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

"I wasn’t alive then and not interested enough in ww2 to research it so how would I know" see I find that so alien to me. How can you not be interested in events that are STILL having effects on our daily lives now? It's like people who don't watch the news, or 'do politics' why are you not interested in being informed on the things that affect you and yours?

I've just downloaded a trivia game onto phone and been focusing on the history and geography questions as I find that so fascinating. I'm learning stuff and just noted last night how the 3 main European leaders in early 20th c Europe were related (I was a bit confused, think I've got it now).

Eg I remember my mum crying tears of joy at the Berlin Wall coming down - because she remembered seeing it going up and people trying to escape east Berlin climbing over it as it was being built and being shot!

My daughter was born just a few months before 9/11 - she does not remember a world before that. It's 'history' to her but she knows it's changed the world.

"You have to try pretty hard to be ignorant of the main events of WW2" careful in your display of smugness WORLD war 2 was not only fought in Europe. It didn't even only start in Europe.

Nobody knows everything, I don't have a problem with people not knowing stuff, I do have a problem with people not taking an interest in the world they live in, being close minded and thinking that what they don't know is not important.

I'm 46 I am still learning so much every day. Not least about myself. When I was doing my 2nd degree, there were people on the course in their 80's. Doing the course because they recognised they didn't know everything and the subject was something they wanted to learn more about.

When I'm watching non-British tv shows and films I look up how far away places are (and usually find out they're much closer than I thought), but also items/products that are mentioned even shops & restaurants so I can understand references better - especially with jokes!

"There is a reason why the WW1 services say "we shall remember them" and "never forget" - not only to honour those who fought but to make sure we never become so complacent as to let such atrocities occur again. If people ignore the lessons of history, it's much more likely such events can rise again." And yet such atrocities are and have happened again in many parts of the world. But some people are ignorant of this, or worse think it doesn't matter.

A lot of people mix up the Normandy landings with Dunkirk

Slight difference in the 2. But as people have said, Dunkirk and the rescue of soldiers off the beaches is such an important part of 'our island's history'.

As are the Normandy Landings - but for different reasons.

For some reason both my husband and I thought for years that Brunei was in the Middle East. Then they showed on a map on the news one night and its nowhere near! No idea how we both had the same delusion!

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

Except he wasn't. He was a German General. He was forced to commit suicide after becoming implicated in the plot to assassinate Hitler. Not all Germans were Nazis.

But I guess you knew that?

Being ignorant of basic general knowledge is almost seen within British culture as a good thing with those who do know things being labelled with the pejorative of 'boring'. Its normalised and thought of as totally acceptable. Ironically it puts us all at risk of that ignorance being exploited by the unscrupulous.

So true. Knowledge is power and all that.

Until the Windrush was in the news, 2 members of DP's family, both in their 50s, hadn't realised that people from the West Indies were positively encouraged to come to the UK because of post-war labour shortages. They are both dreadful racists, and were expressing the opinion that "they should never have been allowed in".

Ok, I get that people may not be interested in the history of WW2 (and being Eastern European the history I've been taught I imagine is different to brits as the focus is different), but surely people know that there are 2 main ferry ports to land in France from Dover - Calais and Dunkirk?

I thought Hawaii was part of the Caribbean until recently, I didn't realise it was in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean, half way between Australia and America....

Thorpeness and Dungeness, Suffolk and Essex.

Unless there are two, Dungeness is on the south coast, just in Kent but very near the East Sussex border. You can see the power station from the beach at Camber Sands.

I'm convinced that one of the reasons the sea always feels warm at Camber is because the sea water is used to cool the turbine at the power station.

These competitive ignorance threads make me sad.

Not having a clue about what happened in Dunkirk / Dunquerque is not on the same level as misplacing Cuba as South America and not Caribbean - same part of the world at least.

For the "oooh I'm terrible at geography!" people - get a map. Look at map . Get on sites like sporcle and do the quizzes. Learn about the world you're living in, beyond knowing about Love Island.

www.sporcle.com/games/teedslaststand/world-no-outlines-minefield

I've had Americans ask me what state England is in and whether we speak English in England.

I got chatting to a couple of Americans who were shocked that pretty much all western Christians were Catholic until the Reformation. They thought the Catholics were the upstarts.

Until a couple of years ago, I thought Hawaii was visible from the coast of California.

I thought only the southern coast of Cuba had the Caribbean Sea off it and the North joined the Pacific so it depends on where you are on the island.

Op, where did you think it was?

Atlantic! Sorry. Atlantic sea on North of Cuba and Carribean on South.

For people who want their kids to grow up knowing where places are, I strongly recommend buying a decent atlas and a globe.

I think both give you a much better sense of how places fit together than looking at maps online. There's something about the way you turn the page in an atlas to see what the next place along is that doesn't really work with online maps.

Mind you, a colleague tells a lovely story about his niece who had to buy a new satnav at a service station because hers had packed up en route.

He asked why she didn't just get a road atlas, rather than pay the rip-off price that the service station charged for the satnav. She told him that she didn't see the point of maps, because "You have to know where the place you're going is before you can use them".

He tried to explain about map indexes (or indices, for pedants), and in the end went and got his road atlas and showed her.

She then told him that atlases never used to have this new system of finding places.

world.

Graphista you quoted DancingHipposOnAcid’s comment that You have to try pretty hard to be ignorant of the main events of WW2 and said

careful in your display of smugness WORLD war 2 was not only fought in Europe. It didn't even only start in Europe.

I am struggling to find anything in DancingHippos’ post that suggests she only had the European elements of WW2 in mind when she made that comment. I imagine that when talking about “main events” she was also thinking of El Alamein, Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima and the Bridge on the River Kwai. Bit harsh to call her out for being “smug”.

Yeah my bad on Dungeness. Kent it is.

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

I think it's worth quoting this again, to reiterate the ignorance on this thread.

Hopefully that person is now hanging their head in shame, and furiously googling the events of world war 2!

I mean, my DH is always going on about how ignorant I am about the world wars, because he loves watching documentary after documentary about them on the Yesterday channel, and I don't. To be honest as I have got older and had kids I find it more and more difficult to watch or read anything about wars because I just get really angry and upset at what happened.

But I, like everyone should, have a basic knowledge of that period of history and that includes knowing that there is a place in France called Dunkirk, even though Dunkirk sounds like it should be elsewhere. I will admit to getting the events of Dunkirk and D day mixed up, probably because of the D!

I agree there is always competitive ignorance on these threads, but someone usually takes too far and drops a total clanger, as has happened here.

Dunkirk is one of the most effective bits of British propaganda ever. A resounding defeat was made into an amazing victory in the minds of the British

Agree. My history knowledge is sketchy (I took geography instead of history!), but I was shocked at how close we came to surrender and I had no idea the soldiers had to rescued by civilian fishing boats.

My DH's knowledge geography is appalling. He thought York was on the south coast (he lives in the NW). I'm sure there are lots more but I've blanked them out

Just googled "Love island" and can't believe it is in the middle of the Pacific. thought it was near The Maldives :)

The thing that always blows my mind is that you don’t travel strictly East / West through the Panama Canal. It runs more SE to NW and if you travel NW along it you come out in the Atlantic not the Pacific.

The thing that always blows my mind is that you don’t travel strictly East / West through the Panama Canal. It runs more SE to NW and if you travel NW along it you come out in the Atlantic not the Pacific.

Wha?

@bellinisurge for some reason I though Cuba was a little way under Mexico, perhaps separated by another smallish country. The thing is I do occasionally look at a world map but my memory's not the greatest so I'll go "ooh, I didn't realise that country was there!" and then forget all about it till it surprises me again the next time. I think I must be the Dory of world geography, I don't tend to remember facts unless I need them (apart from 1980s pop music which for some reason I know shedloads of useless trivia - go figure!)

Thanks, op. We all have our blind spots- looks like geography is yours.

I live in Normandy and can assure people that there are still plenty of veterans who make the trip over for the anniversary of 6th June. They are always warmly welcomed by their French hosts and honoured in the ceremonies that take place at memorials, large and small. The cemeteries are beautifully tended and I think you would have to search pretty hard for people of any age who don't know about D-day or Jour-J as it is called here. I find it all very moving.

for some reason I though Cuba was a little way under Mexico, perhaps separated by another smallish country

That is exactly where I thought it was OP, until a few years ago. And I do the learning something then forgetting it and being surprised by it anew.