Geography class.

[Coito ergo sum]

In the U.S., I have found anecdotally that most people have a piss-poor understanding of geography. I can't tell you how many people, for some reason I can't fathom, think Norway and the Netherlands are the same thing, and also confuse Sweden and Switzerland. It irritates the fuck out of me. "So, where is your family from?" "Oh, Norway, pretty much 100% as far as I know." "Really? The Netherlands? Cool." "Uh, no, Norway." "Isn't that the same country?" "No, Holland and the Netherlands are the same thing. Norway is Norway. It borders Sweden and a little bit of Russia and Finland up top." "Oh, it's next to Switzerland?" "No, Switzerland is in the middle of Europe, bordering Italy, France, Germany, etc." ....[based on an actual conversation...]

[Gawdzilla Sama]

In the U.S., I have found anecdotally that most people have a piss-poor understanding of geography. I can't tell you how many people, for some reason I can't fathom, think Norway and the Netherlands are the same thing, and also confuse Sweden and Switzerland. It irritates the fuck out of me. "So, where is your family from?" "Oh, Norway, pretty much 100% as far as I know." "Really? The Netherlands? Cool." "Uh, no, Norway." "Isn't that the same country?" "No, Holland and the Netherlands are the same thing. Norway is Norway. It borders Sweden and a little bit of Russia and Finland up top." "Oh, it's next to Switzerland?" "No, Switzerland is in the middle of Europe, bordering Italy, France, Germany, etc." ....[based on an actual conversation...]

I went west with 19 other guys back in January of 1970. After a very long flight we landed in a place none of us had ever been before. While wait for our connecting flight we gathered around a map of the world. I said, "where are we again?" I was joking, of course, but nobody else there could pinpoint our location. (To be fair, Hong Kong isn't labeled in large letters like China was, but they were all over the map, totally clueless.)