, and Great Britain are all completely interchangeable terms that mean the exact same thing. Most people I talk to seem to be under the impression that Ireland and Scotland are both the same thing. Rolling green hills filled with bearded red-headed men in kilts playing bagpipes.
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Jul 11, 2013 20:45
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Vegetable posted:I'm pretty sure most people outside the UK are utterly baffled by the political arrangement of the British Isles. Scotland, Wales, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Great Britain, Britain, United Kingdom, the British Isles, Crown dependencies. When it comes down to it I wouldn't be surprised if some Britons can't pinpoint the finer distinctions. The confusing part is that England doesn't have a parliament of its own, but Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales do. What kind of federal system is that?
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Jul 11, 2013 20:49
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Phlegmish posted:The confusing part is that England doesn't have a parliament of its own, but Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales do. What kind of federal system is that?
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Jul 11, 2013 20:52
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lonelywurm posted:Apparently Maine has the worst average SAT scores of all the states (not including DC) in 2011, but the stats are skewed heavily by the fact Maine requires students to sit the SATs and many other states don't seem to bother. 93% of students in Maine took the SATs, while only 5% did in Illinois, the top state (in fact, of all the top 20 scoring states, not one has a participation rate higher than 20%). In Illinois you're required to take the ACT , another standardized test.
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Jul 11, 2013 20:56
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Vegetable posted:I'm pretty sure most people outside the UK are utterly baffled by the political arrangement of the British Isles. Scotland, Wales, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Great Britain, Britain, United Kingdom, the British Isles, Crown dependencies. When it comes down to it I wouldn't be surprised if some Britons couldn't finger the finer distinctions. Even this list is wrong: there is no such thing as "Britain" other than as an abbreviation of "Great Britain" 
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Jul 11, 2013 21:04
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eSports Chaebol posted:Even this list is wrong: there is no such thing as "Britain" other than as an abbreviation of "Great Britain"
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Jul 11, 2013 21:13
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Elim Garak posted:Maybe this is unrealistic, but I hope a lot, even if they couldn't find it on a map. I really wish Central Asia would at least get a brief overview in western education, I think I read less than half a dozen pages about the place before college. We treat "the stans" like they're completely incomprehensible but they're really not. I guess I could say the same about a lot of the world. Koramei fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Jul 11, 2013 |
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Jul 11, 2013 21:27
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It seems like the *stans are where the bad guys live.
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Jul 11, 2013 21:31
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There are people (namely, Justin Bieber) who barely know what Germany is. I think educators are just setting their standards realistically low.
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Jul 11, 2013 21:35
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Anyone involved in international business in any way knows a lot about The Stans. Hopefully enough to keep the gently caress out. VVVV Hell of corruption, mainly. Only the biggest companies with the deepest pockets (and a willingness to do shady business) can expect return for their money. e: Have a nice interactive map http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2012/results/ 3D Megadoodoo fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Jul 11, 2013 |
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Jul 11, 2013 21:40
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Care to elaborate? (I am not involved in international business in any way)
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Jul 11, 2013 21:43
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Kalos posted:If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure most of the US thinks England, the United Kingdom, and Great Britain are all completely interchangeable terms that mean the exact same thing. Phlegmish posted:The confusing part is that England doesn't have a parliament of its own, but Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales do. What kind of federal system is that? In a true federal system the central government would have powers delegated to it by the constituent states (even though it's debatable to what extent this happens in many federal countries). The only way to do that with the UK without disproportionate power would be to split England up into it's 8 regions, then make London part of the UK, not England, ACT/DC style.
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Jul 11, 2013 22:35
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Phlegmish posted:The confusing part is that England doesn't have a parliament of its own, but Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales do. What kind of federal system is that? Yeah it's not a federal system, the national parliament has absolute power legally, it just allows the regional ones to have a bit out of good graces. The regional parliaments didn't exist until the 1970s IIRC, and were basically set up to mollify independence/regional nationalist movements complaining that England had nearly complete control over the political system, which they did.
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Jul 11, 2013 22:47
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VirtualStranger posted:Most people I talk to seem to be under the impression that Ireland and Scotland are both the same thing. Rolling green hills filled with bearded red-headed men in kilts playing bagpipes. And once in a while some catholic dude blows them up.
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Jul 11, 2013 23:12
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Kalos posted:If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure most of the US thinks England, the United Kingdom, and Great Britain are all completely interchangeable terms that mean the exact same thing. That, and they think London is the only inhabited place in the country. I've lived in the US for 14 years, and I've been asked if I'm from London (I'm from Dorset, on the other side of the country) so many times that sometimes I just roll with it and tell them all about how we have carriages and singing chimneysweeps just to gently caress with them.
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Jul 11, 2013 23:16
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All the english people I know from London seem to share that view.
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Jul 11, 2013 23:51
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I learned a little bit about the 'Stans through Wikipedia and stuff on my own time, because I wondered why no one ever talked about some of those countries. A lot of you probably know about this already, but the former Turkmenistan leader was pretty nuts. Here are some of his odd decrees: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov#Decrees_and_laws I haven't done hardcore research or anything, but I can find the countries on a map and at least name some of the capital cities. And one or more of the 'Stans has yurts, I remember that.
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Jul 12, 2013 00:05
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Baronjutter posted:All the english people I know from London seem to share that view. Studied a semester in London and can confirm. The group of friends I made acted as if their friends from the Midlands were from another country out in the middle of nowhere that may or may not exist.
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Jul 12, 2013 00:06
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shiffty posted:Studied a semester in London and can confirm. The group of friends I made acted as if their friends from the Midlands were from another country out in the middle of nowhere that may or may not exist. London is the big city. Liverpool is farther north, where the people are called "Liverpudlians". Newcastle is also north, where they make brown ale. That's all the cities in England, right?
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Jul 12, 2013 00:11
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prefect posted:London is the big city. Liverpool is farther north, where the people are called "Liverpudlians". Newcastle is also north, where they make brown ale. That's all the cities in England, right? You forgot Gren-itch where time was invented and oxford/cambridge. the rest is fen, forest, and fantasy druid landscaping
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Jul 12, 2013 00:13
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Real hurthling! posted:You forgot Gren-itch where time was invented and oxford/cambridge. the rest is fen, forest, and fantasy druid landscaping Those are suburbs of London, right?
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Jul 12, 2013 00:17
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prefect posted:Those are suburbs of London, right? how can london have suburbs? where would the dragons live?
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Jul 12, 2013 00:18
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icantfindaname posted:Yeah it's not a federal system, the national parliament has absolute power legally, it just allows the regional ones to have a bit out of good graces. The regional parliaments didn't exist until the 1970s IIRC, and were basically set up to mollify independence/regional nationalist movements complaining that England had nearly complete control over the political system, which they did. It's even more recent than that, the Scottish parliament and the Welsh and Nothern Irish assemblies date from 1999 (though the Scottish parliament declared itself reconvened after a 300 year adjournment), and in practice the Northern Ireland Assembly didn't really function until 2007.
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Jul 12, 2013 00:50
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Reveilled posted:It's even more recent than that, the Scottish parliament and the Welsh and Nothern Irish assemblies date from 1999 (though the Scottish parliament declared itself reconvened after a 300 year adjournment), and in practice the Northern Ireland Assembly didn't really function until 2007. The NI Assembly is a bit distinct from the other two though, in that it was birthed out of and has to come to terms with with the legacy of the Troubles. The other two, by contrast, are just annoyed orange-haired people
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Jul 12, 2013 00:54
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Couldn't find a large enough population density map in my brief search, but this is a pretty good approximation. Traffic accidents, 1999-2010 A quick rundown of some of the major urban areas: - London is obvious. - Birmingham, the second largest city, is in the middle near Wales. - In the big built up area running east from North Wales you have Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds/Bradford a little bit to the north and Sheffield. Hull is the very bright spot on the Humber estuary if you follow the line to the east. - Further north along the east coast you can see the Durham, Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Newcastle conurbation. - Glasgow and Edinburgh are the two in southern Scotland, west and east respectively. Going up the east coast you can see Dundee and Aberdeen. Identifying anything below about Birmingham is basically beyond me, but helpfully it's largely unnecessary as it all might as well be London.
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Jul 12, 2013 01:04
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My favorite UK thing is how nobody outside it seems to know that Glasgow is not the capital of Scotland
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Jul 12, 2013 01:43
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tbp posted:My favorite UK thing is how nobody outside it seems to know that Glasgow is not the capital of Scotland Uhh what?
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Jul 12, 2013 01:45
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XMNN posted:Identifying anything below about Birmingham is basically beyond me, but helpfully it's largely unnecessary as it all might as well be London.  The buildup around southwest Wales is Carfiff and Swansea and then Bristol across the channel from those.
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Jul 12, 2013 01:54
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 Or, since this is a map thread: 
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Jul 12, 2013 02:19
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Bishop Rodan posted:That, and they think London is the only inhabited place in the country. I've lived in the US for 14 years, and I've been asked if I'm from London (I'm from Dorset, on the other side of the country) so many times that sometimes I just roll with it and tell them all about how we have carriages and singing chimneysweeps just to gently caress with them. Someone from Philadelphia would probably be annoyed if people kept asking them if they were from New York, but it wouldn't be that far off.  For that matter, I'm in New York, but if NYC was where London is I'd be drat near Ireland. http://overlapmaps.com/ is a pretty neat site for this sort of thing. Edit: to make more political, put England on top of other countries it used to rule. Fun for everyone! Killer robot fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Jul 12, 2013 |
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Jul 12, 2013 02:23
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Bishop Rodan posted:That, and they think London is the only inhabited place in the country. I've lived in the US for 14 years, and I've been asked if I'm from London (I'm from Dorset, on the other side of the country) so many times that sometimes I just roll with it and tell them all about how we have carriages and singing chimneysweeps just to gently caress with them. You're being a bit petty. When I tell people I'm from Finland, they tend to ask "are you from Helsinki?", and I don't take any offence (I'm not). A greater percentage of the British population lives in London that the Finnish one does in Helsinki. It's just the first thing they think of.
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Jul 12, 2013 02:38
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Worst yet is if you let someone know that you are from Vancouver and they are like "OH ! Do you know BOB?"
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Jul 12, 2013 02:50
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Baloogan posted:Worst yet is if you let someone know that you are from Vancouver and they are like "OH ! Do you know BOB?" I don't get why people get offended by this. They obviously don't actually think you know the person they're asking about, but on the off chance you do, it's a great small-world moment.
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Jul 12, 2013 04:31
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tbp posted:My favorite UK thing is how nobody outside it seems to know that Glasgow is not the capital of Scotland To be fair this happens a lot; hell, I've lost count of the times I've heard how I live in the capital of Australia (Sydney), and my cousins live in the capital of Canada (Toronto) and New Zealand (Auckland). People just have a natural tendency to assume the largest city is the capital, irrespective of whether the one in their country is.
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Jul 12, 2013 04:37
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iajanus posted:To be fair this happens a lot; hell, I've lost count of the times I've heard how I live in the capital of Australia (Sydney), and my cousins live in the capital of Canada (Toronto) and New Zealand (Auckland). People just have a natural tendency to assume the largest city is the capital, irrespective of whether the one in their country is. Notably, it seems safer to assume in Europe where a lot of countries are political entities that grew up around a prime urban center, as opposed to the mentioned countries, or in the US where DC as well as any given state capital was picked because it was physically near the middle of a then barely populated area.
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Jul 12, 2013 04:54
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You should all move to city-states because we don't have this problem
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Jul 12, 2013 05:01
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Baloogan posted:Worst yet is if you let someone know that you are from Vancouver and they are like "OH ! Do you know BOB?" This is upsetting, because everyone knows that Twin Peaks took place in Washington State, not British Columbia.
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Jul 12, 2013 05:09
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iajanus posted:To be fair this happens a lot; hell, I've lost count of the times I've heard how I live in the capital of Australia (Sydney), and my cousins live in the capital of Canada (Toronto) and New Zealand (Auckland). People just have a natural tendency to assume the largest city is the capital, irrespective of whether the one in their country is. Hm I guess you do have a point, I hadn't really thought about that. I bet most Americans would get Canada right but the other two wrong.
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Jul 12, 2013 05:28
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