To think that most people on a plane don't know where they are going?

[sallysummer]

When I talk to people they often have an appalling knowledge of geography - not knowing where Poland is, confusion which ocean is which etc; geography is my area of employment.

I think I could get on a plane and ask people to show me where they are going on a map and they couldn't - why do people not know where places are?

I've been on a few group tours, and have been amazed at how many people know nothing about where they are , even when they are standing right in the country . Ignorance is bliss I guess .

Fuck off did people get on a flight to Australia thinking it was going to last 3 hours. That didn't happen

Agreed. Utter bollocks.

Also, sorry to piss on your smug bonfire OP, but Poland can actually get up to 25 degrees in August.

I have never met anyone on a plane that doesn't know where they are going.

I had a flat mate once at uni who was from a suburb of Glasgow. Once I asked her whereabouts her house was in relation to The centre of Glasgow- as in, to the north, to the west etc. She didn't know. She just said "I just go out of my door and turn left"

I couldn't imagine not knowing where I was on a map! Maybe I just love maps......

I don’t find it odd that people aren’t totally up to speed with my area of employment. So what if people don’t know exactly where some where is or what ocean they are flying over.

I agree with you OP but ignorance seems to be something to be proud of these days!

When I am flying somewhere, I spend ages reading up on the resort, location, local customs and restaurants, shopping, etc. It makes it more of an all round experience.

official geography just doesn't stay in my head (plus, yes, at school it was just physical geography that I stopped before GCSE).

I know where places are while I'm looking at the map, but once the map's gone, TBH it all gets a bit foggy.

I'm also great at navigating from a map or route plan (and making that route plan - not that we really need that much these days), and finding new routes in places I'm living (eg. shortcuts to the supermarket), but I couldn't necessarily tell you which way was north without looking at the sun, or where things physically are in relation to each other (just the routes I take to get there)

In my experience, people (and that's everyone, not just brits) feel that the world is small now, and forget just how different other cultures can be - even ones just a short hop away who seem outwardly just like us. Every time I move country I have to learn the social habits again - at the supermarket checkout, waiting for public transport, calling a taxi, what we eat for breakfast, crossing the road etc.

I agree with you OP but ignorance seems to be something to be proud of these days!

It seems like it, doesn't it
People don't need to know details, but not knowing that x country is on y continent is bit... Especially when they are going there!

Btw I absolutely believe the 3 hour flight to Australia thing. Sadly...

&CherryPavlova not on budget ones...

CherryPavlova, on a budget flight?! Crumbs, the very idea! 😱😱😱😱😱

Agree with Graphista, the 3 hour flight to Oz story is quite believable. There are a lot of thick people out there.

Shame this stuff isn't covered properly in school. You don't need to know every place in the world, but a basic knowledge of European countries, where other continents are and major world cities would be good.

I know where I'm going.

I agree OP - satnav is making us stupid and people have very little general knowledge of geography these days. My husband has worked with two people, both with university degrees who respectively did not know where Jersey is, and that Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands (thought it was Brussels).

And I work with someone (in London) who did not know where Blackfriars Bridge is. Who went to Cranleigh school. His education was worth paying for, then. He has worked in London for well over a year, around 15 minutes walk from the aforementioned bridge so should have some idea of its location!

I couldn't imagine not knowing where I was on a map! Maybe I just love maps

Me too. I do use Google maps to get to places sometimes but I always have a good idea before I leave of where I am going, what motorway I need, what junction I need to come off at etc and it would only be the very last section of the journey when I might actually use the satnav. Usually I just follow road signs, although sometimes what you see on the map does not quite reflect reality as road systems can be quite complicated and that's where satnav comes into its own.

If you love maps have you read Map Addict by Mike Parker? It's a great read.

Reminds me of DH's Australian cousins who's holiday itinerary in UK included visiting Edinburgh, Dublin, London and a tour of Wales all in four days 🙄
They very very disappointed that starting in Bristol it wasn't going to happen!

My husband rarely has a clue where we are going , I do tell him , but he's not that interested he just wants to go away lol
Op do you go round eberyone on each flight and do a survey?

colleagues who went to Poland and thought it was going to be hot, people who said they had no idea the flight to Australia was going to be so long - they thought it'd be 3 hours

Sounds like you know a few unusually thick people then - such a lack of basic knowledge is not common.

very little general knowledge of geography these days

Hardly surprising when the basics like countries, capital cities, etc isn't taught in schools. It's another one of those topics that's briefly done at primary school "for fun" and then by and large ignored in secondary schools, just like Egypt and the Romans is ignored in secondary school history but "played" around in primaries.

Secondary school geography is all about climate change, rain forests, pollution, etc., so kids know all about the earthquake in Nepal, the poor Polar bears, etc. Basically, if the country/capital city isn't linked in some way to global warming or pollution, secondary kids aren't taught anything about it.

Why are people so happy and content to be so uneducated and ignorant?

There was a well known poster on here who went to Madeira for a holiday and repeatedly referred to her "holiday in The Med!"

Madeira is near The Azores and while both belong to Portugal, they are actually in the middle of the Atlantic. Every time I saw her say it I thought did she and her entire family not realise they were actually travelling in the total opposite direction to "The Med", when they flew?

I am terrible at geography, I can never work out where a place is in relation to another place, even in my local area. I can't tell where Poland is in relation to Germany without looking at a map. If I am going on holiday I always do research on the area before I go though. I have never met anyone who thought that you could get to Australia in 3 hours, or that Poland would be hot (assuming you mean in the winter). Maybe you attract thick people.

My world geography is pretty sound - however my UK geography is horrendous.

Despite being bright and reasonably well-read, I was booking a big holiday the other year, we'd decided on an Alaskan cruise. So I booked that, researched and saw that it was cheapest to fly to New York, then looked at how we'd get from New York to Vancouver. I couldn't understand why we couldn't just pootle up the east coast, stopping off at Niagra on the way, and why the train would take two days till I brought up google maps, and realised that Vancouver is at the other side of the country and not where Quebec is, and that Greenland is where I though Alaska was, although a bit further up.

We did get a few days in New York out of it though, and I now do know quite a lot about Alaska .

OTOH, I did know where the Falklands were before the war, as my dad nearly took a job there (two years before )