h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Geography was definitly more geology than anything else for us. Alluvial planes and morrains and glacial valleys and stuff.

About all I remember from this period is the explanation of humidity (using beer and pint glasses) and the fact that I spent ages on my first homework diagram of the earths crust and colouring it in and got 9/10. I'd lost one mark for using a green/purple/yellow colour scheme. B*st*rd. No wonder geog. teachers have a bad name.

History was the usual kings with multiple queens, industrial revolution and various colonies getting a bit uppity.

What I do remember is that one of our teachers did a lesson on critical thinking and applying it to historical texts and contemporary sources. That was actually quite interesting. And useful.

My over-riding memory of A level history is endless debates about primary/secondary/tertiary sources and their respective good and bad points, and some rather tedious stuff about reforms to the electorial system around the industrial revolution. Our history mistress was obsessed with 'social history', and I wanted to know about the France-England argy bargies.

Bloody hell you lot did restrictive and boring history!

At O level I did the causes of WWI, Mussolini and the rise of European Fascism, The Causes of WWII, The League of Nations. We would have gone on to do Korea and the Cold War but we were...disruptive as a class and her what was supposed to be teaching us was often off sick.

At A level I did The Tudors (again, we were too slow to get to the Stuarts, which was a blessing ecause they were dead boring as I subsequently found out) and Louis XIV who had a lot of mistresses with quite large assets and had a jolly old time trolling around Europe fighting everybody or being their best mate depending on which way the wind ewas blowing and how bad Mazarin's hangover was. Also a very good training ground for the ideas of primary/secondary and tertiary sources (especially as Voltaire was given to telling the odd fib about Louids after he was dead).

I live in the blackcountry and up until sixth form (year 12) we mostly did history focusing on the industrial revolution. This made sense as we lived in an area that has more primary sources and places to visit than you can shake and automated self-shaking-stick at. It made sense in the terms inwhich this thread has been lambasting USians for, fin that the Industrial Revolution is very much "our" history. I know very little about the history of Scotland does that make me a bad or ignorant person?

Is it really parochialism to use what is near you around you and has had a direct inluence on you to teach history or geography?

If you live nearer to Nevada than to Holand does it make more sense to study canyons than fijords?

Well it does in my books. I dont see the periods studied in history as being set out to be restrictive because there is only so much time to fit things in. Some things do have to be cut what makes sense to one person may seemi insular, insensitive or restrictive to another.

one love

The Blackcountry museum, a brilliant place to visit!

I've just remembered that one year in History at school we learnt about the Great Plains in the USA and about the bulding of the railroad, some about the natives and about the destruction of the buffalo (where i learnt them to be in fact Bison )
Totally nothing to do with the UK so that's one thing we did outside our own sphere.

The Stuarts boring? There's a massive civil war during which about half the population of Ireland disappears (presumed...)

After reading this entire fascinating thread at one go, some random thoughts, comments, anecdotes, and observations:

- It is said 'In England, 100 miles (160 KM) is a long distance, while in the USA, 100 years is a long time'. The person who signs his or her name with a shark is quite right about the general non-comprehension, in European Countries, as well as the UK, about the sheer vast expansive amount of space comprising only the United States. It takes the same amount of time to fly from New York City to Los Angeles as it does to fly from New York City to Geneva.

- The BBC World News is *edited* for broadcast in the USA, and is not the same as it is in other countries. Yes, there is NO freedom of the press in the USA.

- Overheard on a bus in the Western USA (cheers to the New Mexican, BTW! Beautiful State you have there. Almost as big as... the country of... umm... Chad, I think ): a 20-ish Mexican-American woman speaking to a 20-ish foreign exchange student from Spain, 'Yo, you mean they speak Spanish in Spain, too?'

-How many Britons know, offhand, where Runcorn is? How many people from the EU could put their finger on Runcorn instantly, given a map of the UK? How many people from Brazil? From Afgha... never mind.

- How many Britons can list, in order, all the names (let alone under whose rule) the city of Istanbul (that's in Turkey, BTW ) has had in the last 500 years? Yes, geography and history are intimately related.

- Montréal and Rome may be at the same latitude, but Italy is a peninsula, surrounded by warmish water. Montréal is at the Eastern end of 3000 miles of land, across which the wind blows, as it does, in the Northern Hemisphere, from the West.

- This continues to puzzle me: 'The Americas' were named after ... aw, tell me you knew this... Amerigo Vespucci. Technically, Canadians are 'American', Costa Ricans are 'American', Argentines are 'American' (though Faulkland Islanders are indisputably British), yet, for some mysterious reason, The United States of America is 'America', and its inhabitants (save the remnants of the indigenous population) claim the name 'Americans' for themselves. HUH?

- Cultures, religions, languages, and customs vary as much across the USA as one would expect from any place that huge, populous, and inhabited almost entirely by immigrants (anglo), imports(black) and newer immigrants from almost everywhere. What appears on television here in the UK does not reflect, say, the COLOSSAL differences between maize (corn) farmers in the Central Plains States (Missouri, for example) and dairy farmers in Vermont, to say nothing of Northern Maine, where the dominant language is a variant of XVth Century French, but who would not begin to understand speakers of Louisiana Créole, which is also a variant of XVth Century French.

-In response to an earlier post, Wales and Scotland, along with Northern Ireland, are part of the United Kingdom, though not of England. That is why they appear in the same colour on your map. The Welsh Head of State is His Highness, the Prince of Wales. The Scottish, and Northern Irish Head of State is Her Majesty, the Queen. Incidentally, many people don't know that officially, Her Majesty, the Queen is the Head of State of Canada. I think that goes for Australia as well.

- But, in the immortal words of George Bernard Shaw: 'Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?... An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him. The moment he talks, he makes another Englishman despise him.... This class distinction should be absolutely obsolete'. It's not.

- Ask any stupid, lying, thieving Scouser. It's my ambition to learn Scouse. Wish me luck.

As someone said earlier in the thread 'swings and roundabouts'. I'd say 'pots and kettles'.

Never mind what Parisians think of any other way of pronoucing French...

Back to the original posting regarding Americans lack of knowledge of other countries. I am extremely fortunate in that I have flown over a million airmiles on 32 airlines to 31 countries.

In all my travelling experience spanning 35 years, the Americans have consistently shown themselves to be utterly ignorant of where places are, or in what continent the countries are.

Pretty much like their current President prior to being elected in the first place................

This is not US bashing, just in my experience it happens to be fact.

I have also found them to be universally laughed at.

I remember when they lost the America's cup back in Australia when I was there. The mayor of Perth said "We will put it in the street, run a steamroller over it and call it the Australia Plate"

Let me just say this was met with universal laughter by every other nation EXCEPT the Americans who were absolutely infuriated.

Sense of humour check anyone?

>>Ask any stupid, lying, thieving Scouser<<

Ask me what again? I can easily point to Runcorn on a map, but I'd be cheating since I cycle past it quite regularly.

A better thing to do would be to get anyone to point to the Runcorn bridge on a map of the north-west, even many Scousers will get it wrong.

Iago the Scouser

P.S The above is a trick, there's no such bridge. There's the iconic Runcorn-Widnes bridge though

I knew Runcorn was up their somewhere, but if I'm being honest, only from watching 'Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps'! (I'm missing the new series! )

" Montréal and Rome may be at the same latitude, but Italy is a peninsula, surrounded by warmish water. Montréal is at the Eastern end of 3000 miles of land, across which the wind blows, as it does, in the Northern Hemisphere, from the West."

I'm not sure what your point here is.

"-In response to an earlier post, Wales and Scotland, along with Northern Ireland, are part of the United Kingdom, though not of England. That is why they appear in the same colour on your map. The Welsh Head of State is His Highness, the Prince of Wales. The Scottish, and Northern Irish Head of State is Her Majesty, the Queen. Incidentally, many people don't know that officially, Her Majesty, the Queen is the Head of State of Canada. I think that goes for Australia as well."

Um, no. The Queen is head of state in Wales. I would disagree that many people don't know that the Queen is head of state of Canada (she is of Australia, New Zealand, and a number of other countries too). Perhaps many Americans don't know much or anything about the Commonwealth (and it's understandable if they don't), but those of us this side of the pond do. So do the other countries in it.

How can one not know that the Queen is the Canadian head of state? She's on the coins and everything. I think it's rather silly, but it still remains the truth.

In reference to school history, we're doing European History this year, which is fascinating because suddenly America is out of the picture! Okay, so this was the case for ancient history too, but it's just so intriguing to think that the US was developing at the same time as Europe in the 19th century, yet it gets no more than a passing mention in our textbook.

I'm a dual citizen of Canada and the US, so when I go abroad or talk to non-Americans I always say I'm Canadian. As an American I always have this huge sense of guilt - because of Bush, because of our imperialist foreign policy, because of our intolerant and inconsiderate domestic policy. It's so dreadfully embarrassing to be American. In theory, I love this country - I believe unequivocally in the ideals outlined in the Constitution and its amendments. But when the government can't be bothered to follow them and your country is pretty much reviled throughout the rest of the world it's pretty disheartening. When we were in England a couple of years ago I hated to say anything aloud and I was ashamed to show my American passport at customs. I just *knew* everyone was secretly laughing at us.

"How can one not know that the Queen is the Canadian head of state? She's on the coins and everything" Glad to hear it!

"When we were in England a couple of years ago I hated to say anything aloud and I was ashamed to show my American passport at customs. I just *knew* everyone was secretly laughing at us."

That's terrible! We like to make fun, but we like you all really!

You got me on Wales Elentari. Daft of me. Galloping senility is evidently setting in.

Actually, I was thinking, 'many people *around the world* would not know that that Her Majesty is Head of State of Canada', not specifically 'many Britons' nor 'many Canadians' when I wrote that sentence. You were supposed to read my MIND, not what I WROTE!

Canada obtained official independence from 'colonial' status in my lifetime, as did Australia, whose flag still bears the Union Jack, and New Zealand. Their Commonwealth status is not, to my knowledge, common knowledge outside of the UK and, obviously, those countries. Being part of the British Commonwealth is one of the many reasons for Québècquois separatism, in fact.

Re:" Montréal and Rome may be at the same latitude, but Italy is a peninsula, surrounded by warmish water. Montréal is at the Eastern end of 3000 miles of land, across which the wind blows, as it does, in the Northern Hemisphere, from the West."
you said: I'm not sure what your point here is.

The question was raised about why the weather is so much harsher in Montréal than in Rome. My comment was in response to those posts, way back in the thread, comparing those two cities. Someone mentioned latitude. Someone mentioned geology somewhere else in the thread. I just put the two together with climatology, which makes all the difference. 'Geography' -- meaning names of places, and a clue as to where they are on a map or globe, is not a stand-alone subject, obviously. Hope that helps.

I asked the question about Runcorn because up here, in Northern England, it's 'up there somewhere' to quite a few Southern Britons.

This brings up an interesting, but tangential point about North being 'up' only because Europe is in the Northern Hemisphere. The earliest European maritime cartographers set a precedent which now has an impact on all cosmological maps! (To say nothing of the imagery involved in UP and DOWN, which is an entirely different emus' nest). We could have a whole spin-off thread on cartography, and its ramifications.

Let's not, and say we did.

Stop in some time, Iago. Will trade for lessons in rapid-fire Scouse, la.



Taraa

Reply to Xanatic's question:
So how many people here could place French Gyuana on a map?

(Without map or globe)
Isn't it in the North-East of South America?

So it is.

<>
Surely it depends on who you ask outside of the Commonwealth?

I hate to be dismissive, but why should anyone know where Runcorn is? There are loads of little towns like that everywhere. Could you locate High Wycombe? Its twice the size and has a better football team .

I also know Runcorn from Two Pints...

That thing with the latitude of Rome and Montreal was just about how someone thought all of Canada is a frozen wasteland. But it does have it's warm periods, it is not as far north as you might think.

Ah, ok. Same thing - Toronto has the same latitude as the south of France.

Oh, and by the way, I'd like to say thanks for all the interesting responses to this thread! Keep 'em coming!