When you put it into perspective: how many Europeans can correctly locate & name countries adjacent to them within their own continent and globally?
Practically all of them. Seriously.
this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2026
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I met some Italians who couldn't name all the countries Italy borders. Seriously. It was shocking. I do think Italy has the worst public school system in the EU.
By land or by sea?
Either way.
Yeah, but italy borders the balkans thats just impossible
?
how many Europeans can correctly locate & name countries adjacent to them
Nearly all, seriously, because nearly all have been to some school for at least a few years.
@Zwuzelmaus @LtDan The fact that someone even posits this question really points out just how bereft many Americans are of an actual general education.
I still remember playing a game as a kid where I had to name all countries adjacent to mine (which are like 15 for Germany) and I got them all right.
Edit: ah no it was even more difficult. It was all countries adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea.
Most Americans always have had a shitty education, but the last few decades it really went down a toilet
Geography isn't the only thing they're bad at, it's just a funny obvious one, especially when they need their point out the country they're invading this time
And yes, pretty much all Europeans can point out heit neighbouring countries, most of them can pretty much point at any county on a map or a globe, because w received an education
Like you mentioned, many of those videos are doctored to make common Americans look stupid. I would even venture a guess and say that some of them are straight up fake with people probably being paid to act as stupid as possible.
As for Europeans' ability to place countries on a map, I believe it varies in the same way it does in America. Some will be super sharp at it, others, probably most, will know some and then blank on the rest. Few will be entirely ignorant about geography.
I have a flags of the world app that I use once in awhile to train myself to recognize flags from different countries. There is an option to also try and place flags on the map and you work your way through one continent at the time. I absolutely fucking suck at placing flags in Africa and Polynesia. I have gotten to a point where I recognize most of their flags, so there is that, but I am still hopeless with the map part. I have a few blind spots in Asia and South America too. I am pretty strong with Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia at this point.
For me, I started practicing with the app years ago exactly because I realized how terrible my geography skills were even inside Europe. Later on it became a matter of rebellion when the Ukrainian war went into full swing and I wanted to give a big fuck you to the invisible wall that still stands between western and eastern Europe. Many people I know have always been geographically blind to eastern Europe, but that seems to be something many of us have worked on in recent years.
Now it is just a longterm goal for me to take some time once in awhile to practice. Can't hurt to learn some basic bitch geography.
Ironically, the one thing I'm worse at placing than African countries, is American States, but they also aren't a part of my flag app, so I haven't actually practiced them. Similarly haven't practiced the German States since I was in 7th grade so I only know a couple of those and blank on the rest.
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