Why does no one know where anything or anywhere is?

[Барбоса]

I cannot speak for everyone on here but it is my experience that people this days have no idea where anything is. I don't expect them to know everything about every far off country, river or mountain but at least know a little something about the continent or even the country you live in.

I have had this pet peeve about geography since I was about 14 when I found out that while my school taught Geography I would not be learning about where things were and what their names were, more climatic and human geography, so I dropped it. One of my best friends kept it on until an advanced level yet I would always tell him that he knows nothing about geography, which he freely admits is true. (My stock question is "What is the capital of Iceland?")

This general lack of geographical knowledge was further highlighted to me by the teaching I do at uni. I the course of me describing Roman military expeditions, I would say such a battle/place/city was in modern Denmark, Switzerland, Croatia etc. It quickly dawned on me that these uni students hadn't the first clue of where I was talking about. This forced me to incorporate a large map into my teaching. Not only does it shock many with how big the Roman Empire was, it gives them some geographical perspective that they are sadly lacking. I also got the feeling that many of them had never been shown/looked at a map...

The event that brought about this rant was about a week ago when my cousin was visiting from England. She told me that one of her roommates though that Glasgow was in Ireland... Now I understand that geography has little or nothing to do with her chosen profession but would you really want to be treated by a physiotherapist who had so little idea of where anything is?

I know many on here are from North America, which has a bad reputation for being very ignorant in its knowledge of other countries. In my experience, that is not quite true but then again when I have been in America I have been socialising with people who have a lot of contact with tourists. Is it as bad as rumour and stereotypes would have us believe?

Does anyone else have this peeve?

 

[HBK-aholic]

No, why would I? I don't care what the capital of Iceland is, I very much doubt it will ever affect my life. So what she didn't know where a city was, it doesn't affect her career at all, and if she's never been, or doesn't know anyone who lives there, why would she?

I don't know where cities are in perspective to each other, and unless I start to drive myself to them, I don't need to. Not sure why this is an annoyance to you - it doesn't affect you either for the most part.

 

[Барбоса]

It probably is a prejudice of mine but if I have to explain to someone who lives in Britain that Glasgow is on the same island as London but not the same one as Belfast, or that Paris is the capital of France or that Hitler did not live thousands of years ago, I'm sorry but my automatic reaction will be to label that person a moron.

Or maybe general knowledge is a lot less generally known

 

[FromTheSouth]

The capital of Iceland is Reykjavik.

I agree with you that it is annoying, and it's not just geography. There are people in high schools that put "lol" into papers. People no longer know how to form a sentence. People don't know how to fill out a check. I know that no one writes checks anymore, but at some point, you would think that they would fucking read it.

No one seeks knowledge anymore. Hollywood and MTV no longer just embraces idiocy, they celebrate it, and that leads people to believe that it's OK to be stupid. Stupidity, for the most part, is a curable malady, but no one thinks to cure themselves.

I long for the day to return that everyone seeks information beyond which celebrity's new clothing line will feature cat hair thongs. Unfortunately, for all the great wisdom to be found on the internet, most of it is about who is fucking whom and where to buy dick pills. Disgusting.

 

[HBK-aholic]

The capital of Iceland is Reykjavik.

I agree with you that it is annoying, and it's not just geography. There are people in high schools that put "lol" into papers. People no longer know how to form a sentence.

I can understand being annoyed at this, this has a much bigger chance of affecting you.

People don't know how to fill out a check. I know that no one writes checks anymore, but at some point, you would think that they would fucking read it.

I have no clue how to do this, well, I've never tried. As you said, no one writes them anymore, and there's hardly a class on it.

No one seeks knowledge anymore. Hollywood and MTV no longer just embraces idiocy, they celebrate it, and that leads people to believe that it's OK to be stupid. Stupidity, for the most part, is a curable malady, but no one thinks to cure themselves.

I don't think not knowing the capital of a country you have no intention of going to classifies as stupid, to be honest. Basic English, I can understand. But I don't see the fuss over not knowing the geography of the world, not if it doesn't affect you.

 

[FromTheSouth]

I can understand being annoyed at this, this has a much bigger chance of affecting you.

There are a million examples of idiocy creeping into our society. It just seems to be celebrated. I would never do anything to take away from the fact that Paris Hilton has used her daddy's money to make her own, but I don't understand how she achieved such a statue without being able to spell.

I have no clue how to do this, well, I've never tried. As you said, no one writes them anymore, and there's hardly a class on it.

I'm talking about business men who don't know how to preform simple tasks.

I don't think not knowing the capital of a country you have no intention of going to classifies as stupid, to be honest. Basic English, I can understand. But I don't see the fuss over not knowing the geography of the world, not if it doesn't affect you.

I will forgive not know the capital of Kyrgyzstan, but not know where Glasgow or Belfast is - there's no excuse for that in the western world. To understand the present, you have to understand the past, and to understand the past, you have to know where the past happened.

 

[Tastycles]

There is much to be said about this kind of lack of knowledge to be honest. There are a whole host of reasons for it. There's an idea that permeates culture these days that if something doesn't effect us, then it doesn't matter. This can actually be very dangerous. If we take Adolf Hitler, the favourite of extreme examplists, then this can be made clearly. I'm not a Jew, I'm not German and I was born in 1987, therefore the impact that Hitler had on my life is minimal. However, it is important that I understand what he did because if I didn't, then I wouldn't be able to see it coming if a similar chain of events set in motion that were either created by or targeting my culture in my lifetime, and that is a bad thing. I'm sure if the German layman in 1930 had known more about the Russian Pogroms, then there might not have been a holocaust.

Moving out of history and into geography may make the problem go away, but it really doesn't. Of all the things wars have been fought over: religion (the crusades), ideology (cold war), imperialism (WW1) etc. the underlying thing is that at some point it relates to one culture attacking another for some superficial reason. Much of this comes from a fear of the unknown, and this fear is born out of ignorance. How many Americans do you think knew that Stalin wasn't Russian? How many Austrians knew were Sarajevo was before 1914? How many Americans knew anything about Vietnam before 1960 or Korea before 1950? How many British people knew anything about the Boers before the 1890s? How many Germans knew anything about Judaism before 1925? The answer is very few, and it is precisely these sorts of ignorances that end up being preyed on by people with agendas.

The fact that people don't know Reykjavik (sp?) is the capital of Iceland is indicative that they don't know anything else about it either. If Barack Obama or Gordon Brown came out tomorrow and said that Iceland was run by a dictator who was building nuclear bombs, would you know any better? Knowing something about everything helps you understand when you are being lied to and also helps you understand and appreciate something about other places. If you don't know where Glasgow is, how can you possibly know what a person from their was likely to be like. It is these small ignorances that grow into big issues.

Why does this come about? Some of it is in-built patriotism, some of it is naïvity and some of it is plain ignorance, but it still exists. History and geography may not have any bearing on modern life, but neither does 80% of mathematics, English Literature or, for most anglophiles, modern languages. A well rounded education, exemplified by broad knowledge, makes a well rounded person and well rounded people make well rounded societies. That, in a nutshell, is why it is important to know these things.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

People not knowing about geography is not that big of a deal, to be honest. I mean, it's absolutely essential to some things, such as studying history (e.g., for knowing where exactly different groups of barbarians interacted with the Roman Empire or where battles took place), but, I can't think of many other instances where geographical knowledge would be needed.

I don't know many capitals, but I know where countries are because of a natural curiosity (I don't know about much in Africa, though; there's a lot of countries there). But, most people, especially here in the United States, will never have the good fortune to leave their country, so, really, what is it to them if they don't know where other places are located? Knowledge of geography should be expected of some people, but not everyone.

 

[Барбоса]

natural curiosity

I think it is a general lack of natural curiosity that perhaps is the root of my peeve. As FTS said, a large chunk of the world's knowledge is just a few clicks away on the Internet. I probably read 4 or 5 wikipedia pages on subjects not related to my work just because they piqued my interest (today it was films, medicine, the animal kingdom and the German city of Mainz). It boggles my mind that people don't use such a tool to broaden their horizons, choosing instead to rot their minds looking up the latest news on Jonny No-Talent and his drug-addicted, nymphomaniac girlfriend.

I don't think that knowing where places are is a need but I do think that it should be part of every child's education so that they might want to go to those places or at least want to learn about them.

Curiosity, not necessity, is the mother of all invention.

 

[Leafy]

I still go to high school and my history teacher has the same peeve as you. We had to take a quiz where we had to fill out a map of Europe, naming every country. People failed this quiz, horribly. I thought it was easy for the most part and got a 94. But the day before people were asking me where France was. That shocked me, I understand not knowing where Croatia or other small countries but France is a major country. How do people go through life not caring about global events?

 

[theviolentmessiah]

The capital of Iceland is Reykjavik I think. =P

Geography isn't my strong suit but I agree with you on the basics. I find that people who dont know the basics in any subject I label as morons, your examples of Glasgow and London and Hitler's years are perfect, anyone who doesn't know that automatically gets my disdain, and though I shouldn't, I think I'm better than them.

I also agree with you on the North American stereotype, from what I've heard and seen their Geography (and most of their education) is awful, but one should never stereotype.