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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 3893 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 73 of 119 02 January 2014 at 11:42am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I had to do that as well, at age 15. All 50 states with the 50 state capitals. I remember that I got 98/100, but I doubt that I'd get even 50/100 today, almost 15 years later. I suspect how well people do on these things depends on at what point in their lives they were asked. I used to be very good with the geography of eastern Europe, too, back when it was Cold War history all day every day. Today I'm pretty sure I'd mess up a few countries on a blind map, at least if there was a time limit. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4803 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 74 of 119 02 January 2014 at 1:10pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Well, of course the USA is more important than some tiny countries in Europe, like mine for example. But the individual states inside the USA are not important for anyone outside the USA at all, why should they be? The USA is a world power, not Mississipi or Colorado or the Rhode Island. Noone cares about those, it's the USA that matters. Just as quite noone cares about the inner parts of Russia or China. The USA students weren't able to identify even some of the large European countries, which is pretty said. The american tv series are much better at PR of individual cities than the states. While half Europe knows the New York city nearly as if they had been there, they would be hard pressed to answer whether there is as well a state called New York. It's true that even some Europeans struggle with European countries knowledge. I once met a German student who didn't know where the Czech Republic was, which is quite sad considering it being a neighbouring country. But the truth is that I believe our republic should never have been divided from the A-U empire so I am not that surprised :-D I have personally met people who may not say out loud "It is unpatriotic and wrong to learn another language", because they would be taken for fools in this country, but they cover it a bit more subtly. Views such as "They should learn proper Czech before trying another language" are sometimes being heard. Totally stupid. And this is one of the coutries where noone can doubt value of foreign language knowledge. Edited by Cavesa on 02 January 2014 at 1:12pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6391 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 75 of 119 02 January 2014 at 3:39pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
To give him the benefit of doubt, maybe he's heard enough of the languages to conclude that they sound completely different. This alone doesn't make Brazilian a separate language though, it's just the accent. Cavesa, great post as always! <3 Edited by Serpent on 02 January 2014 at 3:44pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Einarr Tetraglot Senior Member United Kingdom einarrslanguagelog.w Joined 4407 days ago 118 posts - 269 votes Speaks: English, Bulgarian*, French, Russian Studies: Swedish | Message 76 of 119 02 January 2014 at 5:25pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Speaking of countries/states/divisions of a certain nation I found that it's sometimes
baffling for the people of my own country to distinguish between the separate nations within the United Kingdom for instance. Sometimes when I communicate with relatives I have a minor geography lesson prepared beforehand in order for me to explain that The United Kingdom is actually officially, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which consists of three different countries, namely Scotland, Wales and England, which make up Great Britain and then there's Northern Ireland. Once the lesson reaches Northern Ireland it gets more complicated, because they have to divide between it and Ireland alone which is an independent country. The fact is that most countryman associate the UK with England alone, and little do they know how it can be very offensive indeed if you should call a Welsh person English or a Scotsman British. So basically my two cents would be that ignorance is pretty much present everywhere, and then you have the magnitude it reaches that gets to make things shameful. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6391 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 77 of 119 02 January 2014 at 5:31pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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It's certainly important to know that the UK doesn't equal England, but how is a Scotsman not British? Isn't British the proper default term to use if you don't know where in the UK someone is from?
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| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5649 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 78 of 119 02 January 2014 at 6:12pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I, for once, make a similar mistake: I actually state that "Moscow is the capital of the Earth Federation" when I meant "Moscow is the capital of Russian Federation", and that angered some Japanese in a forum. Maybe subconsciously I want Russia to dominate the world... 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Einarr Tetraglot Senior Member United Kingdom einarrslanguagelog.w Joined 4407 days ago 118 posts - 269 votes Speaks: English, Bulgarian*, French, Russian Studies: Swedish | Message 79 of 119 02 January 2014 at 6:15pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Yes, surely, when abroad I don't think it will be a problem whatsoever to address someone from the UK as a Brit alone, as long as you don't know from which country of the UK exactly do they come from. What I wrote goes mostly for the happening if one is in, say, Scotland/Wales/Northern Ireland and call a Scot/Welsh/Irish person British or English just because they're in the UK. Edited by Einarr on 02 January 2014 at 6:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5626 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 80 of 119 02 January 2014 at 6:16pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
No, I'm afraid to say she wasn't 1 person has voted this message useful |
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