Geography!!
One of my biggest pet peeve is people who don't know basic geography. Especially those who claim to love travel but can't point to Brazil. If you can't tell me where Portugal is, we are done. I consider this half a life guide to seeming less like an idiot and half a rant. To be honest, this is very much in response to a friend I had that said something like "Spain? Isn't that in the Middle East?".
According to a Kent State Study:
Professors John Dunlosky and Katherine Rawson asked 671 college students in 2012 the same 300 questions as Thomas Nelson and Louis Narens back in 1980. Guess what? We got stupider for the most part. Here are the geography related ones. See the article in Forbes for more details (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesmarshallcrotty/2013/09/10/10-questions-that-most-college-students-cant-answer-but-you-probably-can/)
- 30% of College Students thought Baghdad was the capital of Afghanistan. (BTW Baghdad is the capital of Iraq and the capitol of Afghanistan is Kabul.) I wonder how many of those students have strong opinions on the US presence in the Middle East.
- 12% thought that Mount Everest was in the Appalachians.
- 6% of College students thought that Nairobi was the capital of Africa, the continent. NAIROBI?? Not even the country of which Nairobi is the capital, Kenya??
- 21% thought that Budapest (of Hungary) was the capital of India (whose actual capital is New Delhi).
Some Quite Ridiculous Common Confusions To Get Right:
- China may be the biggest country by population, but Russia is the biggest by land mass.
- This one needs to be said...
South America
Africa - New England is still not a state. It is a region. The states in the region are just too small to warrant football teams of their own, hence the New England Patriots.
- The Middle East: If you've got opinions on the government, Al Queda and ISIS, know where Iraq and Syria are on a map. Also note that Kuwait is a country, not a city.
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