It never ceases to amaze me how little geography some people know. A few years ago, I was eating w/ a friend of mine from Spain. A guy I knew came up and started talking to me. I introduced my friend to him, and he could tell that she was foreign. He asked where she was from and she told him "Spain". His face was totally blank. She then said, "It's in Europe". He asked where that was. We tried to explain it to him, but we had no success. Finally we were able to communicate to him that it was "across the ocean". He finally said, "Oh well, history was never my best subject."

New Mexico Magazine has a column called "One of our 50 Is Missing" which features misconceptions about our fair state. People want to know if they need a visa to visit, can they drink the water, do we speak English, etc.

One of my favorites involved a NM judge who was visiting the Air and Space Museum. He bought some sort of model, but the people at the gift shop told him they couldn't ship it out of the country.

Lee Ann

Oh yes, I can not believe the people I have run into that think New Mexico is in Mexico.
And I cannot believe the people that do not realize that Mexico is part of the North America Continent.
North America has three countries. They are Canada, the United States and Mexico.
Most Europeans think that Mexico is in Central or South America. It is not just of us here in the USA that do not know geographic facts.

Here's a link to some map games if anyone is interested.

http://www.maps.com/games/

LoveItaly,

When I was in grade school, our music teacher taught us a catchy little song that listed all the states alphabetically. I remember it to this day and it really comes in handy!

Okay, I've heard a few, but these two stick most in my mind:

1 -- For her Christmas present, I took my mother to Biltmore House two years ago. While wandering from room to room, gawking at the decorations and the splendor of the place, we were continually outrunning two school groups who were touring at the same time as us. Thank God my cousin was there with me so that we could pick my mother up (she's an amputee) and hustle her into the next room whenever we heard the ominous rumble and demonic giggles of the middle-school class following us as they prepared to flood into the room after us. Sandwiched between that school group and another group ahead of us, we were treated to a running litany of complaints and hateful remarks about Biltmore and everything in it because she did not approve of "any place that kept slaves." Which is interesting because George Vanderbilt didn't break ground for Biltmore until 1890, and the house wasn't completed until Christmas Eve, 1895.

2 -- When applying for a job in a Henderson County, NC tourist-related field, I was treated to the "darnedest book" which was kept onhand to record the darnedest questions and comments made by clueless tourists. My favorite entry concerned a woman who had come to Hendersonville, in the mountains of Western North Carolina about 400 miles or so from the ocean, and then was absolutely livid there were no lighthouses nearby. She had come to NC to see lighthouses, and by God she wanted to see lighthouses.

The funniest thing that happened to me was trying to book a flight from NYS going to Australia. In our case, we were going to Perth, Australia, on the western coast. We wanted to stop for a week in London on the way. Our local "Aussie Expert" informed me that we couldn't get to Australia going through London. (It was impossible -- going "way out of the way") Duh! Look at a globe. From NY to Perth, Australia is about equidistrant whether you go east or west. Needless to say, we did not book with that travel agent.

Aren't people funny? And the less they know the more adamant they seem. But just think, if it wasn't for them, we could not be responding to this thread. Time for a glass of wine while we "whine" :-)

Several years ago I was mailing a package from Texas to my brother in Alaska. The postal employee put the box on the scale and asked me if Alaska was considered in the United States!!!!!!!

Try this:

http://www.pibmug.com/files/map_test.swf

It's timed. I passed, but I misplaced Delaware.

One of my college students who is from England, just said (in answer to a question about the channel passage)- "I don't know, I've never been to Europe."

Lots of International students don't know much about their own continents beyond their sub-region. Lots who had geography in their early years have not retained it. I do notice that the Pol. Science and Economics majors know most of their geography. Others here: Nursing/CSJ/Pre-law/Business/Science or Engineering- not very much.

Has anyone ever been cornered and given the "Canada Quiz"? It starts with a friendly chat with a Canadian here in the US or in European countries. They start drilling you about Canadian history, geography, culture, and politics.

They want you to name all of the Canadian povinces, name five famous people from Canada, what is the capital of Canada and who is the Prime Minister, blah blah blah. I wish I had a hundred dollars for every time I took the Canada Quiz. Every time I get quized they are amazed and then tell me that most Americans don't know enough about Canada. I think Canadian travelers have an inferiority complex.

In defense of your student from England, many English do not consider England part of Europe--one of the reasons (many) the English do not want to adopt the Euro. It's not a matter of geography but politics.

That's what I hear, SAB. But it stills sounds funny to me.

An acquaintance of mine who's an attorney living on Long Island asked me how much of the Pacific Ocean can be seen from Seattle and when I once mentioned to him that I was booking a waterfront hotel room in Vancouver, BC, he thought it was on the ocean as well.

Also, he can't seem to grasp that Seattle has suburbs and that I live 20 long miles away from downtown. I've tried explaining to him that I don't live in Seattle anymore than he lives in NYC, but he just doesn't get it. A plane went down in Elliot Bay over in Seattle and he saw it on CNN and called me to ask if I saw the plane go down or if I could see the accident scene from my apartment. I was touched by his concern, but still.....

To the OP: What a fun thread.
I apparently have a misconception about Alaska (I do know it's part of the U.S. by the way!). I think it's really cold there all year long. I've been told that it's not true but I think my in-laws are lying to me. :-)
I grew up in what is now called the Democratic Republic of Congo. My family and I used to spend all our summers in the U.S. One summer, my father was visiting a business colleague in North Carolina. His wife arranged for me to speak to classmates of her teenage son about the country, growing up in Africa, etc...(that was about 20 years ago - I was a teen as well) The number of kids who asked me if I lived in the jungle just killed me. I admit that I would lie to them and say "oh yeah and when you get there, our house is the fourth tree to your left and my room is on the third branch". You should have seen the looks! hmmm..do we believe her or don't we? I would of course say afterward that I was joking.
Well what do you expect when all that was shown on TV about Africa was "Tarzan".
:-)

SAB, The English do not consider themselves part of Europe in many ways. Years ago when I traveled through Europe on the Eurrail Pass train and ferry travel program England was the only country which did not honor the pass. Ireland, on the other end of England even accepted it. We had to buy separate tickets to get through England.

caribtraveler, you just reminded me of the time I was talking to my grandmother in Charleston, SC and she expressed her shock that Seattle gets hot in the summer. She said, "I thought it was cold and snowed all the time like Alaska."

I just remembered: we had a darling l2 year old girl (daughter of a friend) stay with us one summer several years ago. She lived in Vancouver BC Canada.
After a few weeks one of our daughters who was in Alaska at the time called home. After the phone conversation our little Canadian girl said "oh, I am so happy that she is in Cananda". When it was explained that to her that Alaska was part of the USA her face went bright red, she actually burst into tears. She would not believe us. We finally got the worldglobe and tried to explain that "yes, even though Alaska is above CCanada it is part of the USA. She than insisted and insisted that this was not so because her teacher had told them that Alaska was "theirs". Oh sigh, we finally just gave up. Still wonder to this day if she thinks Alaska is "hers" and not "ours".

jor - The Canadian Quiz thing made me laugh. But, I can assure you it is not an inferiority complex as much as it is that Canadians are often insulted by some of the questions they are asked. Most Canadians have quite an extensive knowledge of the U.S. and feel that it should be reciprocal because we are neighbours and we often have the pleasure of travelling in the U.S.

I think it just surprises us when someone asks if we live in igloos, believe it, this does happen. I am in no way saying that all Americans lack any knowledge about Canada in fact I have met many who know more about Canada than some Canadians. But to be asked an outrageous question like " do you keep the dog sled by the igloo?"... you gotta wonder.

LoveItaly: one of the russian csars sold Alaska to Americans. This is why his name is cursed by generations and generations of russians: he sold only Alaska, not the rest of the country (joke)