Is Not Knowing the Capital of Canada a Problem?

Mudcat said:
How am I making it worse? I was wrong and others here are helping me understand how I was wrong.
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Well, OK, your choice. You went on to describe America as a country. That was pretty much straight after someone had explained to you that Africa wasn't a country.
 
FFed said:
I see it as a problem. If they are not teaching basic North American geography, what else are they not teaching?
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I'm certain that the capital of Canada was covered at some time in the 12 years spent in school. The point is that it wasn't important enough to remember. I'd be more concerned if an adult couldn't help a first grader to read or couldn't help a 6th grader with their math homework than I am about their inability to answer a question which would most likely only matter to them if they were playing a game of "Trivial Pursuit".
 
MikeG said:
Well, OK, your choice. You went on to describe America as a country. That was pretty much straight after someone had explained to you that Africa wasn't a country.
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Except that America is a country, or it is colloquially. Most people don't call it the United States in common use and the citizens of the United States are referred to as Americans and not United Statesians, although technically citizens of Canada can be described as Americans because they live on the same frigging continent.
 
joesixpack said:
I'm certain that the capital of Canada was covered at some time in the 12 years spent in school. The point is that it wasn't important enough to remember. I'd be more concerned if an adult couldn't help a first grader to read or couldn't help a 6th grader with their math homework than I am about their inability to answer a question which would most likely only matter to them if they were playing a game of "Trivial Pursuit".
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Yes, I understand. It's just that I'm looking at this, naturally, in European terms. In those terms it seems odd that people should regard the name of the capital city of an important neighbouring country as a trivial sort of arcane knowledge that even an educated person couldn't be expected to possess in the normal course of events.

ETA What I mean is, I'm trying to imagine a German or Belgian saying "I'm pretty certain the name of the capital of France was covered at some time in the 12 years I spent in school. The point is that it wasn't important enough to remember."
 
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Mudcat said:
Except that America is a country.......
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No it jolly well isn't. Confusing "Americans" (which everyone understands to be shorthand for citizens of the USA) with "America" is forgetting those itsy-bitsy little bits of the North American continent which aren't part of the USA, such as Mexico and Canada.
 
MikeG said:
No it jolly well isn't. Confusing "Americans" (which everyone understands to be shorthand for citizens of the USA) with "America" is forgetting those itsy-bitsy little bits of the North American continent which aren't part of the USA, such as Mexico and Canada.
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Who in the modern world uses "America" as the name of the continent instead of "North America" or, collectively, "The Americas" ?
 
MikeG said:
No it jolly well isn't. Confusing "Americans" (which everyone understands to be shorthand for citizens of the USA) with "America" is forgetting those itsy-bitsy little bits of the North American continent which aren't part of the USA, such as Mexico and Canada.
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I think I've already made my case that "America" is generally understood to mean the United States of America thus it jolly well is a country.
 
Mudcat said:
I think I've already made my case that "America" is generally understood to mean the United States of America thus it jolly well is a country.
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In the context of a thread about capitals, some sort of provision has to be made for accuracy. In the context of your question about Africa's capital, it is clear that you are sloppy about accuracy when it comes to geography.
 
Lost in this discussion of what "most Americans" should know is that our Harvard students should be among the best educated Americans (and humans). I don't think it's a blot on our educational standards that a good number of them were not familiar with Ottawa, but I do see it as slightly embarrassing. It's not embarrassing because it's necessarily a sign of ignorance (I'm willing to bet that every one of those students knew the answer at some point) it's embarrassing as a sign of provincialism, i.e., it's possible to be an extremely high-functioning American without caring enough to remember basic facts about some our closest (both geographically and ideologically) allies.
 
Craig B said:
Since you don't think it's important whether the UK is England, or which Canadian City is the Capital, is there anything outside "America", or the USA, that you think worthy of any notice or concern?
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Plenty. The precise nature of UKian self-identity, and the actual name of the capital of Canada, just happen to be relatively low-priority, in my opinion.

I mean, what advantage does a Brazilian or a Ukrainian or a Nigerian gain, from knowing the name of the capital of Canada or the US, or the ins and outs of UK regional distinctions?

Hell, what advantage does the average Canadian gain, from knowing the name of the capital of Canada.
 
Travis said:
Basically this is just a problem of the "devoted capital city" problem. This arises because lots of people assume the biggest, most economically powerful cities in a nation are the capital of that nation. And there is reason to assume that. Of the hundreds of nations only 33 have a capital that isn't their largest city.

In fact Wiki has special list of those nations.

This typically happens in a nation that deliberately wants to separate the national capital from the influence of that country's economic power. But it can also happen in states. How many know the capital of Montana? Or that it is Austin in Texas? Has anyone not from New York ever even heard of Albany? The capital of Georgia is named Athens? (it isn't, but you just looked that up didn't you?)

Anyways I wouldn't be so concerned that someone makes a mistake like this. I'd prefer it if they did know it just because I'm always in favor of people having more knowledge but I would only get really concerned if they don't even know the major (non capital) cities of a nation of great importance (yes Canada is of great importance).

So don't worry if someone thinks Rio is the capital of Brazil. Get worried if they don't know where Rio is.







Without looking can anyone name the capital of Niger? :D
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And to make it even more interesting. There are countries whose capitals don't contain the nations government.
 
Craig B said:
Yes, I understand. It's just that I'm looking at this, naturally, in European terms. In those terms it seems odd that people should regard the name of the capital city of an important neighbouring country as a trivial sort of arcane knowledge that even an educated person couldn't be expected to possess in the normal course of events.
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There's the trouble. Again, I'm not trying to make light of Canada, but it is a relatively unimportant country as far as most US citizens are concerned. Nothing that could plausibly happen there will have any effect on the lives of more than a few people living here in the States.

ETA What I mean is, I'm trying to imagine a German or Belgian saying "I'm pretty certain the name of the capital of France was covered at some time in the 12 years I spent in school. The point is that it wasn't important enough to remember."
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I'm pretty certain that the capital of France is within a days drive of most Belgians and Germans, and I'm pretty certain that Europeans cross international borders far more frequently than Americans do. Being a citizen of the EU means that what happens in other European capitals has a lot more influence in a Greek or German citizen's life that what happens in Ottawa has on the typical US citizen.

What happens in Vegas Ottawa stays in Vegas Ottawa!
 
MikeG said:
No it jolly well isn't. Confusing "Americans" (which everyone understands to be shorthand for citizens of the USA) with "America" is forgetting those itsy-bitsy little bits of the North American continent which aren't part of the USA, such as Mexico and Canada.
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As any Canadian will tell you, "America" is short for the USA. Canada is part of North America, but don't tell us that we're part of America, or that we are Americans.
 
theprestige said:
... Hell, what advantage does the average Canadian gain, from knowing the name of the capital of Canada.
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What advantage indeed? I've heard of "limited government" but this is taking things a bit far.

So why does the average Canadian even need to know where the capital of his country is? What about the Canadians who live there?
 
Craig B said:
Yes, I understand. It's just that I'm looking at this, naturally, in European terms. In those terms it seems odd that people should regard the name of the capital city of an important neighbouring country as a trivial sort of arcane knowledge that even an educated person couldn't be expected to possess in the normal course of events.

ETA What I mean is, I'm trying to imagine a German or Belgian saying "I'm pretty certain the name of the capital of France was covered at some time in the 12 years I spent in school. The point is that it wasn't important enough to remember."
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Yeah, but that's a bad example because everyone knows Paris as it is by far the largest city in France.

A better one would be for people to identify the capital of Switzerland. Or both capitals of The Netherlands.
 
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