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I just moved into a new dorm in Korea and I now have a Finnish room mate. Super cool guy, but today we started talking about geography, and after some talking back and forth he started quizzing me.
I have never really been good at geography, but he just made everything seem even worse. I couldn't even remember Oslo when he asked about it, and said that Africa was a country by accident. Everything just fucked up. I WOULD NEVER FORGET THAT OSLO IS NOWAYS CAPITAL!!!! And yet I did.... Feel so ashamed and stupid... Things like that should never happen....
I feel so bad atm. that I started practicing geography on the internet again whenever he is out of the room.
Have you ever experienced something similar that made you not only want to change it, but also do something about it?
  
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Why would anyone quiz someone like that ??;; If I knew about something and it was apparent that the other person didn't know anything about it, I wouldn't quiz them.. it seems a bit rude.
I think there is a saying that there is no shame in ignorance but shame in not trying to learn. (not sure the exact wording because I heard it in Korean). And you seem like a person who is eager to learn, so there is no shame in what happened. :D
I hope you have good time in Korea!
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Lot of Europeans think that Americans suck at geography and you proved that dude right haha ^^ but why don't you get back at him by asking him about geography in the US... I mean it's not strange that you arent as familiar with European geography, but calling Africa a country was kinda dumb xD
But look on the bright side, he exposed a weakness in your general knowledge and now you can improve it... No harm done right?
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On September 08 2012 20:05 B.I.G. wrote:
Lot of Europeans think that Americans suck at geography and you proved that dude right haha ^^ but why don't you get back at him by asking him about geography in the US... I mean it's not strange that you arent as familiar with European geography, but calling Africa a country was kinda dumb xD
But look on the bright side, he exposed a weakness in your general knowledge and now you can improve it... No harm done right?
Denmark dude... Denmark... Which is why it was so embarrassing...
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I thought you were american when I was reading this blog...
Americans are dumb. They wouldnt even self study after they fail. You win!
edit: I'm american.
User was warned for this post
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I thought the capital of Russia was Berlin. I'm from New Zealand and was homeschool for most of primary school, so I never learned geography. Ever.
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Ireland23340 Posts
On September 08 2012 20:28 Ryhzuo wrote:
I thought the capital of Russia was Berlin. I'm from New Zealand and was homeschool for most of primary school, so I never learned geography. Ever.
if you played awesome board games like risk and diplomacy you'd never need to :D
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On September 08 2012 20:05 B.I.G. wrote:
Lot of Europeans think that Americans suck at geography and you proved that dude right haha ^^ but why don't you get back at him by asking him about geography in the US... I mean it's not strange that you arent as familiar with European geography, but calling Africa a country was kinda dumb xD
But look on the bright side, he exposed a weakness in your general knowledge and now you can improve it... No harm done right?
You proved it by assuming denmark is US xD
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I can't remember ever having geography in school,, but i do have an okay grasp over the geography of our planet,, not sure why though,, must've picked it up somewhere.. O_o
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I'm proud I know geography! Well, mostly learned from reading history but w/e
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If remembering which country Oslo was the capital of was important and/or useful then you'd have been able to regurgitate the critical knowledge no problem. I doubt you'd be embarrassed if you failed when quizzed on what I ate yesterday-- it's simply not important to you.
What makes this geographical fact so important that you should never have forgotten it?
Plenty of times in my life I've had the experience of needing to make change once my eyes had been opened to my ignorance. Just like you probably don't care to learn what I ate yesterday, you get to decide whether or not learning geography is something worth pursuing. To me, remembering to lock the front door is more important than remembering the capital of a country I've never visited XD
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On September 08 2012 20:38 Saechiis wrote:Show nested quote +On September 08 2012 20:05 B.I.G. wrote:
Lot of Europeans think that Americans suck at geography and you proved that dude right haha ^^ but why don't you get back at him by asking him about geography in the US... I mean it's not strange that you arent as familiar with European geography, but calling Africa a country was kinda dumb xD
But look on the bright side, he exposed a weakness in your general knowledge and now you can improve it... No harm done right? You proved it by assuming denmark is US xD
HAHAHA! Awesome what a tool! xD (just kidding) 
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Netherlands45349 Posts
Holland is in Amsterdam
wait what?
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Europa universalis makes u gosu at geography and history. Especially EU2 with hardcoded abusable historical events :D
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hahaha ok stupid me for not checking your home country but yeah if you dont know the capitals of your neighbouring countries you have some studying to do ^^
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It's cool that you have a roommate that managed to make you start trying to fill a gap in your knowledge. You never know when something like geography could come in useful.
One thing I find weird is that I've met a lot of people in my travels that didn't know Ireland (Not Northern Ireland) is not part of the U.K. I suppose it's not exactly a relevant piece of information to a lot of people but I just find it strange people don't know.
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Zurich15366 Posts
I super impressed a girl from Namibia when I asked if she is from Windhoek. Knowing your shit is great 
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I'm so fucking awful in Geography, it's almost embarrassing. I know why I am awful as well. I never had Geography past elementary school(age 4-12). The thing is, that should've given me at least basic knowlegde of the world Geography, and it would have. If it wasn't for me finding a great method of studying Geography.
Basically, every Wednesday the first thing that happened that day was testing your Geography. What I would do was wake up 10 minutes earlier get my Geography book, and study the region we had to study. Usually the region didn't have more than 20 or so different rivers/city's you had to remember. What I did was come up with a rhythm/song that used these city's as lyrics whilst visualising the map in my head. I would repeat this song in my head during the trip to school. Because the test was the first thing in the morning I would still have the song fresh in my memory and ace the test. The thing is, I almost always used the same rhythms, very basic and very easy to remember,verygeneric. Which resulted into me forgotting the song only hours after the test. I would seriously get a perfect score on the test the first thing in the morning and when I got home after school I would not for, the life of me remember anything at all about what I had studied in the morning.
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Oh I love Le dessous des cartes/Mit offenen Karten on ARTE.
Go check it out if you can understand french or german and want to learn some geography coupled with history.
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Knowing geography is great, it always impresses people when they are from a distant country and you know some of the cities. I learned geography by playing a game with my grandpa. In his study there was (what seemed, for my age, to be) a huge globe. We'd have to find the city that he gave us in exchange for candy
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EPT
