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?

Can anyone repost the link to the quiz, I can find the original post.

The OPs comment does not surprise me. Surely not having to be concerned about the details is one of the attractions of package holidays.

Mind you, does not just apply to visits abroad. Most of my team do not know where parts of south London are, though to be fair they are not going to leave civilisation to visit them.

www.sporcle.com/games/g/world

I got 164.

Plus, there really is no need to have literally no idea where in the world you are when you go somewhere. Google has a map button, plus it gives you a little intro and small map on each place, so say you were going somewhere and typed it in, the first result would have all the basic info right there. Not knowing is almost like choosing to be blind.

I hate the phrase "There is no need to" - usually this means "I'm massively judgy about this for no reason"

If you take eating, breathing and sleeping out of the equation there is literally no need to do anything.

Well if you want to spend your life going “huh?” and failing to understand what people around you are talking about, and getting defensive when someone knows something you don’t when they discuss things other than eating, breathing and sleeping, there isn’t a need to do anything else. If you want to learn something, google is there and easy to utilise, that’s what I’m saying.

DP and I were waiting for a flight to the Algarve when we heard a couple discussing the destinations on the departure board.

The woman was asking where Faro was and her OH replied that he was sure it was in Egypt!

Ex-H was on a n Iberia flight from Barcelona to London. The pilot was giving out flight information when he announced that they would be flying over the Andes. Apparently a few people looked puzzled but most didn't react at all.

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

94/197 - how the hell fast do you lot type?? I do find eastern bloc countries spellings challenging.

Is there a way of doing that quiz without the timer?

@Bertie, I disagree. I think that phrase usually means the opposite, PP just used it incorrectly. You would say 'there's no need to know where exactly on the globe you're flying to'. PP used a double negative by saying 'there's no need to not know'. It's a semantically null sentence. What PP meant to say, I imagine, was 'there's no excuse for not knowing'.

Or, better, 'there's no excuse for ignorance'.

The OP is either a GF or a bit silly which makes the other people who agree with them a bit silly too.

Unless they want to be identified as GFs

@Graphista

Your score is making me feel better anyway!! I don't think you can turn off the timer but you can do continent by continent if that helps. Shorter time slots but a bit less overwhelming:

www.sporcle.com/games/g/europe

www.sporcle.com/games/g/asia

@Donthugmeimscared

!!High 5's!!

I'm constantly amazed by how little people know about geography. We used to run a Christmas trip by bus to Scotland. Over time we've heard "I wouldn't have come if I'd known it was this far"(didn't you look at a map?), "I much prefer beaches" (we were staying in a ski resort), and assorted moans and groans about the cold. Stunning.

I also heard a story about Trump. Apparently the leaders of the Baltic States were over in the US paying their respects. Trump did a bit of complaining about fake news and then set about telling his visitors off about their roles in the war in the former Yugoslavia. They were all completely baffled until it dawned on them - he didn't know the difference between the Baltic and the Balkans.

Littlemisscomper - it was the bloody spellings/typing slowed me down (I'm sure a few times my spelling was correct and theirs wasn't!) fat fingers and no glasses

I'm pretty good on Europe, Africa, much of Asia, the smaller South American ones catch me out. Need to brush up on these.

Anniehawk - that reminds me of s conversation I had with a fellow student at uni once. Their mum was CONVINCED where the uni was, was freezing cos it was "up north" and made them pack clothes more suited to arctic conditions, where uni was also experienced a late summer that year so it was ROASTING even in October. She had to do a run to primark and get cooler clothes. How far from her home town? About 100 miles!

I've lived in Northern Europe, my gran bless her was forever telling me to "wrap up warm" living over there she was convinced it was cold and snowy year round...in Germany. Where was she from? Scotland! Damn sight colder in Scotland most of the time inc summer than in Germany. We had snow in the winter but also gorgeous hot summers at the lakes.

“I've spoken to people who thought they were going to the Dominican Republic and ended up in Dominica. Surprised they worked it out really.”

Dominica is about a million times nicer than Dominican Republic, so they were lucky (although a million times harder to get to too, Weird they didn’t notice that)

I think there are very extreme examples on this thread- most people are not that dim about their holiday destination, no.

It's a wise thing to know where you're going but it's foolish think that a quick google or a high score on an internet quiz qualifies you as an expert on world affairs.

It's a wise thing to know where you're going but it's foolish think that a quick google or a high score on an internet quiz qualifies you as an expert on world affairs.

Well it will at least help differentiate Tasmania from Tanzania, Australia from Austria and Sri Lanka from Ceylon. If you’re going to a place of course you google it first, even just to look for flights, time difference or currency.

I thought Ceylon was the old colonial name for Sri Lanka, the teardrop-shaped island just south of India. Yes, I have been there on holiday, and yes, we always Google our route and destination like mad. I learned that Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar are all separate countries and that Yemen is not in Africa. And that Iraq from the air looks hot, harsh and geographically inhospitable.

It is. And I am sure that lots of people didn’t know that and Google would have helped them out on it.

But why do you care what other people know or don't know, in comparison to yourself? What an odd thread.

why do you care what other people know or don't know, in comparison to yourself

Is that not how our whole exam system, career paths, even simple pub quizzes are based?

🤣🤣😭 do you live your day to day life as though you’re living in a pub quiz then?

Every single country, booom on that quiz!! only cos of previous hours spent playing it. also can spend hours tracking planes on flight radar and wandering Google Street view

As long as the pilot knows where we're going then it's probably ok.

I once sat on a plane at Dusseldorf airport and the pilot came on and welcomed us to this short flight to Paris. There was a reaction among the passengers then he came back on and said 'Whoops, I mean Manchester'. A bit scary!

Many years ago Granada TV did interviews with people at the airport waiting for holiday flights, some didn't know that Tunisia was in Africa, that Corfu was on Greece etc., so this isn't new. Because of the use of sat navs knowledge of UK geography has also declined from the days of maps, at least you needed some idea to find the right page!