Things you're shocked people don't know

[Finn]

^That reminds me of when I was in college the first time around, being a RA. I was more familiar to the student body back then. People I didn't recognize would come up to me and ask me obscure questions about places and stuff. When I told them I didn't know the answer to whatever they were asking for/about, they would always respond with "You should know, you are a RA".

 

[Nardpuncher]

It does seem like some people are using this thread to show off a bit.
I mean there's stuff people should know, (there are many things mentioned in these many posts that I thought should indeed be common knowledge) but some people are taking slightly more esoteric things (subjective though 'esoteric' may be in such a thread as this) and acting befuddled that others don't know about it.

I mean the fission/fusion and hindi/hindu ones. Also the pop culture ones. I think someone brought up Dusty Springfield. I've heard the name but still can't tell if you if they're even a man or a woman.

Also, about Portuguese being spoken in Brazil...that's one of those things where yes, I learned that somewhere many years ago, but like many of us not from there, it's probably the thing we bring up at parties to try and act like we know something about Brazil because it's almost a trivia thing, like "Hey guess what? In Brazil they don't speak Spanish! They speak Portuguese!"

Just like here in Taiwan you can frequently see the swastika, but left-facing as it's an old Buddhist/Hindu symbol used here primarily to denote a temple or that some food is vegetarian, among other things.
The bloody problem is you can't bring it up here without someone ( meaning another foreigner) trying to act like they're the first person to know that yes, that big red swastika on the building over there doesn't mean it's the Nazi HQ and that it's actually an ancient symbol etc etc.


One time on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? the $1000 question was "What animal did Hannibal use to cross the Alps?
My friend thought it was too easy. Yes, I knew it was elephants ( I believe I learned it when I was 7 or 8 from a Max the 5,000 year-old mouse cartoon) but I said to my friend I thought it was a good enough $1000 question. She still disagreed thinking everyone should know that he used elephants, so then I turned into a jerk and asked here where he was going to/coming from and which war it was.
She didn't know any of that.

 

[Diddle]

Well, if it makes any difference I stand corrected that people who don't know things about other countries (Capitals/Language) are not dumb (Because I said that they were dumbasses for not knowing the language in Brazil, and that's pretty much what started this whole argument thing), they're just not taught that in early school the way we are here. Not that they have any obligation of doing so, but meh, w/e.

On an off topic I just remembered I learned US states capitals with the Animaniacs. Oh, 90's.

 

[scotpens]

Well, if it makes any difference I stand corrected that people who don't know things about other countries (Capitols/Language) are not dumb . . . On an off topic I just remembered I learned US states capitols with the Animaniacs. Oh, 90's.

I'm not accusing anyone of being dumb, but a capital is a city. A capitol is a building.

 

[Diddle]

^ Thanks for the correction, I thought it meant the same thing.

 

[Kestra]

I mean the fission/fusion and hindi/hindu ones.

I used that as an example of something that seems completely obvious and idiotic when people don't know it, but where I'm not really shocked by ignorance of it. That's been kind of my point throughout the thread. While I don't advocate ignorance, I certainly am not shocked by most of the things people are mentioning in this thread.

That being said, I expect the people on TBBS to be generally more knowledgeable than the average person.

 

[Roger Wilco]

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.

I agree, the fact that Brazil was colonised by the Portugese, and the rest of South America by Spain and the conflict between the two countries because of that was pretty significant historically. Btw. Portugal's colonial history is especially ugly imo.

I mean, I wouldn't be "shocked" if someone doesn't know these things, but it's not like it's some obscure fact that would win you a million dollars on a game show.

South America is considered a different continent than North America. Brazil is in South America. Massachusetts (a state in the United States of America) is in North America.

I almost got into a fist-fight with a US-American acquaintance of mine once when I (jokingly, because I knew it would annoy him) argued that America is just one continent but Europe and Asia of course are two seperate continents.

 

[Aragorn]

Well if the e-mail circulating around is to believed, some people (well, at least one person) think that Twilight invented werewolves?

 

[captcalhoun]

the appalling state of American education shocks me. but then i remember there's shit i don't know (War of 1812? what? i first heard of it about six years ago!) and remember, i learned a lot from studying the atlas and reading encyclopaedias as a kid.

best one was catching out a class swot: 'hey, michael, if Algiers is the capital of Algeria, Tunis is the capital of Tunisia, where's Niger the capital of?' of course, he said Nigeria and i LMAO and said, 'no it's a country.' he also wouldn't buy it when he challenged me to name a country besides Denmark who's name began with 'D' and i promptly replied 'Djibouti'. he claimed it didn't begin with a 'd' and i pointed out it did, but it's silent.

 

[Marten]

One time on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? the $1000 question was "What animal did Hannibal use to cross the Alps?
My friend thought it was too easy. Yes, I knew it was elephants ( I believe I learned it when I was 7 or 8 from a Max the 5,000 year-old mouse cartoon) but I said to my friend I thought it was a good enough $1000 question. She still disagreed thinking everyone should know that he used elephants, so then I turned into a jerk and asked here where he was going to/coming from and which war it was.
She didn't know any of that.

Did they really ask for which animal he used? Then it's certainly not elephants, they were mostly in the way. If he used any animal it would be horses, but I'd say none at all.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

he also wouldn't buy it when he challenged me to name a country besides Denmark who's name began with 'D' and i promptly replied 'Djibouti'. he claimed it didn't begin with a 'd' and i pointed out it did, but it's silent.

Democratic Republic of Congo?
Dominican Republic?

 

[captcalhoun]

oh, he said you couldn't name anywhere by 'democratic' or by native language. or i could've replied Deutschland

 

[Zulu Romeo]

oh, he said you couldn't name anywhere by 'democratic' or by native language.

He should have realised that the Democratic Republic of Congo is a different country to The Congo.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

he also wouldn't buy it when he challenged me to name a country besides Denmark who's name began with 'D' and i promptly replied 'Djibouti'. he claimed it didn't begin with a 'd' and i pointed out it did, but it's silent.

Democratic Republic of Congo?
Dominican Republic?

Also Dominica (not to be confused with the Dominican Republic).

Until 1975, Dahomey (became the Republic of Benin).

 

[Nardpuncher]

I mean the fission/fusion and hindi/hindu ones.

I used that as an example of something that seems completely obvious and idiotic when people don't know it, but where I'm not really shocked by ignorance of it. That's been kind of my point throughout the thread. While I don't advocate ignorance, I certainly am not shocked by most of the things people are mentioning in this thread.

That being said, I expect the people on TBBS to be generally more knowledgeable than the average person.

I knew the difference. I brought it up because of your reaction to someone who didn't. It was just too far.

 

[RoJoHen]

I mean the fission/fusion and hindi/hindu ones.

I used that as an example of something that seems completely obvious and idiotic when people don't know it, but where I'm not really shocked by ignorance of it. That's been kind of my point throughout the thread. While I don't advocate ignorance, I certainly am not shocked by most of the things people are mentioning in this thread.

In the case of the Hindu/Hindi thing, I seem to think it's something I learned at some point in my life, but I just never had any reason to remember. I usually have to learn something twice before it really sinks in. Again, I've never met anyone who was Hindu, and I have never been taught about that area of the world. I guess the question I have (and this extends beyond this question) is: why would you expect people to know these things? Why is it obvious and idiotic that I didn't know?

That being said, I expect the people on TBBS to be generally more knowledgeable than the average person.

And this just seems weird to me. Why should a Star Trek fan be any smarter than a non-Star Trek fan? We weren't all nerds sitting at home reading encyclopedias. When I wasn't in school, I spent my childhood outside playing kickball.

 

[ancientone51]

Man, my education...many, many years ago covered so much more than I thought. Of course, it was private schools, so that helped. And Catholic, so here's what I can sum up...

7 continents and seven seas...North and South America, Southern and Mediterranean were counted.

Brazil is Portuguese because a pope...one of the Gregories IRC...drew a line on an early map and split the western hemisphere into Spanish and Portuguese halves. He didn't know how much land was west of the line.

Ashes on the foreheads

People followed the Hindu religion, didn't know they were Hindi...but...didn't know until my brother-in-law explained it 15-20 years ago that Scotch is a drink, Scot is a person.

I really don't want to think what the future populations will/won't be taught because I at least see what they haven't learned now.

Enlightening thread, never too old to learn. Had to double check Canberra, however. Thought it was Wellington.

 

[Omnius]

What shockes me is when fellow Air Force cadets dont even know some basics about the second world war regarding my own country, or even cant distinguish a Hercules and a KDC-10 aircraft...

 

[RoJoHen]

Enlightening thread, never too old to learn.

Indeed.

I am well aware that I don't know a whole lot about history and other countries and cultures, but at least I'm aware of my ignorance and am not afraid to ask questions. I'd rather do that than be ignorant of the fact that I'm ignorant!

 

[captcalhoun]

Had to double check Canberra, however. Thought it was Wellington.

OMG! you just insulted two countries at once! Wellington's in NEW ZEALAND!!!!!! they're not even on the same land-mass!!