Most americans think Spain is near Mexico and not in Europe, but that does not bother me at all, it is quite funny in a way.
About them not knowing a lot about geography, I could challenge the people who claim that to go and place in a map Costa Rica, Togo, Bahrein or Laos.
What I would find more interesting than geography knowledge, is the american attitude towards the rest of the world, in terms of going outside and visiting places. Very often I read about the high number of usa population that don't have a passport, or never fly away of their country.
I am sure it is in part due to a geographic thing. Living in Spain, France, etc... you have a lot of different cultures just two or three hours away by plane: Morocco(African culture), Italy(Roman culture) UK (Anglo culture), Greece(ancient greek culture), Germany, the Balcans...etc.
This is not as easy living in america, where you need a looong flight to reach all those different places. Apart from this geographic issue, I am sure there will be some other political or cultural reasons.
If you add to that a high sense of patriotism then I think you have the explanation of why some people can have this (right or wrong) feeling of americans not being that interested about the rest of the world.
Saying that they don't know about geography it is way too simplistic and even offensive for some IMHO. We could say a few "not very good" things about any country in the world, but that would be wrong and simplistic as I said.
But discussing the reasons of such claims can make for a good debate though.
|