Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
An engineer from Toronto, with a good job and a college education, went out to dinner with my husband and me. He worked at the same company my husband did, and was visiting from Canada.
He showed up for dinner in tight Wranglers, a ridiculous 1940s western movie style shirt, and a belt with a buckle the size of a dinner plate - as well as some of the most gaudy cowboy boots I've ever seen. We were actually embarrassed to be out with this yahoo, he looked so crazy and out of place.
He thought that was how people in the Dallas area and in Texas in general dress for a casual dinner. A costume party, yes. A rodeo, maybe - if they want to be a bit campy. Dinner? Hell, no.
He then proceeded to entertain us with his travel ideas - driving down to Austin from Dallas one morning, spending a few hours in Austin and then spending the afternoon in San Antonio, and then driving down that evening to South Padre Island. We said, "Go on wid cho bad seff. By the way, have you googled the distances yet?" He said, "Well, they're all in one state, right?'
We spent all night shaking our heads.
In my early 20's, I worked at a ritzy beach hotel in Santa Monica. A woman with an Australian accent called because she had a reservation and needed directions to the hotel.
Me: "What street are you on right now?"
Her: "Pacific Coast Highway. You know, this is getting really frustrating -"
Me: "Don't worry ma'am, I can definitely help you get to the hotel from PCH."
Her: "Well, I hope so, all the directions I've gotten so far are idiotic an haven't helped."
Me: "Okay, first: what direction are you heading?"
Her: "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW? I'M LOST!"
Me: "... ... what side of the car is the water on?"
Her: "The right!"
Me: "So, you're headed south -"
Her: "How do you know? Oh my god..."
Me: "Well, you're next to the Pacific Ocean, and so if you're on the West Coast, and it's to your right, you have to be headed south -"
Her: "WE'VE BEEN LOST FOR AN HOUR!"
Me: "... just keep heading the way you're going, and then you'll see a sign showing that you exit to Ocean Ave..."
Turns out, they were driving from San Francisco, meaning that they had been heading south for hundreds of miles at that point Stupid knows no national boundaries!
I was surprised that most of the so called "wealthy" in my neighborhood do not go outside the country by themselves (unless it is a cruise to the Caribbean and even then it is organized tour).
When I told a few people at Barnes & Noble the places I was going because they ask why I need all of those travel books, they seem put off or surprised that someone like me (a single male in his 20s) is brave enough and have the means to go travel the world!
They also were suspicious why I would want to visit Turkey (I figured I should since it was near Bulgaria and it is a relatively safe for a Mulsim majority country).
Well, in the case of people at Barnes and Noble, a big part of that is probably because B&N pays a few cents over minimum wage, and won't let anyone but salaried managers work any more than 29 hours so that they don't have to shell out for benefits. When you only make $1k/mo, half of that goes toward renting a place shared with three or four other people, and you don't have the money for decent food let alone a checkup, it's really hard to even imagine traveling to one place, let alone traveling to multiple places...
I worked at the Harvard and MIT bookstores as a teenager and both were managed by B&N, and then worked at one again in LA after I first got here and needed the cash... the hourly staff were collectively some of the most miserable people I've ever worked with: they were all intelligent, inquisitive, creative, good people, most of whom either were in school or had graduated fairly recently with an academia-oriented degree that they couldn't find work in. Talk in the break room almost universally focused on needing to find better jobs; contrast that with jobs I had in hotels, car dealerships, and other places that paid better, where people would talk about fun stuff they were going to do, or had done... living at the poverty line has a tendency to suck all the joy out of life
When it comes to the wealthy... well, I live in Beverly Hills, so that's pretty much what I'm surrounded by. For them, travel isn't so much about experiencing a new culture or way of life, it's about traveling to another cushy enclave in another part of the globe: rather than doing transfers on crowded and antiquated buses and trains for hours to get to a remote temple in the mountains of China, they fly into Shanghai, are driven to the Peninsula in a Rolls, and go shopping. Rather than walking up Mt. Koya and staying in a Ryokan and meditating in the cool mists of Okunoin, they fly to Bali and are immediately shuttled off to the Anantara Uluwatu, where they get a massage by the poolside. People who have made their life's goal the pursuit of luxury generally prefer to surround themselves with it 24/7, and view anything outside of that bubble of conventional "luxury" as undesirable.
I make nearly the same as they do and I save roughly about $450-500 dollars a month and within a year that makes it $5400-6000 I have to travel.
My secret is not eating so much and walking or biking to work instead of driving and buying gas frequently.
I get sneered by those wealthy clients however, and soon learn from workers over there that they talk bad about how I live and yet still able to make traveling a possibility for me despite my limited income.
Snobs.
I merely share my apartment with two people (thus only pay about $250-300 in rent per month) and do not live in a big city.
Yes, many Americans do not know geography. But many other people in the world too. I'm even starting to think that the people in the world degradation.Here's an example, I talked to a guy from South Korea, he did not know the history of their country, nor where it is located. I knew about it in a lot more than he did. But I was not in his city. He's lived there for 28 years. And this is happening in many places around the world. This is sad.
I was surprised that most of the so called "wealthy" in my neighborhood do not go outside the country by themselves (unless it is a cruise to the Caribbean and even then it is organized tour).
When I told a few people at Barnes & Noble the places I was going because they ask why I need all of those travel books, they seem put off or surprised that someone like me (a single male in his 20s) is brave enough and have the means to go travel the world!
They also were suspicious why I would want to visit Turkey (I figured I should since it was near Bulgaria and it is a relatively safe for a Muslim majority country).
They'd probably be surprised to learn that Turkey gets among the most tourists of any country, more than the UK.
Yes, many Americans do not know geography. But many other people in the world too. I'm even starting to think that the people in the world degradation.Here's an example, I talked to a guy from South Korea, he did not know the history of their country, nor where it is located. I knew about it in a lot more than he did. But I was not in his city. He's lived there for 28 years. And this is happening in many places around the world. This is sad.
I agree, most people in the world are surprisingly ignorant about the world they live in.
Yes, many Americans do not know geography. But many other people in the world too. I'm even starting to think that the people in the world degradation.Here's an example, I talked to a guy from South Korea, he did not know the history of their country, nor where it is located. I knew about it in a lot more than he did. But I was not in his city. He's lived there for 28 years. And this is happening in many places around the world. This is sad.
Yes, many Americans do not know geography. But many other people in the world too. I'm even starting to think that the people in the world degradation.Here's an example, I talked to a guy from South Korea, he did not know the history of their country, nor where it is located. I knew about it in a lot more than he did. But I was not in his city. He's lived there for 28 years. And this is happening in many places around the world. This is sad.
I spent about a year with a Vietnamese-American girl (born in Vietnam, raised in the US from around the time she was six or so) who was about six years younger than me.
One night, we were driving back from dinner and she asked me why it was that people hated Jews so much, so I gave her a quick rundown of antisemitism.
"Wow, you know so much about history," she says.
"Eh, a bit," I answer.
She's quiet for a few moments. "Do you know much about the Vietnam War?"
"A fair amount, yeah."
"... so, how did it start?"
She was born in Vietnam to Vietnamese parents and grew up in the Vietnamese community, and yet didn't know anything about the Vietnam war, other than it involved the US and Vietnam. She didn't know that there was a North Vietnam or a South Vietnam, what the Viet Minh or Viet Cong was, what happened at My Lai, nothing. I could understand her parents not necessarily wanting to tell her about any of that stuff, but I could never understand why she never looked into it on her own, or how she could get through high school without learning anything about it.
I spent about a year with a Vietnamese-American girl (born in Vietnam, raised in the US from around the time she was six or so) who was about six years younger than me.
One night, we were driving back from dinner and she asked me why it was that people hated Jews so much, so I gave her a quick rundown of antisemitism.
"Wow, you know so much about history," she says.
"Eh, a bit," I answer.
She's quiet for a few moments. "Do you know much about the Vietnam War?"
"A fair amount, yeah."
"... so, how did it start?"
She was born in Vietnam to Vietnamese parents and grew up in the Vietnamese community, and yet didn't know anything about the Vietnam war, other than it involved the US and Vietnam. She didn't know that there was a North Vietnam or a South Vietnam, what the Viet Minh or Viet Cong was, what happened at My Lai, nothing. I could understand her parents not necessarily wanting to tell her about any of that stuff, but I could never understand why she never looked into it on her own, or how she could get through high school without learning anything about it.
I went to Vietnam about two years ago. Prior to that I had a passing familiarity with the War, but only starting really learning about it during and after that visit. I met a girl who worked at the hotel in Hue, and kept in touch with her via facebook. It's interesting when we talk, a lot about Vietnam, I will give her the western perspective, which she is often surprised about. I think when I didn't know much about the war I assumed the Viet Cong/NLF were the bad guys, and of course they did do evil, but after learning about what the US did I definitely side with them more (North Vietnam/the communists that is). My Lai was hardly an exceptional event; nay, it was pretty routine during the war. I live in an area with lots of Vietnamese, most of whom were/are adamantly anti Socialist Republic of Vietnam, so I probably won't be voicing my views (which of course, rely on what I know, I can't speak from experience).
Of course everyone has antidotal stories, myself included, about meeting people from around the world that lack basic geographical knowledge.
I also think it may be generational as well as regional.World geography was taught to us in elementary and high school when I was growing up in Vancouver, however a friend of the same age who grew up in Spokane Washington says they never were taught world geography, just the the geography of the U.S.
His experience and my experience are probably reversed depending on where in Canada and where it the U.S. someone went to school.
As for Europeans, there knowledge of Canadian geography is usually extremely vague, but I've found a lot of people I've met in France, the U.K., and other places knowledge of U.S. geography is also vague. They know NYC is on the east coast, and L.A. on the west, Vegas maybe, Florida...but the rest of the country is a mystery to them.
Geography and history go together. I've often said about people who know little of Canada " I don't expect you to name all the provinces and territories, or even who the PM is. I do however expect you to know that I don't live in a cabin, with a canoe out front, or live on the frozen tundra"
Here's a link on Canada's issues with teaching geography equally across the country.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Stupid knows no national boundaries!
