Is Not Knowing the Capital of Canada a Problem?

[blutoski]

Yeah, I have to agree with that, and add that being asked a question "out of the blue" is also likely to get wrong answers from people who know better. If you preface your survey with a couple of warm up questions, or by telling people that in five minutes they're going to be asked some basic geography questions, I'd bet the results would probably show a less ignorant public. Of course, if the purpose of these stories it to demonstrate that people are ignorant, that's not going to give you the results you want.

I think that was the gimmick in Mercer's "Talking With Americans" segment - ambush people on the street while they're doing something else, confront them with semi-plausible Canadian stories and record their immediate reactions.

 

[joesixpack]

I think that was the gimmick in Mercer's "Talking With Americans" segment - ambush people on the street while they're doing something else, confront them with semi-plausible Canadian stories and record their immediate reactions.

People feel a need to talk when there's a mic in their face, so they engage their mouths before their brain gets up to speed. The results are comedy gold, but not an accurate representation of the general level of education. I mean, people wouldn't laugh at the results if they didn't know that what was being said was foolishness. Comedy depends on most people understanding the actual joke.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

What is "Canada"?

(Attention: joke!)

Not a joke at all. We Canadians spend much of our lives discussing this very question. We are looking for an answer other than, "Not the US of A".

 

[blutoski]

People feel a need to talk when there's a mic in their face, so they engage their mouths before their brain gets up to speed. The results are comedy gold, but not an accurate representation of the general level of education. I mean, people wouldn't laugh at the results if they didn't know that what was being said was foolishness. Comedy depends on most people understanding the actual joke.

In this case, at least it depends on most viewers understanding the actual joke.

For example, giving a fake name for a Canadian Prime Minister - most Americans don't know the name of the Canadian Prime Minister. That's not what makes it funny. The insider joke was that "Canadian Prime Minister Bruno Gerussi^WP..." is really only hilarious because he was an actor known for his disco-era exposed chest hair and medallion.

I think if this was broadcast in the US, the joke would fall flat. Most people wouldn't get the joke. It's set up as a Canadian insider joke, if you will.

 

[joesixpack]

In this case, at least it depends on most viewers understanding the actual joke.

For example, giving a fake name for a Canadian Prime Minister - most Americans don't know the name of the Canadian Prime Minister. That's not what makes it funny. The insider joke was that "Canadian Prime Minister Bruno Gerussi^WP..." is really only hilarious because he was an actor known for his disco-era exposed chest hair and medallion.

I think if this was broadcast in the US, the joke would fall flat. Most people wouldn't get the joke. It's set up as a Canadian insider joke, if you will.

Yeah, there might be some that Americans won't ever get, but many of them would get laughs here. I was just watching some of them on Youtube and I got many of the jokes.

The National Igloo, The Calgary seal hunt, The Saskatchewan seal hunt, Canada becoming part of North America, and Prime Minister Poutine, just in the few minutes I watched. I got all of those.

 

[fuelair]

Sure it does: A

Canada's is C of course.


Earlier in the history of things Harvard grads and some profs don't/didn't know was that the Earth's changing seasons were caused (and a damn good thing!!) by the tilt of it's axis and the pace it was in it's orbit around the sun. Most thought it was how close it was to the Sun at the time. Much hilarity ensued in science teacher watchers of the film about that!!!

That is place, not pace. Ooopsie!!

 

[theprestige]

The National Igloo, The Calgary seal hunt, The Saskatchewan seal hunt, Canada becoming part of North America, and Prime Minister Poutine, just in the few minutes I watched. I got all of those.

As did I, but somehow the name of the Canadian capital is privileged knowledge that, even though it has no practical value, makes me woefully ignorant if I don't keep it always available for immediate recall.

It's not enough that I simply know a ridiculous amount of things, many useful, and many more not--If I don't always remember the name of the Canadian capital, I'm Doing Important Knowledge Wrong.

I don't agree. Not knowing the capital of Canada is not a problem, even for the residents of neighboring countries*. Not knowing a lot of geography might be a problem. Not knowing a lot of things that aren't useful is probably a problem. Not knowing a lot of things that are useful is certainly a problem.

Not knowing that Ottawa is the capital of Canada, taken in isolation? Not a problem.











* Of which there must be like, what? A dozen? We've already seen that the Swedes think there's eight Canadian capitals. Ask the Finns if they know the capital of Canada and see how ignorant they are.

 

[fuelair]

Yeah, I have to agree with that, and add that being asked a question "out of the blue" is also likely to get wrong answers from people who know better. If you preface your survey with a couple of warm up questions, or by telling people that in five minutes they're going to be asked some basic geography questions, I'd bet the results would probably show a less ignorant public. Of course, if the purpose of these stories it to demonstrate that people are ignorant, that's not going to give you the results you want.

Or: the quote at the top: http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/BadScience.html

as a really big reason.

 

[Rat]

Now, before you say "but it's the capital of ONE country, it's not a big deal!" had it just been one country I wouldn't be too worried. I don't know what the capital of Moldova, or Sri Lanka, or Gabon are.

Furthermore, if you asked most people, even those who are good at capitals, what the capital of Sri Lanka is, they'd get it wrong. That's the problem with knowing capitals; they are prone to changing, sometimes to something quite unmemorable. Similar, those who are proud to know that the capital of Burma (or Myanmar) is Rangoon (or Yangon) can now delete or update that bit of trivia. Ditto Tanzania, at least depending on whom you ask. And Ivory Coast, but I don't think most people knew that in the first place.

I can dohttp://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/www.sporcle.com/user/Rat/stats capitals (albeit on the fifth attempt), but I don't look down on someone who doesn't know Palau, or Moldova, or similar small or new countries. But I am a little shocked if someone who seems fairly knowledgeable (up to that point) can't name the capitals of France or Germany, for example, or even Canada. This is just information that you pick up as you go through life. I would hope that any intelligent British person knows when and what the Battle of Hastings was. I would similarly hope that they could have a rough stab, at least, of the same for Trafalgar or Waterloo.

 

[GlennB]

I would hope that any intelligent British person knows when and what the Battle of Hastings was. I would similarly hope that they could have a rough stab, at least, of the same for Trafalgar or Waterloo.

I'd bet double my mortgage that 80% of adult Brits would get even the rough location of the battle of Trafalgar wrong.

Waterloo is easier, as many have seen the film.

Meanwhile, US citizens would know a damn sight more about major battles in their quarter of the world than Yurpeans do.

 

[Meed]

* Of which there must be like, what? A dozen? We've already seen that the Swedes think there's eight Canadian capitals. Ask the Finns if they know the capital of Canada and see how ignorant they are.

What fun would that be? Every good European loves a good "Hurr hurr aren't American's stupid and ignorant" story but against Swedes I just don't think it would carry the same level of satisfaction.

Not that Americans aren't stupid and ignorant. It's just that we aren't in any way unique in that regard. People suck in general.

 

[blutoski]

Not knowing the capital of Canada is not a problem, even for the residents of neighboring countries*.





* Of which there must be like, what? A dozen?

Canada has one land neighbour: the USA.
And the USA has exactly two land neighbours: Canada and Mexico. Canada is their largest trading partner and primary source of oil and other natural resources. Mexico is their 2nd largest trading partner.

Dozens more 'neighbours' if you're allowed to ignore bodies of water, if you consider ice to be equivalent to land, and if you want to include non-continental USA states/territories.

 

[Brian-M]

Canberra is nowhere near halfway between Sydney and Melbourne. It's 280 km from Sydney and 660 km from Melbourne.

Sorry, I shouldn't have said halfway. I should have known better than to say this, I've driven through it on the way from near-Melbourne to Sydney a couple of times. Even stopped to look around and visit parliament house. (They've got a lawn on the roof. It makes me wonder how often they have to mow it.)

But it was created as a compromise. New South Wales and Victoria both wanted their capital cities as the nation's capital. The compromise reached was that NSW would get to to have the new capital between them within it's borders, as long as it was more than 160km from Sydney and ownership of the territory for the new capital (now known as the Australian Capital Territory) was ceded to the federal government. In the meantime, Melbourne got to be the temporary capital while Canberra was being built.

 

[Rat]

I'd bet double my mortgage that 80% of adult Brits would get even the rough location of the battle of Trafalgar wrong.

Waterloo is easier, as many have seen the film.

Meanwhile, US citizens would know a damn sight more about major battles in their quarter of the world than Yurpeans do.

Actually, as I wrote it I realized that I didn't know myself with any accuracy. I know Trafalgar is in Spain, and I guessed that it was down near Gibraltar. I am glad that I was not too far off. I would have been embarrassed had it been in the Bay of Biscay or anything.

As for the other quarter of the world, you may be right. If someone asks where a battle of the US civil war was, I'm not going to be far wrong if I stick a pin in somewhere between Virginia and the Carolinas for the most part, but that's really why I specified a British person. Even then, I would guess that most Americans couldn't place Iwo Jima with any accuracy, but then most British people probably couldn't place Ypres very well. In short, people are crap at geography.

Did everyone do this quiz? Or even this one?

ETA: I got 89% for the latter of those, which makes me suspect that some are cheating. I think my furthest was 27 miles for Timbuktu.

 

[blutoski]

Did everyone do this quiz? Or even this one?

I haven't played those yet, but is the trick that these are names that represent many cities with the same name? So Americans might pick Damascus Virginia or Paris, Texas?

 

[Rat]

I haven't played those yet, but is the trick that these are names that represent many cities with the same name? So Americans might pick Damascus Virginia or Paris, Texas?

I don't think that that's the intention. There's probably a slightly snide implication that if you're going to bomb somewhere, you should at least know roughly where it is, but the questions are exactly as asked. I'd like to think that even in Texas if someone told a friend or neighbour that they'd spent their honeymoon in Paris, the other party wouldn't assume that they meant the Texas Paris.

 

[Damien Evans]

Well that would be bad because Florida is a state, and not a city (there maybe a few towns named Florida), and wasn't even a state when the country formed.

Much like Quebec is a province, not a city (I believe its capital is Montreal).

ETA: I'm wrong, it's Quebec City.

 

[quixotecoyote]

Quebec isn't that bad actually. It shows the students know that the capital isn't one of the major cities and thus chose Quebec perhaps also reasoning that it might be the capital because Quebec dates all the way back to the early days of colonialism.

It is that bad. Would you be happy if someone thought the capital of the USA was Florida?

Well that would be bad because Florida is a state, and not a city (there maybe a few towns named Florida), and wasn't even a state when the country formed.

"Quebec City" is a city. "Quebec" is a province (state-equivalent).

eta: Does it still count as ninja'ed if my window was just sitting there for a while before I posted?

 

[blutoski]

I don't think that that's the intention. There's probably a slightly snide implication that if you're going to bomb somewhere, you should at least know roughly where it is, but the questions are exactly as asked. I'd like to think that even in Texas if someone told a friend or neighbour that they'd spent their honeymoon in Paris, the other party wouldn't assume that they meant the Texas Paris.

Probably depends on how close it is. I live in Vancouver. If somebody told me they spent the weekend in Victoria, Surrey, Richmond, or Langley, I would assume the nearby cities of that name, not Australia, England, or the US state of Virginia, even though they're more famous. The only unique name around here would be Walnut Grove which is named after an entirely imaginary town from the book Little House on the Prairie.

Last count, there are over 40 cities in the US named Paris, maybe a couple dozen named Damascus.


Having said that, I'm not trying to give you grief. Just saying that the instructions weren't really clear. If the question was "Where's Victoria" I would have clicked just a bit to the right of Vancouver Island instead of Australia.


Also related: I saw a Fox news broadcast describing the violence in Tripoli show a map of Lebanon by mistake.

 

[Rat]

Having said that, I'm not trying to give you grief. Just saying that the instructions weren't really clear. If the question was "Where's Victoria" I would have clicked just a bit to the right of Vancouver Island instead of Australia.

With no other clue, I would have clicked on somewhere near the Seychelles, and that would indeed have been an unfair question. I think Paris, Timbuktu, etc. are fairly well understood without clarification.

Also related: I saw a Fox news broadcast describing the violence in Tripoli show a map of Lebanon by mistake.

That's certainly understandable, while simultaneously unforgiveable, since they both have a city of that name.