So, where do you hail from?

[madeline_con]

Do people who've recently emigrated to trhe U.S. think we're all a bunch of geographic dolts?

For instance, today at the mall, I asked a guy running a kiosk where he was from. He says, "North Africa.... um, Tunisia."

I said, "oh, Tunisia. Your accent sounds like you're from an Arabic speaking country."

He looked surprised, and asked, "You've heard of Tunisia?" I told him, "Of course, it's on all the maps."

Last year at school, an ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) student came about mid year. I asked him where he'd come from, and he said "Burma."

I said, "I thought it was called Myanmar now." He told me that it depends on the person's political views as to what they call it.

DUers, do you encounter a lot of surprise when you actually know where on the globe people come from?

[Xipe Totec]

1. yup

I'm from Tamaulipas.

[pink-o]

2. I encounter shock and awe from Latinos when they realise I can speak Spanish!

...They don't expect a middle-aged white Jewish woman to rattle off in their language, let alone know the difference between Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

I agree, it's a very sad commentary on American education, when immigrants and tourists are so amazed that we might understand a culture outside our own. The stereotype is that Miss Carolina contestant whose Viral Video shows off US public high school education at its worst!

The most cringe-inducing story I ever heard was when I was living in England in the 80s and my friend told me that while traveling in the US she engaged a young American woman in conversation while they were on a bus together. The American listened to my Brit friend for about 5 minutes, then asked where she was from. My friend replied: "I live in Chester, just about 100 miles north of London."

The American frowned slightly, thought it over, then queried: "Where did you learn to speak our language so well?"

:wow: :wow:

[madeline_con]

4. Oh, no. n/t

[Xipe Totec]

5. Hablas Castellano deveras?

:evilgrin:

Have you seen the spoof of the Miss Carolina contestant?

Maps- Miss West Carolina speaks out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUE1Cu04Jzo

[JuniperLea]

6. My blond, blue-eyed daughter is fluent in Spanish...

Jaws drop:)

When she took her college AP Spanish exam, the instructor thought she was a native speaker.

She learned in a Montessori immersion program, and since we lived in a racially diverse neighborhood, she got a lot of practice with native speakers.

My cousin's kids are amazing, though. Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, German, and now learning Cantonese. The oldest is now teaching Hebrew.

[Xipe Totec]

8. My blond green eyed Mexican grandparents would be impressed nt

[Hoof Hearted]

22. I'm sorry, but it's realize - not realise. It's a little thing I know, but for me it's like

fingernails on a chalkboard. Thanks for the stories though! :D

[pink-o]

23. You must have missed the part where I lived in England

It was a long time ago, and I did my best to assimilate and throw off my colonial roots. One of the first things I did was adopt Brit spelling for everything. What we spell with a "zed" such as organize, realize, materialize, et al, they spell with "esses"

Believe me, if I had to do it over again I would do the "Horourable" thing and keep my less pretentious spelling. But now it's just automatic.

At least I didn't acquire a Brit accent, like Madonna!

[LeftishBrit]

25. Well, to be fair, British people aren't always that geographically/culturally aware either

I can match your story with that of my Japanese friend, who was studying in London in the mid-1980s. She met an English woman who asked her, "Are you from Hong Kong?" "No, I am from Japan." The Brit replied, "Does that belong to Hong Kong?"

(Note: Hong Kong was still a British colony at that time.)

[pink-o]

33. Yeah, that equals American stupidity right there!

..But it's the shear numbers of Yanks who're "ignert" that is staggering. I don't believe The System, the Power base here in the US wants an educated population, seeing as how real education and information leads people to question authority and trust their own judgement. A lot harder for the religious and political snake oil salesmen to fool us then!

There's absolutely no money going into public education here in California, despite the promise 20 years ago that our schools would be fully funded if we allowed a lottery. So what this means is that rich people can afford to send their kids to private schools, religious people can use Christian schools and the others can just grow up stupid. The former 2 catagories usually don't create a fertile ground for rebellion, after all!

[karlrschneider]

3. never mind n/t

...

[AlCzervik]

7. Gawd damn it Karl!

shakes fist in air!

Merry Christmas.

:loveya:

[karlrschneider]

19. Well, shucks..............

:D :P
Merry Christmas to you too...I'm not opposed to saying it even if I think it's a bunch of crap. :evilgrin:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. yep...

Had a guy working for us this summer from Suriname. He was amazed that I knew it was next to Venezuela and used to be called Dutch Guiana.

[Xipe Totec]

10. Well, that is impressive

Not everyone knows about the three Guianas, especially in the USA.

I'm not being sarcastic.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

15. I have Dutch ancestry...

It's national history was a mild obsession for a little while. :)

[pitohui]

11. i suppose so

to be honest most people who don't know me probably think i'm an idiot because to cut to the chase, i'm pretty much a spastic, so i'm never surprised when someone is surprised when i show some feeble signs of intelligence

people being surprised i've heard of their country/language is the least of it

however i now take my revenge on those who judge me as stupid by my face and my spasticness, i play poker with them :evilgrin:

[htuttle]

12. Usually from the curb.

[madeline_con]

20. That's funny.

:rofl:

[htuttle]

21. Thanks! I'll be here all week!

It's actually topical too. I've been in the taxi industry for two decades this year, and I've definitely had my share of 'of course I know where Mauritius is' moments.

:)

[Historic NY]

13. Yup, especially if you been to the country or city they come from

[XemaSab]

14. Oh yeah..

I met a guy from Senegal a couple years back... and yeah, he was surprised I knew where it was.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. I usually ask and they are usually pleased to know something about their native country.

Of course, I'm fond of foreign foods and shop at Mexican, Russian, Indian, markets.

I've met and talked to some very interesting people from all parts of the globe about their countries, their lives, how they came to be here, etc.

Almost all of them are pleasantly surprised that someone actually knows that Belorus isn't part of Russia, that a Sikh is different than a Parsee or Hindu, that "Africa" isn't one country, or that an American knows the meaning of bienvenidos.

[Xipe Totec]

18. This is what saddens me about the American Education System:

I went to elementary, middle school and high school in Mexico.

One of the courses I had to take in ninth grade, in 1970, was contemporary history.

My history text book included pictures of Richard Nixon, and Buzz Aldrin standing on the Moon (yes, Neil Armstrong took the picture, so it's Buzz Aldrin in the picture).

Yet, when I moved to New England, in the 1990's, my children in Middle school had to study earth science using hand-me-down books that were so old, they said "Someday, man will walk on the moon".

How pathetic is that?

[customerserviceguy]

17. A great website is

http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq , you can test your knowledge of where places are on the globe. Let your right-wing friends, acquaintances, and co-workers know how incredibly stupid they are about things outside the borders of the USA by having them try this out!

[Buns_of_Fire]

24. Neat site! And, if nothing else, I found out how incredibly stupid *I* am! :-)

Perhaps my insistence on placing Mt. Vesuvius under Washington, D.C. had something to do with it.

[customerserviceguy]

29. Not your fault

considering all the hot air emanating from D.C.!

[TahitiNut]

27. (wow!) 363,637 points on 1st try. (embarassing)

I got the wrong coast for cities in India and get brain freeze in Africa. (OTOH, I got within 50 km of Olaanbaakar and Kathmandhu.)

I only got to Level 10, I was so bad. :cry: Only 33K of the 50K points needed at that level. (sjit.)

[mitchtv]

32. Great site! I got 483,971. stopped me at level 12

The map too small,it was hard for me to be precise, especially the islands

[ThomWV]

26. Talking to a cab drive one time I pronounced Himalaya correctly and the driver just about shit

Him-mal-ya

not

Him-a-lay-a

[TZ]

28. I work with a couple of people from West Africa..

and they were a little surprised by the fact that not only was I somewhat familiar with the countries there but I knew that a lot of them speak French as a primary language. Of course, that has more to do with the fact that I worked at NIH and my department had a sister lab in Mali and I actually came within a whisker of actually going there....
Almost no Americans I know had any idea where Mali was when I mentioned it...AND because its technically an Islamic country, I had a lot of people who thought I should NOT go despite the fact that the Mali government has good relations with the US....

[mitchtv]

30. I have suprised some

They have commented. "US Americans" get low expectations from people

[jcla]

31. No, but I work in a public Library.....

and we have patrons from everywhere! (I work in the Los Angeles Public Library system) I presume our patrons think of us as knowledgeable.