To have not realised that Cuba is in the Caribbean?

[MeMyShelfandIkea]

Watching Blind Date tonight and one of the couples is on their date in Cuba. I commented to DH did he ever fancy visiting somewhere like that? He said what, the Caribbean? I said no, South America. DH then informs me that Cuba is a Caribbean island and despite showing me on the map I still can't get my head around it!

Tell me I'm not the only one whose geographical knowledge is hopeless

Thorpeness ( also in Suffolk, not far from Orford Ness)

Ness Cove, Devon.

Dungeness

Crossness Sewage Works in E London

Blueroses: I am old enough to remember the Falklsnds war causing great confusion amongst people who seemed to be under the impression that Argentina had invaded some islands somewhere just off Scotland, or perhaps Northumberland if it was the Farmer Islands they were thinking of.

Farne not Farmer.

We interviewed a teacher who thought Cuba was a Greek Island.

Just to add to the Dunkirks, there are 8 cities named Dunkirk in the US. In Montana, Kansas, Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, New York, and Maryland.

As you were.

I’m an absolute geography/map geek; when other kids used to read books I read maps (and still do- that’s really sad, isn’t it!!). My DS is the same and is a whizz at the geography/countries round on Pointless.
The place that surprised me was Canvey Island; I thought it was a Scarborough ‘North Coast’ type of place when I was younger!

I forgot Gillingham- always thought that was a Northern town too!

Alli I still have my atlas I was given aged around 6/7 that's falling apart from so much use. I'm 50 now and it still sits in my bookcase next to my bed should I have a bout of insomnia and need something to pour over. I also like reading ordinance survey maps

@AlliKaneErikson and @SluttyButty I'm the same. I spend hours just looking at maps: I find it very therapeutic. I did a geography degree and always been a. It of a map geek.

Can't believe some of these posts: how can people be so ignorant about the world is beyond me.

Side note. There's also a hamlet in Staffordshire called Dunkirk. My multiple-greats grandparents owned a farm there in the 1820's.

I've come across worse than the OP, and to assume a Spanish speaking country is near all those in South America is not totally stupid I think.

Re the Dunkirk debate, i was really surprised to pass the one in Kent thr other day! It had me questioning my former understanding (which I see is also correct) that it's France.

I suppose I didn't class Cuba as the Caribbean as such despite knowing it is geographically because the political situation is so different.

My one of these was thinking Goa was an island and not a mainland part of South India. It just sounds island like! I knew it belonged to India and used to be Portuguese, I just thought it was off the coast of India rather than in it!

I don't believe WW2 has passed out of our cultural currency. Unlike the Boer War, it was fought in Europe and affected everyone in the country directly due to the air raids. It was also the subject of many, many films which the Boer War never was. It is talked about extensively around Remembrance Sunday but the Boer War is never mentioned.

You have to try pretty hard to be ignorant of the main events of WW2

Years ago I was sitting with two friends. Friend A had just got back from the Isle of Wight. Friend B memorably asked, "What side of the road do they drive on there?"

my mum is 76 and was 3 when world war 2 ended someone 10 years older would only have been 13 there cant be many soldiers that fought in the second world war still alive, my Grandad fought in it and he died 20 years ago.

I wasn’t alive then and not interested enough in ww2 to research it so how would I know.

Fucking hell.

I thought I was a decent quizzed bar the sports section. Turns out my general knowledge in geography is absolutely abysmal!

Newspaper columnists today are pointing and laughing at Exeter University after someone sent out an 'inspirational quote' with the attribution Erwin Rommel. my DF was a 'desert rat', it wasn't that long ago.

Errol

I used to think Borneo was in Africa

It's Dunkerque.

The vast majority of people I meet think that Poland is in Eastern Europe. It's not.
This is a map of Central Europe, as defined by The World Factbook, Encyclopaedia Britannica and Brockhaus Enzyklopädie.

I wasn’t alive then and not interested enough in ww2 to research it so how would I know.

Has to be the most shocking and ignorant comment I have ever seen on Mumsnet.

I wasn’t alive then and not interested enough in ww2 to research it so how would I know.

Errol It is amazing that Exeter University member of staff does not know Rommel was a Nazi. Bet that has caused upset; particularly now when anti-semitism seems to be increasing again.

This is why knowledge is important. Many younger people lack 'cultural capital' - the knowledge and behaviours that let us make sense of the world as it exists now and understand how it came about. It informs our understanding, values, behaviours, emotional intelligence.