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Original poster

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

229 replies

sallysummer · 06/12/2018 21:12

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?

OP posts:
TheFivePointPalmHeartOfTafiti · 07/12/2018 10:01

@Katinkka Define uneducated? I’m not great at geography and am rubbish at naming capital cities. I am however shit hot at maths and have a PhD in my field of work. So I don’t worry about my poor geography knowledge and I’m not uneducated, there’s plenty of useful stuff in my brain.

Bombardier25966 · 07/12/2018 10:10

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

With the exception of Wales that's easily doable, I know someone that does it most weeks from a regional airport (obviously not as a tourist!).

user789653241 · 07/12/2018 10:19

TheFivePoint, people can be educated and ignorant at the same time. I am not saying you are. But there are some people who are ignorant, no matter how clever/educated they are. Grin

Katinkka · 07/12/2018 10:37

Not having a basic grasp of geography is ignorant and plenty of lecturers at my uni struggle with basic grammar and punctuation. I didn't learn much at school due to my mother dying and other things but I have made an effort since to educate myself. Having a PHD means you have specific knowledge of a subject and presumably the skills required to acquire it. It does not mean you are not ignorant and it doesn't mean you have a decent level of education in other areas.

BulletWithABun · 07/12/2018 10:42

Anyone fancy a challenge? I got 103/197. It's been a couple of years since I've revised them!

197/197 in exactly 9 minutes. I am a real map bore though Grin

VanGoghsDog · 07/12/2018 10:52

I've been to Poland in October and it was roasting hot.

You can drive from London to Dublin, you can take the car on the ferry.

limitedperiodonly · 07/12/2018 14:48

A friend thought Gran Canaria was on the Spanish mainland. Her husband booked a hotel and a flight and it took a few days for her to realise that (a) it was an island and (b) not that close to Spain.

But does that really matter? She enjoyed the surroundings, liked the people and spent money there. I can think of worse things for people to do on holiday.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 07/12/2018 15:20

Anyone fancy a challenge? I got 103/197

188 here ... I always fall down on what's where in Africa. I can cope with the obvious Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya and so on, but what passes for my mind fritters with such as Mali and Senegal Blush

BulletWithABun · 07/12/2018 15:37

If you want a real challenge, try the one where you have to click all of the world's countries on a map. You are given the country name and have to click. There are no borders shown, just the outline of the continents.

Just to top it all off it's a minefield one too, so one wrong click and you have to start again.

I can't find it just now but will keep looking for the link. Hours of fun for world map bores!

Lucisky · 07/12/2018 15:56

It was surprising, 20 odd years ago when we went to Goa, how many people thought it was an island. I even saw an article in a magazine around the same time talking about 'the wonderful island of Goa'. It was corrected in the next edition.
I am always captivated by looking at the ground from aircraft (as long as I can see it), and trying to figure out the cities, rivers etc.

Graphista · 07/12/2018 16:18

"To be fair, until Argentina invaded had anyone even heard of the Falklands? It wasn't general knowledge." Oh no this has been in last 5 years!!

And 2 of them were scots!

I agree having a high level of education in one area eg to PhD level doesn't necessarily mean non ignorant.

Original poster
sallysummer · 07/12/2018 16:23

Where do you get paid to use geography? [interested]smile

In a school, a university, a college, town planning - lots of places.

167 on the Sporcle quiz before I ran out of time it took too long to go through the index in my atlas

OP posts:
ExplodedPeach · 07/12/2018 16:31

I got top grades in geography at school. I could tell you all about tectonic plates, coastal erosion, etc etc. None of what we were taught involved pointing to countries on a map, much to my fathers astonishment Hmm

Saying that, I always know where I'm going when I'm on a plane. I will definitely have looked at a map beforehand. But if you handed me a blank map with no borders or writing on, I sure as hell couldn't point out exactly where places are.

Ginger1982 · 07/12/2018 16:46

When I talk to people they seem to have an appalling knowledge of the law. The law is my area of employment. Hope I'm not as smug as you about it 🙄

Original poster
sallysummer · 07/12/2018 16:53

When I talk to people they seem to have an appalling knowledge of the law. The law is my area of employment

If I was going to a law court I'd make sure I knew the basics that I needed to know.

OP posts:
GallicosCats · 07/12/2018 16:58

When I took a proper look at a map of Africa I wasn't surprised my grasp of its geography was so shaky. There are a bewildering number of countries, approximately a third of which had different names the other week. Confused

CherryPavlova · 07/12/2018 17:33

There are plenty of very well educated British people who wouldn’t have a clue where Bell End, Nether Wallop, Twat, Scratchy Bottom, Bunny or Curry Mallet are.

LuluBellaBlue · 07/12/2018 17:41

Let’s say you have a wide circle of friends / aquantices, let’s say 200 people.
From those 200 people YOU have decided that these people equal ‘most people’ - what in the world, in the UK?
So ‘most people’ in the UK don’t have any geographical knowledge? Hmm

PumpkinPie2016 · 07/12/2018 17:44

I am hopeless and direction and geographynof the world. I wouldn't know where to start naming oceans! That said, I seem to be able to get myself around the country using either map or Sat nav. Not a big traveller abroad so not really done that.

Weird thing is - I got an A* in GCSE Geography! I know a lot about tectonic plates, coastal erosion, rural and urban development etc but it taught me nothing about where anything is!

Mumminmum · 07/12/2018 18:56

@MarilynSlumroe if you read American newspapers you can sometimes find comments below showing that they are confusing Austria with Australia.

Oh well. I am from a Scandinavian country. Several of my Scandinavian friends have met people who thought that Denmark or Norway is the capital of Sweden, when they travel in the US. Absolutely refuse to believe that Denmark and Norway are countries.

I studied with a girl who had been to Agra. I asked her how she liked the Taj Mahal. She had no idea, what I was talking about.

An aquaintance who is Danish got a new boss who was American. He asked his new coworkers whether Denmark was behind the Iron Curtain or not.

littlemisscomper · 07/12/2018 19:55

127 on the countries game today. I ran out of time but even so, I wouldn't have got more than about 10 more even with infinite time! I'm going to keep working on it though, I'm disappointed at how rusty I am!

OftenHangry · 07/12/2018 20:09

@Ginger1982 well there is a general knowledge and specialised knowledge.
Everyone knows speading or shooting someone is illegal, but they don't know the actual law in depth like definition or sections of the legislations or case law.
Which is fine.

People should know that Hungary is in Europe and Nepal is in Aisa. Not knowing the exact position of cities, population, and details like this is again fine.

Lack of general knowledge like this can lead to situations like people voting for Brexit so there would be less people from Pakistan coming...

Knowledge is the best weapon against ignorance, racism and hate.

OftenHangry · 07/12/2018 20:09

Excuse the typos... And grammar. And all that... Blush

Burgersandfries · 07/12/2018 22:58

@Mumminmum I’ve been to the States on a student exchange programme and lived in a dorm with other students from all over the world. While I come from Russia and everybody at least knows it (don’t get me started on all the misconseptions though), my friends from Equador were lucky if asked “is it somewhere in/near Mexico?”, friends from Slovenia, Macedonia and Albania actually had to explain not Where their countries were but that they actually WERE countries. We had a lot of laughs about it but the scale of ignorance is just sad.

Donthugmeimscared · 08/12/2018 06:25

Anyone fancy a challenge? I got 103/197. It's been a couple of years since I've revised them!

I got 49/197 Blush

I can't remember my own children's names half the time so countries have no chance.