[net.nlang] Maps are not an international language

jbdp@jenny.UUCP (Julian Pardoe) (12/04/85)

> Excerpt from a conversation during a trip of mine to the US:
> ...
> Me:  "From Berlin, Germany."
> The lady: "Oh, really?  Did you go all the way by bus?"

On a trip to the States five or so years ago a Belgian friend of mine
was frequently asked: ``Belgium?  Is that a city or a country?''

kort@hounx.UUCP (B.KORT) (12/08/85)

You think it's funny, that Americans don't know whether
Belgium is a city or a country?  When I arrived in New
Jersey in 1968, I told my teenage neighbor that I was
from Nebraska.  She asked me what state that was in.  Sigh.

				-- Barry Kort
				...ihnp4!houxm!hounx!kort

	A door opens.  You are entering another dementia.
	The dementia of the mind.

barmar@mit-eddie.UUCP (Barry Margolin) (12/08/85)

You think it's funny, that New Jersey residents don't know that Nebraska
is a state?  I heard on the news a few days ago that seniors at several
Boston high schools were given a geography and current events test, and
more than half could not find the US on an unlabeled map of the world!
Some freshman or sophomore classes did a little better than the seniors.
-- 
    Barry Margolin
    ARPA: barmar@MIT-Multics
    UUCP: ..!genrad!mit-eddie!barmar

charli@cylixd.UUCP (Charli Phillips) (12/10/85)

In article <292@jenny.UUCP> jbdp@jenny.UUCP (Julian Pardoe) writes:
>On a trip to the States five or so years ago a Belgian friend of mine
>was frequently asked: ``Belgium?  Is that a city or a country?''

And from the U.S. Postal Service:

Someone I knew gave a package addressed to "Vienna, Austria" to the
postal clerk.  The clerk handed it back, saying "I'm sorry, but you
can't abbreviate the name of the country.  You'll have to write 
'Australia' out."

		charli