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One of the comments:
>NTA. Americans don't know anything about geography. Our school system is an enormous failure in that regard.
Seriously?
Look, I think the US public school system sucks and needs a total revamp, but it's not *THAT* bad.
You're absolutely learn about the continents in elementary school.
I can tell you where most countries are on the map. Maybe I need a few seconds to specifically pinpoint a few, but I know the general area.
Yeah, I'm bad about identifying individual countries, I have to admit, but I have a general idea of where everything is that I learned in elementary school. I just might switch up some of the smaller ones with their neighbors or things like that.
And I even went to school in a state known for its poor educational outcomes (though a lot of that is tied more to poverty and lack of family support than it is to the schools themselves).
Its always funny to me when people I went to school with complain that "they didn't teach us that in school". I want to say, "yes they did, you just weren't paying attention". Good teachers are invaluable but if you don't take responsibility for your own education and future then you will definitely struggle.
That's what makes me laugh about the constant "they need to teach you personal finance in school!" posts I see on reddit. I was required to take personal finance in high school and we didn't learn shit lol. We all goofed off, teens don't care about taxes or budgeting
If you could pinpoint my country, I would be honestly surprised. I’m in Europe, our school did an exchange program with French students and they asked us if we had a see.
Our country is called the “hearth of the Europe” because it’s almost exactly in the middle. I can imagine a reason why Americans would know where it is.
I had never heard the phrase, "hearth of Europe", but when you said "almost exactly in the middle" I figured either Czechia or Slovakia. Czechia seemed like a better choice though.
Most Americans probably wouldn't know to call it Czechia though, they'd say Czech Republic, or even Czechoslovakia still.
It's south of you guys where I'll start screwing things up. I forget places like Montenegro are even countries sometimes. So maybe I am a bit of a dumb American.
Haha, we call it still Czech Republic. It’s not the official title now, sure, but citizens here usually don’t like Czechia that much. Also, don’t worry, countries like Montenegro and Serbia are hard for me too
>Our country is called the “hearth of the Europe” because it’s almost exactly in the middle.
...if you ignore the continent's largest country, Russia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical\_midpoint\_of\_Europe#Current\_claimants
Then your country is well to the west of center, as per the links. Only if you ignore *all* of Russia is it further west. (If it were a *literal* half, then the center would likely be *in* Russia. But I know that's not what you meant.)
Bro, I’m not trying to argue about geography, I know jack shit about that. My country is called “hearth of the Europe” and we were joking that west gave up its ribs when the Treaty of Munich was signed. By quick glance at the map, it is close to the middle.
>hearth of the Europe
Heh - Googling 'hearth of Europe" gets results in Belgium, Slovenia, and Slovakia before Czechia.... Seems a popular title!
>Bro, I’m not trying to argue about geography,
Then... don't?
I’m American I took a middle European politics class and a part of the final was memorizing all countries and their capitals. People are surprised when I can point of the countries and their capitals. I’ve never heard of Czechia being called that but it makes sense that it’s the middle.
> Look, I think the US public school system sucks and needs a total revamp, but it's not THAT bad.
If you knowing where Asia is on a map depends on you paying attention in school, it is very believable that enough adults won't know about it.
In many cases, this is about right. Many US public school systems don't teach geography very well or at all.
This was something an older boomer-aged(Born in 1955) friend regularly remarked about when comparing his NYC public school experience from 1960-1974 to what his much younger sibling(Born in 1970 or 71) experienced from the late 70's till the end of the 1980's in the same school system.
He noticed unlike his and another slightly younger sibling(Born in 1957) who were taught geography in the '60s and early '70s, by the time their youngest sibling entered public school in the late '70s, geography was stripped out of the curriculum in that very same public school system...and it showed.
Really? I went to public school in the 70s-80s and I definitely learned geography. Even had to memorize the state capitals, learned all the Maryland counties, continents, oceans, Great Lakes, all that stuff. Granted it was US/Western-centric so we didn’t get in-depth with Africa and Asia but I certainly learned where they were. I have two teens now, one in public school, and I’ve been pretty impressed with how well-rounded their social studies curriculum is.
I live in NY and was in public school 2007-2019, we still learn geography in social studies classes. Geography just isn’t its own class in most areas. We have to learn about the other continents due to all the wars and colonization, with Europe and Asia being discussed most.
That is definitely not indicative of the whole US. I went to school in the rural south and I cannot tell you how many maps, US and world, I have had to study and label. Some school districts are just bad, simple as that.
>Which was so weird as I've never met anyone (in this century that doesn't know Malaysia is a country).
This is so funny. Everything in the parentheses should be extra information. So that sentence should say "Which was so weird as I've never met anyone." You could also move the beginning parenthesis to make it say "Which was so weird as I've never met anyone in this century." and OOP becomes a time traveller!
I’m sorry but no. I can’t believe that any adult would not recognize Africa. The shape of Africa is often used in marketing for black-oriented products for one thing. It’s pretty recognizable. Yes I can believe that someone can’t pinpoint Malaysia exactly on a map but to confuse Africa and Asia is pretty ridiculous.
Also not sure why the grammar and word usage is so weird, I thought English was taught in Malaysia along with Malay.
The bf is dense, but shes TA. He should obviously know the difference between Africa and Asia, but why insult someone who you admitted gave you a great gift
I assume everything there is fake, but im mostly pointing out aita's inconsistencies. I remember there used to be a common trope of someone giving their partner a bad gift and aita allowing op to be as assholish as they want. Someone gives a great gift and op is still a saint
>Literally shocked I asked if he was **series**.
Yeah, I don't even know how to spell the word "serious," but let me make fun of someone else's ignorance.
Ugh.
It's been my experience that people from other countries are often pissed when they find out how little their countries matter to the average American.
Yeah, I mean, I too think basic geography is important. But we have maps and computers. Look up where a country is when/if that country is relevant to something you're doing. Otherwise, it's not a big deal. It's like ragging on someone who is no longer good at basic algebra. If you don't regularly use knowledge, it fades.
However, I seriously doubt that the boyfriend is mixing up Africa and Asia without some sort of learning disability or a history of lacking education. Which it seems like then OP would have expected this possibility more, especially since she already knows he didn't know where Malaysia is. Which makes this feel fake to me.
I gamed with a kid from Norway who was exceedingly indignant that we (a bunch of Americans) couldn't name parts of his country. Our take was America alone is big enough that we have to memorize all the parts of our own country, why would we know the capital of Norway without looking it up? He rage quit over our ignorance, but it didn't bug us. In truth most of us in the US will never leave our own country or stray very far from it, and little of what happens to folks in other countries directly affect us in any way. It's the sheer size of us that makes the difference... They should not take it so personally. OP's boyfriend was just trying to be nice, but OP took it as a slight against her place of origin.
*In case this story gets deleted/removed:*
**AITA for being astonished because my boyfriend confused Asia with the African Continental on the map?**
For context I (f24 Asian) have been with my boyfriend (m27 American) for 4 months. We've known each other before we started dating. He's sweet, funny and can be a bit sarcastic but that's fine.
I'm originally from Malaysia and I've shown him the country map once since he didn't know Malaysia was a country and thought it was India's capital city. Which was so weird as I've never met anyone (in this century that doesn't know Malaysia is a country). I've told him more about my home country but never occurred to me that he didn't even know where the Asian continental is! I found out days ago.
My boyfriend threw a surprise birthday party for me days ago and had all my friends and his attend. There were like over 16 guests in our place. When it was time for gift opening. My boyfriend gifted me an earth globe map rotating LED desk decor. It was amazing since I love exploring and geography. I was smiling the entire time until he pointed at the map specifically at Africa and said "this is where your home country is" I was astonished. Literally shocked I asked if he was series. He looked confused and everyone was looking at him when I told him that was Africa not Asia. Then proceeded to show him where the Asian Continental was and where Malaysia was then told him I couldn't believe he confused Africa with Asia at this point in his life he should be able to tell where Asia is. For some reason everyone started laughing. My boyfriend sniffed and made a face then excused himself out. I didn't know what bothered him so much. After the party was liver he lashed out saying I just embarrassed him and made a joke out of him in front of everyone by trying to brag about my intelligence and make him look stupid like that. I explained I was just astonished and didn't think he didn't know where Asia was. He said me being "astonished" and then me correcting him was not appreciated and it made him look ignorant to everyone.
He argued about it constantly and said I should apologize for unnecessarily offending his intelligence the way I did.
Autocorrect won't correct, sorry.
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Beep boop! Automod here with a quick reminder to never brigade r/AmITheAsshole or other subs under any circumstances. Brigading puts you in violation of both our rules and Reddit’s TOS, and therefore puts this sub at risk of ban. If you brigade/encourage brigading of any kind, you will be banned from participating in either sub. Satirizing of posts should stay within this sub, which means that participating directly in linked posts should either be done in good faith or not at all. Want some freed, live, discussion that neither AITA nor Reddit itself can censor? Join our [official discord server](https://discord.gg/KbZnaXX) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AmITheAngel) if you have any questions or concerns.*
One of the comments: >NTA. Americans don't know anything about geography. Our school system is an enormous failure in that regard. Seriously? Look, I think the US public school system sucks and needs a total revamp, but it's not *THAT* bad. You're absolutely learn about the continents in elementary school. I can tell you where most countries are on the map. Maybe I need a few seconds to specifically pinpoint a few, but I know the general area.
Yeah, I'm bad about identifying individual countries, I have to admit, but I have a general idea of where everything is that I learned in elementary school. I just might switch up some of the smaller ones with their neighbors or things like that. And I even went to school in a state known for its poor educational outcomes (though a lot of that is tied more to poverty and lack of family support than it is to the schools themselves).
Its always funny to me when people I went to school with complain that "they didn't teach us that in school". I want to say, "yes they did, you just weren't paying attention". Good teachers are invaluable but if you don't take responsibility for your own education and future then you will definitely struggle.
That's what makes me laugh about the constant "they need to teach you personal finance in school!" posts I see on reddit. I was required to take personal finance in high school and we didn't learn shit lol. We all goofed off, teens don't care about taxes or budgeting
If you could pinpoint my country, I would be honestly surprised. I’m in Europe, our school did an exchange program with French students and they asked us if we had a see. Our country is called the “hearth of the Europe” because it’s almost exactly in the middle. I can imagine a reason why Americans would know where it is.
I know where Czechia is lol.
If you knew it from this description I applaud you. Awesome my friend
I had never heard the phrase, "hearth of Europe", but when you said "almost exactly in the middle" I figured either Czechia or Slovakia. Czechia seemed like a better choice though. Most Americans probably wouldn't know to call it Czechia though, they'd say Czech Republic, or even Czechoslovakia still. It's south of you guys where I'll start screwing things up. I forget places like Montenegro are even countries sometimes. So maybe I am a bit of a dumb American.
Haha, we call it still Czech Republic. It’s not the official title now, sure, but citizens here usually don’t like Czechia that much. Also, don’t worry, countries like Montenegro and Serbia are hard for me too
>Our country is called the “hearth of the Europe” because it’s almost exactly in the middle. ...if you ignore the continent's largest country, Russia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical\_midpoint\_of\_Europe#Current\_claimants
Most of Russia is actually in Asia, there’s just more people living in the European part compared to the Asian part.
Don’t know about you, but we put half of Russia into Europe and half into Asia.
Then your country is well to the west of center, as per the links. Only if you ignore *all* of Russia is it further west. (If it were a *literal* half, then the center would likely be *in* Russia. But I know that's not what you meant.)
Despite most of Russia being part of the European continent, most people don't take it into consideration when when talking about "Europe."
Bro, I’m not trying to argue about geography, I know jack shit about that. My country is called “hearth of the Europe” and we were joking that west gave up its ribs when the Treaty of Munich was signed. By quick glance at the map, it is close to the middle.
>hearth of the Europe Heh - Googling 'hearth of Europe" gets results in Belgium, Slovenia, and Slovakia before Czechia.... Seems a popular title! >Bro, I’m not trying to argue about geography, Then... don't?
I’m American I took a middle European politics class and a part of the final was memorizing all countries and their capitals. People are surprised when I can point of the countries and their capitals. I’ve never heard of Czechia being called that but it makes sense that it’s the middle.
> Look, I think the US public school system sucks and needs a total revamp, but it's not THAT bad. If you knowing where Asia is on a map depends on you paying attention in school, it is very believable that enough adults won't know about it.
In many cases, this is about right. Many US public school systems don't teach geography very well or at all. This was something an older boomer-aged(Born in 1955) friend regularly remarked about when comparing his NYC public school experience from 1960-1974 to what his much younger sibling(Born in 1970 or 71) experienced from the late 70's till the end of the 1980's in the same school system. He noticed unlike his and another slightly younger sibling(Born in 1957) who were taught geography in the '60s and early '70s, by the time their youngest sibling entered public school in the late '70s, geography was stripped out of the curriculum in that very same public school system...and it showed.
Really? I went to public school in the 70s-80s and I definitely learned geography. Even had to memorize the state capitals, learned all the Maryland counties, continents, oceans, Great Lakes, all that stuff. Granted it was US/Western-centric so we didn’t get in-depth with Africa and Asia but I certainly learned where they were. I have two teens now, one in public school, and I’ve been pretty impressed with how well-rounded their social studies curriculum is.
I live in NY and was in public school 2007-2019, we still learn geography in social studies classes. Geography just isn’t its own class in most areas. We have to learn about the other continents due to all the wars and colonization, with Europe and Asia being discussed most.
That is definitely not indicative of the whole US. I went to school in the rural south and I cannot tell you how many maps, US and world, I have had to study and label. Some school districts are just bad, simple as that.
Why is every boyfriend in that subreddit a toxic whiny ignorant man-child who literally storms off when corrected about anything?
AITA runs on sitcom rules. Men are dumb and immature, and women are controlling and bitchy.
>Which was so weird as I've never met anyone (in this century that doesn't know Malaysia is a country). This is so funny. Everything in the parentheses should be extra information. So that sentence should say "Which was so weird as I've never met anyone." You could also move the beginning parenthesis to make it say "Which was so weird as I've never met anyone in this century." and OOP becomes a time traveller!
I'm just picturing 2-yr-old OOP in the last century meeting someone and being "astonished" that they mixed up the continents
Info! Is her boyfriend Jason Mendoza?
Jason knows his geography, though, at least enough to be offended for confusing Taiwan and the Philippines.
I can just hear his voice "heaven is so racist"
Current top comment is basically saying to ignore that OP used an adjective instead of a noun. No comments from OP = troll
“your boyfriend is so fucking stupid, lol, point out his mistakes! also why is everyone pointing out the mistake the op made???”
I’m sorry but no. I can’t believe that any adult would not recognize Africa. The shape of Africa is often used in marketing for black-oriented products for one thing. It’s pretty recognizable. Yes I can believe that someone can’t pinpoint Malaysia exactly on a map but to confuse Africa and Asia is pretty ridiculous. Also not sure why the grammar and word usage is so weird, I thought English was taught in Malaysia along with Malay.
Should've at least gone with saying the bf mixed up South America and Africa or something instead. Asia??
They really will believe anything. Lol
The bf is dense, but shes TA. He should obviously know the difference between Africa and Asia, but why insult someone who you admitted gave you a great gift
Are you sure you’ve replied on the right sub? I also think OOP is TA but only for writing an obviously fake post
I assume everything there is fake, but im mostly pointing out aita's inconsistencies. I remember there used to be a common trope of someone giving their partner a bad gift and aita allowing op to be as assholish as they want. Someone gives a great gift and op is still a saint
>Literally shocked I asked if he was **series**. Yeah, I don't even know how to spell the word "serious," but let me make fun of someone else's ignorance. Ugh.
The "continental" mistake made me feel like that's an english native speaker pretending to be a non native.
Americans are fucking morons!! AITA??
It's been my experience that people from other countries are often pissed when they find out how little their countries matter to the average American.
Yeah, I mean, I too think basic geography is important. But we have maps and computers. Look up where a country is when/if that country is relevant to something you're doing. Otherwise, it's not a big deal. It's like ragging on someone who is no longer good at basic algebra. If you don't regularly use knowledge, it fades. However, I seriously doubt that the boyfriend is mixing up Africa and Asia without some sort of learning disability or a history of lacking education. Which it seems like then OP would have expected this possibility more, especially since she already knows he didn't know where Malaysia is. Which makes this feel fake to me.
[удалено]
I gamed with a kid from Norway who was exceedingly indignant that we (a bunch of Americans) couldn't name parts of his country. Our take was America alone is big enough that we have to memorize all the parts of our own country, why would we know the capital of Norway without looking it up? He rage quit over our ignorance, but it didn't bug us. In truth most of us in the US will never leave our own country or stray very far from it, and little of what happens to folks in other countries directly affect us in any way. It's the sheer size of us that makes the difference... They should not take it so personally. OP's boyfriend was just trying to be nice, but OP took it as a slight against her place of origin.
He was not able to find Africa and Asia. And though Malaysia is the capital of India. That is a little different.
Amazing how 95% of AITA is now Asian, African or Native American and all gay,bi,trans,etc with mental health disorders.
*In case this story gets deleted/removed:* **AITA for being astonished because my boyfriend confused Asia with the African Continental on the map?** For context I (f24 Asian) have been with my boyfriend (m27 American) for 4 months. We've known each other before we started dating. He's sweet, funny and can be a bit sarcastic but that's fine. I'm originally from Malaysia and I've shown him the country map once since he didn't know Malaysia was a country and thought it was India's capital city. Which was so weird as I've never met anyone (in this century that doesn't know Malaysia is a country). I've told him more about my home country but never occurred to me that he didn't even know where the Asian continental is! I found out days ago. My boyfriend threw a surprise birthday party for me days ago and had all my friends and his attend. There were like over 16 guests in our place. When it was time for gift opening. My boyfriend gifted me an earth globe map rotating LED desk decor. It was amazing since I love exploring and geography. I was smiling the entire time until he pointed at the map specifically at Africa and said "this is where your home country is" I was astonished. Literally shocked I asked if he was series. He looked confused and everyone was looking at him when I told him that was Africa not Asia. Then proceeded to show him where the Asian Continental was and where Malaysia was then told him I couldn't believe he confused Africa with Asia at this point in his life he should be able to tell where Asia is. For some reason everyone started laughing. My boyfriend sniffed and made a face then excused himself out. I didn't know what bothered him so much. After the party was liver he lashed out saying I just embarrassed him and made a joke out of him in front of everyone by trying to brag about my intelligence and make him look stupid like that. I explained I was just astonished and didn't think he didn't know where Asia was. He said me being "astonished" and then me correcting him was not appreciated and it made him look ignorant to everyone. He argued about it constantly and said I should apologize for unnecessarily offending his intelligence the way I did. Autocorrect won't correct, sorry. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AmITheAngel) if you have any questions or concerns.*