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Oklahoma is not top 10, but I have yet to meet a foreigner who didn’t know it from either the musical, bombing, tornados, Native American culture, land rush, or the Thunder.
I would say that from an outside perspective, the musical is the one thing you've listed that I think would be recognized the most abroad. It is, in my opinion, the primary reason for having Oklahoma at least deserving to be in the conversation and arguably being a candidate for breaking into the top 10 (let's face it, there are issues with any state beyond the top 5/6).
Obviously the bombing was infamous and received coverage worldwide, but it was 25 years ago and (unfortunately) between time, wars, conflicts, terrorist attacks and other tragedies, I don't know that it's something that is common knowledge for many foreigners at this point. I could be wrong, it's never come up in conversation, but my personal take is that I don't think it's something that people abroad think about when they think of "America."
Native American culture and tornadoes are very much things that people know worldwide, but I don't think that either of those are necessarily associated with Oklahoma in the eyes of many overseas. Regardless of how wrong/inaccurate it may be, I think that Native Americans are often thought of side by side with cowboys and the wild west. MAYBE with colonial America. Not necessarily Oklahoma.
I don't think the Thunder are one of the better recognized NBA teams abroad - I think that really only a handful of NBA teams are widely recognized, and mostly the Warriors because of their recent dominance, and teams like the Lakers, Knicks, and Bulls due to a combination of history and prominent city associations. I also don't think the Land Rush is common curriculum abroad. I would wager if you say "land rush" even to the average American an alarming number would not know what your'e talking about.
I would say that from an outside perspective, the musical is the one thing you've listed that I think would be recognized the most abroad. It is, in my opinion, the primary reason for having Oklahoma at least deserving to be in the conversation and arguably being a candidate for breaking into the top 10 (let's face it, there are issues with any state beyond the top 5/6).
Obviously the bombing was infamous and received coverage worldwide, but it was 25 years ago and (unfortunately) between time, wars, conflicts, terrorist attacks and other tragedies, I don't know that it's something that is common knowledge for many foreigners at this point. I could be wrong, it's never come up in conversation, but my personal take is that I don't think it's something that people abroad think about when they think of "America."
Native American culture and tornadoes are very much things that people know worldwide, but I don't think that either of those are necessarily associated with Oklahoma in the eyes of many overseas. Regardless of how wrong/inaccurate it may be, I think that Native Americans are often thought of side by side with cowboys and the wild west. MAYBE with colonial America. Not necessarily Oklahoma.
I don't think the Thunder are one of the better recognized NBA teams abroad - I think that really only a handful of NBA teams are widely recognized, and mostly the Warriors because of their recent dominance, and teams like the Lakers, Knicks, and Bulls due to a combination of history and prominent city associations. I also don't think the Land Rush is common curriculum abroad. I would wager if you say "land rush" even to the average American an alarming number would not know what your'e talking about.
I agree, I don’t think the bombing carries as much notoriety any more. But going back in time that was a major event that everyone knew about at the time. It’s something that plenty of people who would have been very young at the time have brought up to me. So they are hearing about it somewhere.
As for tornados, plenty of places get them. But I can’t think of many that have been 24/7 coverage on all major news networks for days like the past couple major ones in Oklahoma. I always get asked if I’ve seen a tornado when I mention I’m from Oklahoma. And I have to say, “Nope, just on TV”.
The Thunder have been top 10 in jersey sales worldwide for 8 years now. And they have been a top 5 most watched team on NBA League Pass (the only way out of state and international viewers can watch the games legally) for the past 6 years. I agree the Thunder brand doesn’t compare to the Lakers, Knicks, Bulls, Celtics, and now Warriors. But the league has moved away from brand identity and towards star players, regardless of their team. So with KD, Westbrook, Harden, Paul George, Melo, and Steven Adams (New Zealand) to play for them in their short time as a brand, it has boosted them near the top in terms of star power, viewership, and jersey sales. It’s actually the most common reason I see for people knowing Oklahoma now. I get asked if I go to Thunder games more than any other question about OKC or the state.
1. California
2. Texas
3. New York
4. Florida
5. Hawaii
6. Alaska
7. Virginia
8. Pennsylvania
9. Massachusetts
10. Washington
Additional shoutout to Alabama and Mississippi which I'd expect to be fairly well known for negative reasons. Was debating putting one of them at 10 but decided on Washington because of Seattle.
1. California
2. Texas
3. New York
4. Florida
5. Hawaii
6. Alaska
7. Virginia
8. Pennsylvania
9. Massachusetts
10. Washington
Additional shoutout to Alabama and Mississippi which I'd expect to be fairly well known for negative reasons. Was debating putting one of them at 10 but decided on Washington because of Seattle.
I doubt many people know Washington is a state. People only know Washington DC.
Certainly Washington DC should be in the list of well known cities.
And I think you are cutting Philadelphia and Boston a bit short.
As I've said numerous times now, I have to travel anywhere in the world where people do not know what Philadelphia is. Some place didn't know anything except America/Rocky/cheese steaks, but I think both Philly and Boston known basically everywhere. I would argue those over New Orleans actually.
I'm talking about top ten cities/states combined. I'm not picking Philadelphia or Boston because New Orleans is different and probably seen as more exotic as a destination similar to San Francisco is.
Forgot about Las Vegas. I think for international notoriety it goes New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, New Orleans, San Francisco and Las Vegas as the top cities. Then add California, Texas, Florida for states. It's a mixed bag for foreigners.
New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles would be the top cities. Throw in Miami and New Orleans and that's about it.
As for states, it's definitely Florida, California, Texas, Hawaii that would lead the pack.
Forenigers that refer to New York are referring to the city. I've lost count the amount of times I've had to explain to my friends in Europe that I live in NYS and not NYC. They're unaware of what's upstate.
Something that people in this thread aren't getting. They keep saying New York because of NYC. But pretty much most foreigners will have no idea what state NYC is in, therefore they wouldn't even really know about New York as a state.
Most people in the US can't tell you what state/province Madrid, Tokyo, Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Athens, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo or Shanghai are in. In some of these cities listed the state/province name are the same as the city name, but most people don't know that. Most people don't know that Rio de Janeiro, the city, is in the state of Rio de Janiero. Therefore, they wouldn't know that a state called "Rio de Janeiro" exists.
Besides Latin America, Texas is less well-known to the other parts of the world.
Texas is not as unique as the other 4 states. It does not have splendid national parks like Yosemite, cosmopolitan cities like NYC or San Francisco, fun places like top class theme parks, beautiful beaches which Florida and Hawaii have, world class university like Stanford and not many historical landmarks except Alamo.
Moreover, Texas is really out of the way from either east coast or west coast.
IMO Massachusetts is more well-known due to Boston, MIT and Harvard.
Besides Latin America, Texas is less well-known to the other parts of the world.
I don’t know that I agree with this. Between the old west movies, and George Bush 2’s presidency, I think a decent amount of foreigners view America as Texas. I used to think it was more of a myth until I had to start regularly going Western Europe for work and experienced a disproportionate amount of cowboy jokes. A couple of our suppliers just assumed I liked cowboys lol. This was the case in Asia but to a lesser extent.
I've also never heard anyone make mention of Harvard or MIT overseas. I'm sure in academic/elitist circles, but the vast majority of impressions remain in terms of over generalized categorizations and stereotypes just like they do here.
Besides Latin America, Texas is less well-known to the other parts of the world.
Texas is not as unique as the other 4 states. It does not have splendid national parks like Yosemite, cosmopolitan cities like NYC or San Francisco, fun places like top class theme parks, beautiful beaches which Florida and Hawaii have, world class university like Stanford and not many historical landmarks except Alamo.
Moreover, Texas is really out of the way from either east coast or west coast.
IMO Massachusetts is more well-known due to Boston, MIT and Harvard.
I agree with you on Texas but disagree on Mass. I mean people definitely will know Boston, but I don't know about Massachuesetts. For example, yes, MIT does have the state name in it, but that doesn't mean squat. For all they know they would think that Harvard could be a name of the state that Boston is in. Or that Conn. is in a state called Yale.
I think Texas is more well-known than Massachusetts, but definitely a big step down from California and Florida.
Speaking as a Washingtonian, I agree that many people don't know about the state. They know the city more. Whether we'd be in the top 10 is debatable, though we do get some credit for being in a corner.
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