Biggest Cities in Brazil

fœtus

?

stupid, ignorant, or poorly educated for not knowing cities in Brazil? I live in Uruguay right next to it, I'm pretty sure I'm not a poorly educated stupid ignorant, and I got 9

I do have to agree with Tramp, I live in the US, and almost everyone that I know is horrifically bad at geography. Almost all of them think that it's not important, since they live in the US, but they seemed shocked whenever other people from other nations don't know that much about the US, because they think that other people should know about the US, since it's "The Center of the World"

I live in Brazil and only got 16/20 the first time I took the quiz. Once you name the main state capitals it gets trickier - the "suburb cities" are not nearly as well-known.

Tramp, yes Americans are "notoriously" bad at geography. But does notoriety equal actual badness? No. A million times no. Not even close.

Lio, that's great that you live in the USA and have some anecdotal experience to share. I have lived in the USA, and in Bahrain, in Saudi Arabia, in South Korea, in Israel, in Turkey, in Romania, and in Russia among other places. I've traveled extensively through Europe, Asia, Africa, and the United States. I've worked as an educator many of these places. If anecdotal experience means something, I've got yours beat.

Almost everyone I meet ANYWHERE believes that it's not important to know geography beyond where they are from. Europeans are dismayed that Americans don't know more about their own countries, and also believe the Europe is the center of the world. When they talk about Americans or other people not knowing more about "the rest of the world" what they usually mean is Western Europe. However...

I have been traveling through Europe lately and when I tell EUROPEANS that I am in Thessaloniki, or Tbilisi, or Nicosia, or Odessa, or Riga, or Vilnius, or Minsk, or Iasi, or Chisinau... the most common response I get is... "WHERE??" They don't even know about their own continent, let alone the "rest of the world." Americans know about what is local and relevant to them: the USA, parts of Canada and Mexico, parts of Western Europe, and a few countries that they've been bombing recently. Europeans are about the same. They know countries in Europe. Which means they might know about more countries, but that doesn't make their knowledge superior. There are six countries in Europe smaller than Rhode Island. AND... if they don't know where Odessa is and I have personal experience telling me many of them don't. That's just pathetic. Odessa is the 2nd largest city in Europe. It's as big as Las Vegas, with a much longer more interesting history. I can't imagine an American not knowing Las Vegas

My students in Saudi Arabia often could not point to the USA, Russia, China, or even their own country on a map. I'm not kidding. This was very common. They could tell me a bit about geography, and a tiny bit about history, regarding themselves and their neighbors. They would be more likely to know the difference between Iraq and Iran or Oman and Yemen than an American, for sure. And they could identify a lot of European flags if they happened to be football fans. But maybe 1 in 1000 could compete well on an average JetPunk geography quiz. My experience teaching in South Korea and Eastern Europe was roughly the same. I spent six years working in Saudi alongside mostly European or Arab coworkers. The last two years in a British company. These people were not more saavy, well informed, educated, or naturally inquisitive than Americans. I knew geography and history better than any of them. I ate and spoke with them every day.

PEOPLE are bad at geography. Not Americans.

**Odessa is the 2nd largest city in Ukraine.. NOT Europe. Major typo. Also I believe it was Vilnius I looked up before that had the same population as Las Vegas. Odessa is actually 50% larger, making the fact that many people in nearby countries are not even aware of it all the more peculiar.

I find that many Americans are more likely to know US geography of the coast areas than the interior. No one seems to care about the "flyover" states. We were in New York and when people asked where we were from and I said Missouri, they just got a glazed-over look and said, "Isn't that somewhere in the middle?" I told one person that we lived between Memphis and St. Louis. He got excited and said, "Memphis! Graceland! Elvis! Yeah!! I know where that is." So after that we started saying that and got no more blank stares, except for one man who said, "I just heard you say you're from Missouri. Isn't Memphis in Tennessee?" "Yes," I replied, "but part of Missouri touches Tennessee." He kept looking us up and down, letting us know he no longer trusted us. On another trip we told a man we met in Hawaii that we were from halfway between Memphis and St. Louis. He replied, "That sounds like halfway between nowhere and someplace I wouldn't want to be." There's just no respect for the heartland.

:) funny stories, ander. and I know what you mean. But I've had similar conversations with people all over the world. Not caring about geography is about as American as... breathing oxygen, or using keratin to grow fingernails, or being born naked.

Wait, Kalbahamut. Have you actually been to Thessaloniki, or Tbilisi, or Nicosia, or Odessa, or Riga, or Vilnius, or Minsk, or Iasi, or Chisinau?

Once I asked my friends if Europe was a country, and over half of them answered yes.

Not gonna lie, I also kinda had a stereotype in my head of Americans being bad at geography...knowing that it's the same everywhere else makes me feel better. I'm guessing the only reason why the US gets all the attention is 1. because of the occasional viral video and 2. because the US always gets all the attention.

But also, of course, you don't need to know geography to be smart. I read a story once about some guy with a PhD who didn't know Cyprus existed. If geography's not related to your area of expertise, you don't need to know it (although I'm guessing PhD students will typically know more geography than the average American). And, of course, we just had a President who apparently didn't know that India borders China and that New Mexico is a US state... so there's that.

(coming from Germany) The other day I had a discussion with a student on his way to a good master's degree, who didn't think it's any good to know where Bangladesh is. My mates in geography classes back in school didn't know a whole lot about other countries or even our own states (Valencia is in Italy, Japan has a few thousand people, "Mexico is a country? I only know it from a song" etc). That was in the highest of three school forms and towards the end when we were 18-19. One guy who got the best grades in history, geography and politics wondered why in the world Gandhi made a march "just for salt". Fellow students of anglistics at the uni were a bit better on average, but not much. One of them didn't know which way to hold a map of the British isles and didn't to be shown either ("too complicated"). I've also had Poles who didn't know where Stalingrad is and others who I couldn't explain to that Bavaria did not belong to East Germany (they drew a line right through the middle and..

...insisted that the GDR must've held all of the eastern part). Then there was this guy who was confused by me talking about East Asians. There's a joke in my country that high school graduates today would never repeat the crime of invading Poland. They wouldn't know which direction to go. I've had little exposure to Americans in real life but I think I'm on board with the statement that people are bad at geography.

WolfCam: yes I've been to all of the above. I lived in Thessaloniki for almost 3 months. In Odessa and Minsk each for about a month or so. I spent a couple days in Iasi. The other places mentioned all were somewhere between those two ranges.

The fact that the two most liked comments in this thread are the two most ignorant and the two that most prop-up the incorrect, bigoted stereotype being called out says a lot. Thanks for sharing, everyone else.

Wholly on bored with the fact that most people are bad at geography, but high schoolers are definitely worse than most. I was talking to one of my friends a while back, and for whatever reason I mentioned Baltimore, and she gave me a strange look and asked if that was in Louisiana. It should be noted that it's about a 2 hour drive to Louisiana from where we live. That's not to say that I look down on her, or anyone, for not knowing their geography, but I thought it was funny, and it really drives home the idea that people don't really think outside of their immediate vicinity.

Yeah, that's probably what the user actually meant and it would absolutely make sense.

why doesn't it?

And Belo Horizonte!

No Belo Horizonte.

Didn’t know Porto Alegre but knew Belo Horizonte

If you’re responding to Kal, why don’t you reply to them instead?

I was not responding him...

A really awful spelling of Curitiba. I always thought it was Curatiba so I thought Curatipa was only one letter off.