Things you're shocked people don't know

[Capn Flukie]

After reading through this thread, I'm mostly just shocked at the things people expect others to know!

I'm shocked that you didn't know that!

 

[Amaris]

After reading through this thread, I'm mostly just shocked at the things people expect others to know!

I'm shocked that you didn't know that!

I'm shocked that you're shocked!

 

[Snaploud]

After reading through this thread, I'm mostly just shocked at the things people expect others to know!

I'm shocked that you didn't know that!

I'm shocked that you're shocked!

I'm shocked that you're shocked that...Wait...What was I talking about again...?

Right! I'm shocked!

 

[RoJoHen]

We don't speak Spanish in Brazil.

(Honeslty, if I won a penny to every dumbass who thought so...)

I really have to ask: why does that make someone a dumbass? Aside from the fact that the rest of the continent speaks Spanish, why should people memorize the national languages of random countries, particularly when the language isn't obvious.

People from England speak English.
People from Germany speak German.
People from Brazil speak...what? Brazilian? Spanish? Nope, neither of those.

After reading through this thread, I'm mostly just shocked at the things people expect others to know!

No kidding.

I mostly think it's interesting how much people expect foreigners to know about countries other than their own.

 

[Greg Cox]

Co-worker was talking today in the BR, profoundly confused why so many people today had "dirt on their foreheads."

I swore she was taking the piss but she was serious -and she's not nearly bright enough to act this stupid. She really is this stupid. I just didn't think she was that stupid.

So she was confused and wondering why so many people had this dirt on their foreheads and thought maybe there was a shelf or a door or something in the store that was dirty and people were resting/touching their heads on it while getting product.

Me: "It's Ash Wednesday."

Her: "What's that?"

Me: :facepalm:

This woman is in her late 20s, possibly early or mid 30s.

Her elevator obviously doesn't go to the penthouse.

I only learned about it a couple of years ago and I'm 24. She, like me, probably hasn't come into contact with many people who celebrate it before. I'd say that the majority of people I grew up around were Mormon or Atheist and I know practically nothing of religious ceremonies/traditions.

Ditto. I grew up in Seattle and never saw ash on anyone's forehead until I moved to NYC in my thirties. I was completely baffled until someone explained it to me.

Heck, I'd never even heard of communion wafers until I read DRACULA in sixth grade . . . .

 

[Finn]

The top of Mount Chimborazo, in the Andes is a mile and a half farther from the center of the Earth than the top of Mount Everest, and so is the highest mountain (Latin pride kicks in).

Because the 180th longitude line passes through the Aleutian islands, Alaska is both the most eastern and the most western state (I've won money in bars with that one).

Mmm. Those aren't shock-worthy. They are too trival to be common knowledge.


And just because something seems like common knowledge, even if it was something you knew about since you were in preschool doesn't mean it is... or should be.

 

[Bears Discover Fire]

Co-worker was talking today in the BR, profoundly confused why so many people today had "dirt on their foreheads."

I swore she was taking the piss but she was serious -and she's not nearly bright enough to act this stupid. She really is this stupid. I just didn't think she was that stupid.

So she was confused and wondering why so many people had this dirt on their foreheads and thought maybe there was a shelf or a door or something in the store that was dirty and people were resting/touching their heads on it while getting product.

Me: "It's Ash Wednesday."

Her: "What's that?"

Me: :facepalm:

This woman is in her late 20s, possibly early or mid 30s.

Her elevator obviously doesn't go to the penthouse.

I only learned about it a couple of years ago and I'm 24. She, like me, probably hasn't come into contact with many people who celebrate it before. I'd say that the majority of people I grew up around were Mormon or Atheist and I know practically nothing of religious ceremonies/traditions.

Ditto. I grew up in Seattle and never saw ash on anyone's forehead until I moved to NYC in my thirties. I was completely baffled until someone explained it to me.

Heck, I'd never even heard of communion wafers until I read DRACULA in sixth grade . . . .

Despite my grandparents' Irish Catholic faith and my mom's raising in the Church, just about everything I know about Catholicism I've learned from my former-catholic-turned-sorta-atheist neighbor. She's the only Catholic(?) I know who visibly observes Ash Wednesday. I'm aware of the observance but know very little of its significance or purpose.

My grandparents were barred from discussing their faith with my sister and I, due to a directive/ultimatum from my extremely anti-Catholic mother. Catholicism does not have much of a hold on the religious life of most people in the places I've lived. I grew up in an insular and nonmainstream faith surrounded by evangelical mega-churches that preached prosperity doctrine and had coffee bars and Christian rock concerts on the weekends.

 

[Diddle]

We don't speak Spanish in Brazil.

(Honeslty, if I won a penny to every dumbass who thought so...)

I really have to ask: why does that make someone a dumbass? Aside from the fact that the rest of the continent speaks Spanish, why should people memorize the national languages of random countries, particularly when the language isn't obvious.

People from England speak English.
People from Germany speak German.
People from Brazil speak...what? Brazilian? Spanish? Nope, neither of those.

Because that's the kind of stuff you learn in like 5th grade. I'm not saying you have to know what language people speak in every single country -I don't know plenty myself- but History Class for me back then included History from different countries (Other than our own.) (Mostly important history twists, colonizations, wars, revolutions and stuff), that including their language. Besides, Brazil was colonized by the Portuguese. They speak Portuguese in Portugal. Oh well.

 

[RoJoHen]

We don't speak Spanish in Brazil.

(Honeslty, if I won a penny to every dumbass who thought so...)

I really have to ask: why does that make someone a dumbass? Aside from the fact that the rest of the continent speaks Spanish, why should people memorize the national languages of random countries, particularly when the language isn't obvious.

People from England speak English.
People from Germany speak German.
People from Brazil speak...what? Brazilian? Spanish? Nope, neither of those.

Because that's the kind of stuff you learn in like 5th grade. I'm not saying you have to know what language people speak in every single country -I don't know plenty myself- but History Class for me back then included History from different countries (Other than our own.) (Mostly important history twists, colonizations, wars, revolutions and stuff), that including their language. Besides, Brazil was colonized by the Portuguese. They speak Portuguese in Portugal. Oh well.

5th grade where, though? I definitely never had any reason to learn about Brazil, nor did I really learn anything about South America in general.

I didn't learn that Brazilians spoke Portuguese until high school when I started studying Spanish.

 

[Kestra]

Everyone doesn't learn the same things, however. The United States isn't exactly renowned for the way they handle world culture in the educational system either. I mean I still meet grown adults who regularly interchange the words "Hindu" and "Hindi". It's annoying, but hardly shocking.

 

[RoJoHen]

I mean I still meet grown adults who regularly interchange the words "Hindu" and "Hindi". It's annoying, but hardly shocking.

I have no idea what the difference is.

 

[Diddle]

I really have to ask: why does that make someone a dumbass? Aside from the fact that the rest of the continent speaks Spanish, why should people memorize the national languages of random countries, particularly when the language isn't obvious.

People from England speak English.
People from Germany speak German.
People from Brazil speak...what? Brazilian? Spanish? Nope, neither of those.

Because that's the kind of stuff you learn in like 5th grade. I'm not saying you have to know what language people speak in every single country -I don't know plenty myself- but History Class for me back then included History from different countries (Other than our own.) (Mostly important history twists, colonizations, wars, revolutions and stuff), that including their language. Besides, Brazil was colonized by the Portuguese. They speak Portuguese in Portugal. Oh well.

5th grade where, though? I definitely never had any reason to learn about Brazil, nor did I really learn anything about South America in general.

I didn't learn that Brazilians spoke Portuguese until high school when I started studying Spanish.

Well, I don't know where you live, or neither know the form of how wherever you live treats History, but here we learn History from the World and pretty early on our school years. I'm sorry if I offended you/anyone in any way, but either way that's pretty basic knowledge for me, given that I'm no excerpt in pretty much anything.

 

[Snaploud]

I was only taught about Brazil being colonized by Portugal in college. As for its importance: the line "it's taught in the 5th grade" isn't much of an argument.

 

[RoJoHen]

I'm not really offended. But more going back to Kestra's post...

I'm shocked at the things that people expect others to know!

 

[Snaploud]

I'm still shocked at the shock of being shocked... It's shocking!

 

[Miss Chicken]

As a child I gained a lot of knowledge by reading through the Encyclopedia Britannica. I though many nerdish kids did this. I am quite sure that this would have been how I learnt that the national language of Brazil was Portuguese.

I know that except for a brief mention of Eric the Red/Leif Eriksson my school never mentioned Iceland yet from the age of 11 onwards I started to read everything I could on that country.

Ignorance shouldn't be simply excused by saying "my school never taught that".

 

[Diddle]

I was only taught about Brazil being colonized by Portugal in college. As for its importance: the line "it's taught in the 5th grade" isn't much of an argument.

Like I said, we learn History from different parts of the World pretty early on our school years, now given that Brazil is by no means a place where people come to study, different from the US/UK (I mean, it's not like Brazil has that much of an educational structure), and you're saying that you only learn basic stuff like that about your own continent in high school or college? I'm sorry, one can't say it's surprising that we get shocked when Americans/Europeans say that they know that kind of stuff.

 

[RoJoHen]

See, I have just never had an interest in history. When I was a little kid I was doing math and learning about science. If I did want to learn about history, it was ancient history like Egypt or Greece...or dinosaurs.

 

[Diddle]

Believe me when I say that so do I, back then I was only interested about space and WWII, but wasn't really like I had any choice. :/

 

[Kestra]

I mean I still meet grown adults who regularly interchange the words "Hindu" and "Hindi". It's annoying, but hardly shocking.

I have no idea what the difference is.

Please tell me you're f---ing kidding me.

As a child I gained a lot of knowledge by reading through the Encyclopedia Britannica. I though many nerdish kids did this. I am quite sure that this would have been how I learnt that the national language of Brazil was Portuguese.

I know that except for a brief mention of Eric the Red/Leif Eriksson my school never mentioned Iceland yet from the age of 11 onwards I started to read everything I could on that country.

Ignorance shouldn't be simply excused by saying "my school never taught that".

Well I think that's an important distinction to make. Obviously a lot of us here read encyclopedias or displayed some other sort of abnormal behavior concerning knowledge. I not only read through the encyclopedias at home, I would go to the library and take out as many geography books as I was allowed, read them all, and go straight back for more.

However, this board is not a good sampling of the world at large and the vast majority of people do not make efforts to learn things which are not mandatory. I'm not saying ignorance is a good thing, but I would say that it's hardly shocking in many of the examples posted in this thread.