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Is Not Knowing the Capital of Canada a Problem?

IMST said:
Hell, even if they're students of international trade, I'd expect Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax to be more important to knowing about Canada, given Ottawa is inland and nowhere near any major US city.
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As nodes, but Ottawa represents the regulator and negotiator.

It's like not knowing US trade decisions are made "in Washington"
 
Mudcat said:
Before I read the article cited in the original post said the capital of Canada is Ottawa, before reading that I would have said the capital was Quebec. I also don't know the name of the capitals of England, Africa, Australia, or Brazil. I also don't know the capital of the large majority of the states in the country I live in, for that mater.

So yeah, I consider it a very particular and obscure piece of knowledge.
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Is it also obscure knowledge that Quebec is not a city, but a province, that England is part of the United Kingdom, and that Africa is a continent and not a country?

ETA Oops! Quebec, a province as well as a city, I meant to write. My apologies to the residents of that city.
 
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Craig B said:
Is it also obscure knowledge that (1) Quebec is not a city, but a province, that (2) England is part of the United Kingdom, and that (3) Africa is a continent and not a country?
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Numbering added by me.

  1. I'm far from the only person who has ever made that mistake, certainly.
  2. I'm pretty certain that this is well known. But as far as I know England is still its own country, like any other country in the UN.
  3. I always thought it was like Australia in that it was both a nation/country and a continent.
 
Mudcat said:
I always thought it was like Australia in that it was both a nation/country and a continent.
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Okay, that's a lot worse than not knowing the capital of Canada, lol. Wasn't Sarah Palin rumored to have made the same mistake?
 
Mudcat said:
Numbering added by me.

  1. I'm far from the only person who has ever made that mistake, certainly.
  2. I'm pretty certain that this is well known. But as far as I know England is still its own country, like any other country in the UN.
  3. I always thought it was like Australia in that it was both a nation/country and a continent.
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No England is in the UN as part of the United Kingdom, not on its own.
 
Mudcat said:
Also predictable was the commentary that followed which lambasted the intellegience of the responders (one commented "What did you expect from a girl with blue hair?"), the state of education today, teachers unions, and the ACA.
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I suppose that these are the people who think that education is the rote memorization of facts, like the Capitol of Canada, or Mongolia (Ulan Bataar IIRC :D) because that's what it was in their day.

It's sort of important I think, but not because it is practical. It's like a shorthand way of demonstrating that you are educated. A bit of a tautology maybe, but that's how society works. Kind of like how one of the most valuable things you get for going to college and graduating is the piece of paper that says you graduated from that college (although many may not admit that).
 
I only know that Ottawa is Canada's capital because it's NHL team is the Senators. If the Ottawa team name was different I would assume Montreal, because they've won the most Stanley Cups.
 
cornsail said:
Okay, that's a lot worse than not knowing the capital of Canada, lol. Wasn't Sarah Palin rumored to have made the same mistake?
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Good grief, you make a mistake and no one lets you live it down.

Craig B said:
No England is in the UN as part of the United Kingdom, not on its own.
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I don't recall saying that England being on its own. I merely said it was its own country, similar to how America is its own country despite being part of the UN.
 
I do have some hope for future generations based on a single data point. ;)

On one of the Rick Mercer Talking to Americans pieces, Rick talked to a lady, explaining that Canada was proposing to add two more states called Honey and Gluestick (or something equally insane) and had her convinced. Her seven-year old (more or less) son tugged at her to attract her attention and said, "Wait a minute. Canada has provinces, not states."

YMMV & etc.
 
No offense intended towards Canadians, but it's a relatively unimportant country to most Americans. Nothing that happens in Canadian government is likely to have any effect on Americans. Yes, I know we get some water and oil from you guys, but it's not likely that you're going to cut those streams of revenue off. So no, I don't expect most Americans to know the capital.

I see this a lot, they ask some young people to find Myanmar on the map, which they fail to do, then there's all manner of hand wringing about how the schools are failing, but people seem to forget how totally ignorant THEY were when they graduated high school.

Someone doesn't know Ottawa? No big deal. Can they add fractions? That's frankly more important.
 
Mudcat said:
I don't recall saying that England being on its own. I merely said it was its own country, similar to how America is its own country despite being part of the UN.
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I think you may still be confused. There's a difference between England and the United Kingdom. A lot of Americans don't understand the distinction.

The United Kingdom includes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (and some other territories). Great Britain is the name of the island on which England, Scotland, and Wales (but not Northern Ireland) exist. And so "British" is different from "English".
 
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