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What does that have to do with anything? OP was talking about world and Euro-adjacent areas, not 'can Americans identify Euro nations the same way Euros can identify the states of the USA?'
Regardless, it seems to me perfectly natural for people living in a hodge-podge of cultures & nations to be more knowledgeable about their surroundings and even world geography than Americans, which is more isolated on various levels. Not to mention, commonly filled with a level of exceptionalism.
Kansas is as close to Americans geographically as European countries are to Europeans. Asking Americans to be as familiar with European geography as Europeans is the equivalent to asking Europeans to be familiar with us states.
Not really. States have natural variance in culture and features, but Euro nations are vastly more diverse and worth knowing about. They go back to the ancient world in importance, and some of them had a huge impact in what the modern map & modern world looks like.
American states are largely irrelevant by comparison. There are very few reasons for people around the world to know anything about Kansas in particular, compared to one of the Euro colonial powers, like Greece or Italy, etc.
There it is..the arrogance. We"re old we matter. You're young you dont. How quickly everyone forgets.
Not sure what you're talking about, but on the surface it looks like you're trying to jam a square peg through a round hole. Good luck with that...
Your arrogance is preventing your understanding
Sure, but there's different levels of geographical knowledge in education. Local geography is a few years before in depth world geography. You seem to be ignoring that your local geography is worlds geography to Americans, so if you're using geography as a basis for judging education, at least compare apples to apples. I'll readily admit that most Americans are ignorant of European geography, just like I'd bet plenty of Europeans can't point out countries in South America.
What do you mean "my local geography?" What are you even trying to say, here?
I mean whatever geography is local to you, assuming you aren't in America.
Alright. Well for me, there's no question that (going to the OP) Euros have a better grasp of World geography than Americans do, for various good reasons already stated.
On top of that, I see a long thread of what is essentially mental illness running through American history, leading its citizens to believe that they're special and/or live in a special land, promoting a sort of intentional ignorance about the world around them. Geography is part of that, but it's much more, such as a cultural and historical isolation.
Indeed, as Ken Burns said (paraphrasing) "Americans are shockingly ignorant of their own history and narrative." It is an embarrassing truth that, the longer I live, the more relentlessly confirmed and depressing it is to me.
It's all very nauseating to me, frankly, especially seeing as what it led to in the end. Anyway, I'll be withdrawing myself from this convo at this point. Good luck to you.
Perhaps it would be better to try to compare European and US knowledge of Africa - that's neutral ground.