USA on the Rest of the World

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCkYfYa8ePI

So, is this a fair reflection on the US of A?

It must be so easy to make a program like this when you're in a country of over 300million people... some of the answers are hilarious though!

Out of curiosity... what country do the American's here think this program was made in... ?

 

...posted by me in the Video thread in the Whatnots.


I don't care if they only chose to show the people who gave the wrong answer; any person with a decent education should be able to answer those questions or at least not give such a moronic answer as those people did. But maybe that's where the problem lies, in the educational system of the US.

 

It doesn't really reflect anything, in any countries there is bound to be idiots who know nothing, and surely the guy edited the video so only the wrong and dumb answer are shown. But yes it is quite hilarious.

 

Of course there are very intelligent people in USA, like every other country. But now I understand better how Bush was elected.

 

Yet another video like we've seen before in SP which exclusively shows Americans who don't know the answers to simple questions.

Stuff like this is funny until people start looking at things like these as a representation of the entire country, and the sad part is that many people do. The fact of the matter is, as aforementioned, you find people ignorant of even the most simple knowledge in any country.

 

I doubt the video is real. Your average primary school kid could pick out Australia on a map, never mind confusing it with Iran or North Korea!

 

*blinks* I had trouble watching it, it was so disturbing.

 

In Argentina somebody did a show like this one, but they were after school kids, they supposed to know the answers because that's what they were studying at that time but 9 out 10 answers were really dumb.
Here in Spain did another show like this one and of course, when you watch it edited with just the dumb answers, makes it fun (or wonder if education system is right).

 

Sketchy knowledge of geography surely helps when you're about to punch in your ICBM's target coordinates for the nuclear strike on Russia ... "Initiating launch procedures, target coordinates ... 38°53´N, 77°02´W, confirm!" "YESSIR! Affirmative Sir!"



Maybe home schooling isn't such a good idea after all.

 

Not that much better, unfortunately. Remember the Kosovo operation? Well, a HARM missile hit the roof of a house in a Sofia suburb (luckily it didn't detonate). They were informally known as "Gorna Banya" Air-to-Roof missiles for a while among those who were into dark humor. Apparently even the "smart" munitions make mistakes between capitals of neighboring Balkan countries . Oh, and there was that bit about the Chinese embassy, but at least it was in the same city.

Of course, you could also argue that the whole mess in Iraq was because someone made a mistake in finding the right country, but that'd be a bit too much... right?

[ January 30, 2007, 19:38: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

No wonder Bush got elected twice.................

 

It is relatively easy to talk people into such a stunt. It's all about how much confidence you display. It's like with selling things Also people don't pay full attention when suddenly being talked at on the street. Then there is the 'excitement' of the camera present. No big deal.

 

Most people have seen enough Jay Leno to know that you only get on national TV for saying something stupid.

 

Besides, when I was in school, there weren't such many countries, there was just USSR...
And another thing, those people where in the streets, and many of them I'm sure aren't geeks like us, people who spend most of the time in front of a computer, reading almost everything. They have better things to do like walking their family out

 

Here's one theory how this happened...

At least we can look forward to great TV and news in the future!

 

Sadly, geography is not something that you get a lot of in public schools in the U.S. I think BTA's comment of:

is the exception rather than the rule. I didn't learn anything regarding world georgraphy outside of the U.S. borders in elementary school. Now, I have no idea how old BTA is, but assuming he's a 30-something or 40-something, I imagine our public school educations shouldn't be that different.

The point is, the only geography I got was specific to the area we were studying in history. When you took European history, yes, you learned European geography (although seeing as how Yugoslavia was still a country when I went to high school, I probably could not correctly identify all of the "new" countries).

However, I never took African History or South American History, and so I am probably only capable of identifying about half of the nations in Africa, and about 3/4 of the nations in South America - I don't know any U.S. school that gives more than a passing glance on world georgraphy.

 

I believe Aldeth is correct about US Public schools. The private school(s) I taught in did do a lot with World geography starting in the middle form (4th-8th).