
The last unmapped places on Earth - srikar
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20141127-the-last-unmapped-places
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davidw
> “It’s my hypothesis that the reason Europeans are so much more
> geographically aware than we Americans is that they have these maps that
> make their surroundings understandable and we don’t,”

Being from Oregon myself, and having spent years in Italy, I quickly realized
that most people in Italy have no idea where I'm from - and it's not a small
place by any means. Even the relatively small population is on par with some
smaller European countries.

So I don't think it's that Europeans are 'more aware' \- it's that they're
more aware of Europe. I think it's pretty normal to be mostly aware of your
immediate surroundings.

~~~
darklajid
I'm from Germany. Without cheating I wouldn't even be able to guess where
Oregon is.

But that's still not quite fair, I think. You're kinda expected to know the
neighboring countries in Europe, but you have lots of "internal" state as
well. The overhead seems (arguably I'm biased) bigger. Yeah, knowing where
Denmark, Italy or Norway is might be expected, but then we're comparing "them"
(external state, never went there, cannot speak their language) with "us"
(Germany has states as well. Would you be able to name them?).

In the end I agree with you: I think the premise is flawed.

~~~
davidw
I know all the regions of Italy and I think I could do a decent job at all the
provinces too, something not all Italians could accomplish. I have no clue
about the various internal divisions, of, say, Ireland, Norway or the Czech
Republic (I have been to Dublin, Oslo and Prague though!).

I suspect this is fairly true for most people who live in Europe: they know
their own town, region and country better than places farther away. This is
fairly normal, and after explaining for about the 100th time that "Oregon is
the state above California", I rapidly got over being embarassed about my
compatriots' lack of geographical knowledge.

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Amorymeltzer
The West Wing clip on maps is still one of the best ways to teach someone
about how different our classic maps are from reality:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVX-
PrBRtTY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVX-PrBRtTY)

