Things you're shocked people don't know

[Count Zero]

Because it's on two continents, like Turkey. Me, I find this whole continent scheme quite dubious, anyway. I mean, after all, Europe, Asia and even Africa are connected by land, so it might as well be just one continent. At least, Europe and Asia are really just Eurasia.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

It's so odd, BTW...I have given speeches in front of very large groups, but there are only two types that scare me: foreign language speeches, and praying aloud. Both of those are fears I want to learn how to overcome. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Well, at least in the case of your language barrier, I'd suggest getting together with speakers of the language and get slightly drunk. That's how I overcame my language barrier with French. I was pretty good at writing and reading but not very good at speaking because I'd worry about all the grammatical details. Then, one night, I got to chat with some students from Cameroon and suddenly my French just flowed because I didn't worry about making mistakes, anymore.
And as long as you don't sound like this guy when giving speeches in foreign languages, you're ok.

Hm...I don't drink, though, so that might be a problem...

 

[Roger Wilco]

Because it's on two continents, like Turkey. Me, I find this whole continent scheme quite dubious, anyway. I mean, after all, Europe, Asia and even Africa are connected by land, so it might as well be just one continent. At least, Europe and Asia are really just Eurasia.

Technically Africa isn't connected to Europa-Asia by land.

 

[Count Zero]

Yeah, because someone drilled a canal there. Well, at least we got an opera out of it.

 

[Eleanor_zhDarjel]

Hey, when I was in the USA a lady in Michigan asked where I was from. I said Germany. And she said o nice, is that on the east coast?

What do you say then. Honestly.

 

[Count Zero]

Well, we do have an East Coast, so, technically, yes?

 

[Eleanor_zhDarjel]

O, you are horrible!
Imagine me standing there, jaw on the floor, just stuttering something about Europe wandering the whole time if she was taking the piss!

 

[Count Zero]

Maybe she just didn't hear you properly. I mean, it's depressing to think that we went to all this trouble with two world wars and such and then end up not being known as a country, right?

On the other hand, I've heard some shocking, though highly entertaining anecdotes from people visiting the USA and being asked impossible questions, like whether there are often troubles on the German-Chinese border or if we had electricity. A then class mate of mine answered no to the last question and then made up an entertaining tale about how we didn't have electricity but the hotels had generators.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Everybody in the US knows Austria, thanks to a bunch of incredibly kitschy 50s Hollywood movies.

 

[RoJoHen]

I would also like to include fission and fusion. Most people I talk to have no idea which is which. You would think, with all the atom bomb hysteria in the 50's and 60's, that folks would have a better understanding of basic nuclear reactions.

I recently gave a presentation on global governance as relating to nuclear proliferation to a bunch of international politics students. At the conclusion of the presentation I offered a short quiz. I fully expected "don't know" to be the answer from most students to most of the questions - they were intended largely to provoke interest in specific areas folks might wish to explore - yet I was still caught off guard by the near-zero hit rate. The questions were as follows:

1. Of the five legitimate (as considered under the Non-Proliferation Treaty) nuclear-weapons states, which is the only state to maintain a policy of "no first use"? (China)
2. Which well known symbol originated as the symbol for the UK-based Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament? (☮)
3. Which ostensibly non-nuclear-weapon state hosts more nuclear weapons than are possessed by Pakistan? (Germany or Turkey)
4. Which nation disrupted an international security treaty in the 1980s by banning nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered vessels from its ports? (New Zealand)
5. Which is the only nation to have first developed, and then divested itself of nuclear weapons? (South Africa)
6. In 2008 the Nuclear Suppliers Group issued an export waiver for which non-signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty? (India)

Nope, I didn't know any of those.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

Here's another one; a lot of mental illnesses while curable are still a disease you can't get over, like a bad cold.

The United States is bad about this, and a lot of insurance companies do not support mental illness as a sickness. I've also heard many people simply say to people that are depressed to 'get over it' or 'they are faking it'. Yes, there are a few that get overdiagnoised but for the most part, mental illnesses are very misunderstood by the general.

Why the Mexican-American War began.../facepalm

No.. Not really. It's one of US' more obscure wars.

It shouldn't be but people don't know much about the Mexican-American War when it is actually one of the more important wars in US history. They think the US were the aggressors in the war when really, they weren't.

 

[RoJoHen]

It would probably help if it had a different name. "I suffer from depression." Yeah, well, I'm depressed, too, but you don't see me medicating myself for it!

It needs a more serious name.

 

[sojourner]

Then there's the story about the summer Olympics held in Atlanta, GA. Apparently there was an 800 number setup for U.S. residents to call in and purchase tickets. As you can guess this was manned by the lowest wage workers they could find. Needless to say there were issues with citizens of the state of New Mexico calling and being told "only U.S. citizens may purchase tickets".

 

[thestrangequark]

Here's another one; a lot of mental illnesses while curable are still a disease you can't get over, like a bad cold.

The United States is bad about this, and a lot of insurance companies do not support mental illness as a sickness. I've also heard many people simply say to people that are depressed to 'get over it' or 'they are faking it'. Yes, there are a few that get overdiagnoised but for the most part, mental illnesses are very misunderstood by the general.

Unfortunately, I think it'll take time before people fully understand and accept this fact; there is just so much misinformation, misunderstanding, and taboo surrounding mental illness. People are precious about their brains and forget that the brain is an organ that functions via physiology like the rest of the body, and when something goes wrong it is just as real as any other disease.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

It would probably help if it had a different name. "I suffer from depression." Yeah, well, I'm depressed, too, but you don't see me medicating myself for it!

It needs a more serious name.

It's also known as Major Depressive Disorder, which is an Affective Disorder, if that helps.

Personally, I find labelling people with a Disease™ sometimes makes matters worse.

 

[Eleanor_zhDarjel]

Everybody in the US knows Austria, thanks to a bunch of incredibly kitschy 50s Hollywood movies.

That is even worse. Austria, but not Germany? I will cry myself to sleep.

At least they don't place the bloody coalas in Austria

 

[RoJoHen]

It would probably help if it had a different name. "I suffer from depression." Yeah, well, I'm depressed, too, but you don't see me medicating myself for it!

It needs a more serious name.

It's also known as Major Depressive Disorder, which is an Affective Disorder, if that helps.

Personally, I find labelling people with a Disease™ sometimes makes matters worse.

Yeah, I know it has those names, but I have a feeling a lot of people don't. They hear something like "depression" and think "Why are they taking medication for being sad?"

 

[Zulu Romeo]

It would probably help if it had a different name. "I suffer from depression." Yeah, well, I'm depressed, too, but you don't see me medicating myself for it!

It needs a more serious name.

It's also known as Major Depressive Disorder, which is an Affective Disorder, if that helps.

Personally, I find labelling people with a Disease™ sometimes makes matters worse.

Yeah, I know it has those names, but I have a feeling a lot of people don't. They hear something like "depression" and think "Why are they taking medication for being sad?"

A lot of people don't realise that major depressive disorder is a disease in its own right, with its own set of specific symptoms.

Low mood is just one of them, but there's also disinterest in activities they usually enjoy, a marked reduction in appetite and energy, a feeling of being "walled off" socially and emotionally, sleep disturbances - specifically, early morning wakening - and low self-esteem sometimes to the point of thoughts of and attempts at taking their own lives or harming themselves. Plus there's the need to consider the effect their symptoms have on others, who they have to support them (many of these factors sometimes triggering, perpetuating and worsening their condition), whether they indulge in other risky behaviour, and if they also develop psychotic tendencies (such as hearing voices in their head, for instance) alongside their symptoms.

That's why sometimes it's also a necessity to be cautious about labelling someone as suffering from depression, as there is a perceived social stigma in the general public towards such a diagnosis on the one hand, plus a need to treat them properly if it is a serious case (not just "shrugging it off") and sometimes with good results on the other hand.

 

[RoJoHen]

You're not tellin' me anything I don't know.

I'm just arguing that the common use of the term "depression" makes it seem a lot less serious than it is, which is why a lot of people don't consider it to be a real illness.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

You're not tellin' me anything I don't know.

I know. I'm just filling in the gaps.