I can't believe people don't know that?

I am in a FB group for overseas visitors wishing to visit Scotland and there are regular questions about whether they'll be able to pay in dollars. I suppose if you've never left your own country, or just been to the Caribbean or Mexico where dollars are accepted, fair enough.

It's the people who book hire cars and then are totally shocked when other posters make comments about driving on the "wrong" side, and they had no clue that we drive on the left.

Surely the fact that they're asking implies that they do know that there are different currencies in different places.

But it's not unreasonable to ask whether a big international holiday destination might possibly accept currency from one of the largest groups of visitors. Happens in Ireland/Northern Ireland/Mexico/Canada all the time. Not a completely stupid question.

If the question was actually "what's a Euro" then yes that is unfathomably ignorant.

The post about the boyfriend from the USA has just stirred an old memory, of cultural divide in what you expect people to just know.

A friend, whose wife is a New Yorker, did not realise until several year down the line that he'd married someone who didn't know what a dalek is

Also age helps. At my age I've simply had more time to be exposed to information than someone 30 years old. So I've had a very great many "oh I didn't know that" moments, recalled the data but forgotten that I had to learn it. Resulting in me feeling very knowledgeable and assuming I was born that way.

Also I'm ND so very very curious about everything and it feels natural, in fact wonderful, to me to explore stuff I didn't know.

Also born Encyclopaedia Brittanica was what bright kids had instead of iPhones, back then.

Aberfan happened before I was born too! I was aware of it though through news reports of anniversaries.

I also wasn’t alive during WW2 but I still know it happened.

Perhaps it was me? I mentioned competitive ignorance which does get on my nerves but it's more the kind of discussions where someone insists their brain freezes when faced with any question of any kind and everyone else joins in with how much worse they are.

I worked with three highly educated, intelligent women at one place, who sat around my desk at budget time, all fanning themselves with their hands in a flustered attitude, going red, and all claimed to be rendered completely incapable where numbers were concerned. This was not hard maths it was things like counting boxes of items and hours worked per week on a particular project. This was not their first budget nor were they questions I hadn't already asked them to prepare for. Yet every one of them started to become ridiculously competitive about how dim they are to the point where one claimed to lose the use of her legs when she saw numbers printed on a page or on a screen. They weren't dim at all and perfectly capable with numbers on any day of the week so they weren't the kind of people who inadvertently panic about number work as some rare individuals do.

I told them, quite sharply, it was nothing to be proud of. Strangely enough the collective brain fog lifted instantly.

TBF when it comes to pop culture I haven't much of a clue however I don't go round telling people that being asked questions about it makes me loose the use of my legs though 😆it doesn't I just admit that I don't know.

Depends on if she carries her driving license and if she reasoned it out because she goes to Belfast from England. Or drives around the country of Ireland. Re IOW, again if you go to Gibraltar, you might not assume the side of the road a country drives on. The more you travel, the less you assume.
I do think that programmes did used to be more educational. I was surprised that very few people knew of the Spanish flu, but I'd done research on it as a child after watching that time period on Upstairs/downstairs. I've answered a few questions on The Chase thanks to the Simpsons/Dr Who/Star Trek and Black Adder covering the topic. I'd never go for the top prize because sport and reality tv is something that I haven't a clue on. YouTube/Tic Toc scrolling won't build knowledge like a range of other media will.

I guess we all have some gaps in our knowledge and I wouldn't be bothered if someone didn't know the odd thing or two that is considered common knowledge, it happens to me too. But when it's lots of things, and if the person is wilfully ignorant, that's different.

I once dated a guy who had grown up in the USA, then moved back to the UK in his early 20s (he was British) and I couldn't help but be shocked.

He couldn't name the capital of Italy and other major European countries, couldn't name a single artist (not even someone like Leonardo da Vinci), didn't know anything about the two world wars or other major historical events, thought classical music meant classic rock, had never heard of Labour or the Tories and knew nothing about UK current affairs.

His argument was that he'd grown up in America and at school there they weren't taught much about Europe/the Uk but he knew lots about the USA. Ok, but there had been 5 years since he'd left school and for 3 of those he'd been living in the UK. His parents were also British. Didn't they ever discuss things at home, hadn't he read/watched any news since he'd moved back, listened to the radio, read a magazine?

The answer was no, it didn't interest him but he did know a lot about the science subject that he studied at uni and read a lot about that, plus other science things.
I mean, I get it, we all have different interests and he was very good at his subject... but to not have any curiosity at all about things outside of a few specific interests, including your own heritage and the country you're living in, just baffled me.
Even pop culture references - he'd never heard of David and Victoria Beckham. Not that I'm interested in them, but at the time they were ALL over the media. You'd have had to literally never look at any news outlets to miss them.

I'm afraid it was a turn off for me.

Tbf this isn’t entirely unusual- a suprising amount of people think fish is vegetarian.

At a wedding recently i was served fish as a starter as my “vegetarian” option. (While the non -veggies got onion tartlet!). This was a very well known wedding venue with a very expensive caterer.

i’ve also had the argument with Subway several times. For some reason staff training includes the “fact” that tuna is a vegetarian option.

lord knows how that particular idea seems to have stuck, but it has.

me, I go with Phoebe’s definition- “nothing with a face”.

@DappledThings
No she has never lived in the UK. She came to visit her boyfriends family for a funeral

Loads of people on here - even actual vegetarians and vegans - will refer to meat AND fish, as though they are inherently ethically different things.

There's a perfectly good word for people who choose to eat fish but no other meat for whatever personal reasons - pescatarian - but it's amazing how many people who ARE pescatarians don't know that word.

A good friend of mine insists that she's a vegetarian, although she will happily eat fish. When I first realised that she ate fish - heard her ordering it for herself in a restaurant - I just commented good-naturedly "Ah, so you're a pescatarian", and she took great offence at that. Apparently, she is NOT a pescatarian, but she IS indeed very much a vegetarian... but one that also happily eats fish?!?!

We all only know what we've been interested enough to find out?
My DH is a history buff, and has been since primary age. He's well read, watched films and documentaries, and has generally made a hobby out of finding out as much as he can.
My knowledge of history extends to what I learned at school. I probably should know more, but I don't.

My passion is politics. I immerse myself in it, and gather as much information and commentary as I can. DH has barely a fleeting interest.

We can't all know about everything.

“It's a way for someone to feel momentarily smart.”

It is this isn’t it?

But of course I have no gaps in my education because I have a thirst for knowledge, and at the school I went to that mummy and daddy paid for I was surrounded by bright young people. I too am very bright. When I did my Masters I was surprised at how some people get into Oxford. Of course though, it’s so wonderful they encourage everyone to give it a go now. My children are so bright too, so terribly bright.

Honestly, these people may know all sorts of ‘stuff’ (because that’s all it is) but do they know compassion? Kindness? Do they realise the different starting points people have? Do they realise some people grew up scavenging for food and the horror of poverty has not and will never leave them? For these people, who gives a shit who famous singers are or who the PM is? Some people grow up in poverty and make it out, yes. Lots don’t. Does it really matter they don’t have knowledge of this politician or that book?

It’s not my job to make people feel better about their own wilful ignorance.

I only realised a fortnight ago that the channel islands are not part of the UK when I heard it mentioned on the news.
Is that right?
They are something to do with us.

A crown dependency?

And I can understand people getting mixed up about Ireland.

Because after all part of it is in the UK.
Lucky I checked before posting. I'd confidently stated that part of Ireland was in Ukraine...
As to GB UK etc I'm from London burbs and only recently got the distinction clear in my mind.
And guess what...it's to do with Northern Ireland again.

I’ll never forget a few years back, there was a thread on here asking whether people used the term Father Christmas or Santa in their families. I replied on it saying something like although Santa was becoming more popular in the UK, I always think of it as more of an American term and Father Christmas as more British.

A MNetter replied to me absolutely apoplectic with rage, saying I was an ignorant and stupid moron if I didn’t know that Santa/Santy was commonly used in Scotland. I replied saying well no, actually, I didn’t know that. Thanks for telling me. She was still incandescent and continued posting in a fury over how “uneducated” I was.

Sorry my education didn’t cover minutiae of Scottish culture and linguistics, I must have been off sick that day.

I think with the tsunami, they didn’t really have time to process what was happening before the wave hit. So your child notices the tide is going out and staying out, you wander over to have a look, and before you can really think “oh the water rushing out is a sign of an impending tsunami, best run to high ground”, the tsunami is already coming in, very fast, and you’ve been swept off your feet.

And it was a very big tsunami. Much bigger than even local people would have expected. You wouldn’t have much time at all to get to safety.

It's a way for someone to feel momentarily smart. There's various different ways of expressing it but a lot of people do get a minor thrill when they know something someone else doesn't. I always respond with, 'well no I don't, that's why I asked.' Or if I don't actually care what the answer is I just say 'well good job you're here then to enlighten me.' And roll my eyes. 🤣

It's not unreasonable to be annoyed by this snotty attitude. It's also not unreasonable to acknowledge when you might have fallen into it yourself; when you know a lot about something, or a particular fact appears to be general knowledge it's a very easy thing to do; how can people not know that there were three Bronte sisters (there were actually more, but only three published) or that England won the World Cup in 1966 and that Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland? As a PP said, some people flourish their lack of knowledge as if it's something to be proud of. Here too, I'm guilty. I'm not sorry I don't know more "water-cooler" stuff, and that I can converse more readily about the impact of the phone and wireless on early twentieth century Britain (they form part of my PhD) than who's doing well on Strictly. But I accept that many people would find that very odd and alienating.

To be fair, in recent years keeping track of the current PM was a full-time job!
God forbid anyone had a dementia test during that time

Debateable!

It's actually amazing how much I don't know and I'm nearly 70 - according to my SIL. She asks how I can possibly not know ... whatever, and I just tell her it must be because I'm very, very stupid.

So not knowing that you don't need a passport to visit Wales/Scotland because they are part of the UK = uneducated

Assuming that Wales,Scotland and England have the same education/law/health system as they ate all the UK = uneducated.

I can see why someone might know one of those facts and make assumptions about the other.

I saw an argument on threads recently about whether the UK is a country or not.

Overheard a young teen girl on the bus giving her dad a complete dressing down (very loudly, very sanctimoniously, very drama queen-ish, like a lot of teens today) about not knowing who Zach King is - who according to her is 'one of the most famous people in the world!'.

I sat several seats behind thinking to myself, 'Who the f is Zach King?' Never heard of him!