as we seen they would struggle to answer the same six question (eg.: for their own country in their own language), knowing a foreign language and knowing any of these for a different country, maybe a few percent could even try.
@@grahvis. Yeah , the Spanish were in the Americas way before the Brits . They CERTAINLY influenced the Southern Continent , but not so much Territorial Northerners .
The education in Europe is not living in it's own bubble. Also we do interact more with foreigners and visit other countries. I'd imagine the number of countries an average person visits during lifetime is much higher in Europe than in the US.
@@altblechasyl_cs2093 not much. You can easily travel within EU even without a passport, no visa, no border control, just your local ID card is enough, pretty much the same way as traveling through USA. But you can enjoy far greater variety in culture, food, sights, architecture, landscape on smaller space.
@@altblechasyl_cs2093 You can travel from canada to chile, and only experience 4 main languages. Come to rural europe and strugle in each step to someone speak any language beside the local language. How many languages and dialects europe has? The experience are not measure it in miles. Its actualy measure it in deep split ethnic diversity. 1 car driving hour per totaly diferent ethnick, and their rules...
Every day, Americans arrive at Anchorage International Airport in Alaska and ask where they can exchange US dollars for the local currency. If you don't believe it, just ask the staff there.
@@Phiyedough You would not be able to leave the plane in Canada, those US foreigners are probably going to be interned into a refugee camp, and be exchanged at a later date for Alaska.
Whilst there seems to be an element of surprise that Europeans are able to articulate a world view on things, you really have to wonder what goes on the US school system that seemingly leaves a lot of America's floundering with the most basic grasp of the world that surrounds them.
It's not only the school system. It's a lack of news coverage. And some kind of protectionism when it comes to foreign media (no matter if fiction or non-fiction).
Better education would mean that republicans would have no chance to win elections, so if half of your politicians dont want public education to be better then it wont be. Trump said that he will cut funding to schools that teach about USA being built on stolen land and about slavery, they just hate education and they want to rise another generation of blind nationalists.
It's fun to see what you'd consider easy or hard. State capitals are really tough tho becaause in so many cases it's none of the obvious big ones. So knowing big cities in a state, which is already relatively impressive, might not help you getting lucky.
for sure .. can honestly say i probably cant name all out of the blue even as a European .. my knowledge on US capitals r even worse but as Ian say naming capitols of Europe as an merican in a random European language would be to go overboard, it would need to be in a common language of US .. most Europeans speak atleast two languages, and alot atleast three, and some alot more .. asking a merican to answer in an unknown language would be unfair ..
@@sorin_channel Tallahassee is the capital city of the state of Florida in the United States. It is located in the northern part of the state, in the Florida Panhandle region. The city is situated approximately 20 miles (32 km) east of the Gulf of Mexico. Tallahassee serves as the political and administrative center of Florida and is home to several key government buildings, including the Florida State Capitol. It is also known for being a hub for higher education, as it is the location of Florida State University (FSU) and Florida A&M University (FAMU). Latitude: 30.4383° N Longitude: 84.2807° W
I imagine schools innEurope would teach world geography and world history. In Aussie schools, we certainly knew these things from about sixth grade upwards. The same can’t be said for American schools, their knowledge is limited to the US, and these days, even that is asking a lot!
We have loads of young Australians passing through London and you can enjoy a perfectly normal conversation with them but with young Americans you immediately hit a brick wall of ignorance.
In Sweden from what I remember from the early 2000s we had history in general from around grade 2 or 3 with general basic world history up to grade 6, then more in-depth Swedish history from grade 6-9. In-depth US history appears more in grade 10-13 (Gymnasium). Though we also have Religionskunskap* for most of our school years as well, and that usually incorporates some world history since Religion and History tends to be highly relevant to each other in most cultures. *Literal translation "Knowledge of Religions", encompasses the 3 major Abrahamic Religions, Buddhism, Hinduism and some smaller ancient as well as more modern Religions like Wicca and Heliolatric cultures.
Certainly in the UK we start world history and geography from junior school. I also went to school in South Africa, and possibly being part of the former British Empire meant there was more of world view. We definitely learned the history of Australia, the formation of the United States & civil war, Russia and the Soviet Union, India and the Scramble for Africa. I meet older people from Jamaica who have a similarly thorough education, and interestingly, a better standard of English than many people in England.
regarding the 51/52 states answer.. from my german brain i think those who answer it wrong believe that alaska and hawaii is not included within the 50 caus they are somewhat "detached" from what appears to be the USA when you look at the map... as in "theres 50 states on the connected landmass but wait there were the two others" i know that doesnt make a lot of sense but i try to think and explain the answer through their brains :D
The actual reason is much simpler. Because a regular deck of cards have 52 it somehow often gets confused with that. I do wonder how often all the flags are revised though. Because Hawaii wasn't technically a state before 1959.
@@AltCutTV Well that might well be "the actual answer" in some of the cases.. But I dont think its all that common. Anyway, its not even close to all cases, and quite possibly the minority. In Sweden for example, we were taught US had 52 states, because they included for example Puerto Rico in that.
@@GoldenCroc I thought for a long time it was 51 because of hawaii and that they probably don't change flag everytime they add new state. But I was wrong, they do change their flag :D
@@Miccielly Exactly right, we were taught they just didnt change the flag after including the other ones, which seemed to make more sense than changing it. Considering most famous flags of countries were I am from are unchanged for hundred of years, changing it more often than, or even at all, seemed ludicrous.
Geography questions should be easy for EU citizens as it's really taught a lot in schools. For exemple they made us learn all countries and all capitals of the world for one test, and then asked us randomly 100 of them. 50 countries and their 50 capitals. And that was like when I was 13 or something
Yeah and you probably learnd those exactly for that one test and then immediatly moved on to the next thing for the next test and never heared about most of those countries ever again.
@@monkeyboy275bobo8 Well yeah. Like everything you learn in school. Do you remember the math formulas, the whole story of all books they made you read? Probably not. But you still retain chunks. While I can't sit down and recite the countries by heart, there is a pretty good chance if you bring it up I can give you the capital and roughly place it on the map. People with better memory will do even better.
One thing to note that those kind of shows are usually shot during weekday when majority of people work and not roam streets. I remember a few years ago when shows like this were popular and they usually picked strange people who knew nearly nothing.
Yeah, in high school they made us memorize all countries and capitals, and to show them on the map. This was over 15 years ago for me, and yet I still remember some of the more obscure/funny ones.
5:09 'Alaska' is an adaptation of the slavic word 'Aljáska' (which is pronounced the way she pronounced it). The slavic word was in turn derived from the native word, 'alaxsxaq'.
In Czech it's Aljaška and we read it with "i" Alijaška, so years ago when i started to hear how it's in english, it sounded weird to me - not soft and fluent, like if its wrong.
Yeah. I'm Finnish, I actually only know it's Washington because I played the video game Assassin's Creed 3, otherwise I would also have thought it's Lincoln.
I think most Europeans know both Washington and Lincoln but might not always know who came first or was the earliest of the two but know that Lincoln was one of the relatively earlier ones.
funny thing is most people in europe would more likely know the name of the president of the US than a president of some country in europe because of how out there the US politics and media are.
I think many non-Americans have in the back of their minds somewhere that the US has 50 states, yet many are also aware or vaguely aware that Alaska and Hawaii were later added to make up that 50, but perhaps some people add those one or two that are already included and get 51 or 52.
The Joke is on the US. You have, for some reason, tendency to have capital being some random small hole in the ground. Recently I learned that Vegas is not capital of Nevada, instead it's some 60k people city I have forgotten again.
Btw. Did you know that in Czech (and presumably other languages) we have different spelling (names) for some US states? We have Aljaška, Severní Karolína, Jižní Karolína, Kalifornie, Severní and Jižní Dakota (obviously), Havaj, Georgie, Nové Mexiko, Pensylvánie, Virginie and Západní Virginie. Could be fun for you to try to pronounce those :-D if other languages have them too.
which is actually smart, to detach the political ccity from the main one. here in italy we have all the politics in Roma and how i wish this were in a different place, leaving room for the locals and the tourists to chill instead of having to stand all the protests, the blue sirens and the suits moving around the historical monuments
@@AtrolinK I dont think, that if switched capital to (imaginary) city of Tagilatele with 50 k inhabitants, that all the protesting would suddenly happened there :-D
@@ktadesse But only a little, really. Less than 2.5 miles between the Diomede islands, to be precise. For comparison, the Mississippi is up to 11 miles wide in places and is not seriously perceived as something that effectively separates parts of the US from each other.
Atlanta is the capital of Georgia. Boston is the capital of Massachusetts. Boise is the capital of Idaho. Denver is the capital of Colorado. Oklahoma City is the capital of Oklahoma. Salt Lake City is the capital of Utah. But yes, most of the time you are right that the capital is not the biggest city. In Germany, most of the time the largest city is the state capital, with exceptions: Schwerin is the capital of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, but Rostock is the largest city. Düsseldorf is the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, but Cologne is the largest city. Wiesbaden is the capital of Hesse, but Frankfurt is the largest city. Dresden is the capital of Saxony, but Leipzig is the largest city. Oh, I knew all the answers, including that Sacramento is the capital of California.
There are actually 17 US capitals that are also largest cities in the state, the rest of them are: Arizona - Phoenix Arkansas - Little Rock Hawaii - Honolulu Indiana - Indianapolis Iowa - Des Moines Mississippi - Jackson Ohio - Columbus Rhode Island - Providence Tennessee - Nashville West Virginia - Charleston Wyoming - Cheyenne
Some places teach that DC and Puerto Rico are included, making it 52. This could be why. The title of that movie is unlikely to influence much. It would be extremely unlikely to show up like this .
The answer is much simpler: European schools (and books) used to teach that there are 51 or 52 US states. I. e. this what they have learnt at school, so the answers are kind of correct.
In Hungary, the waterwork guys in the village of Juta (I live in Hetes, that's the next village to the west (Somogy County) have and old (might be '70s-'80s) GMC truck with a water tank.
6/6 for me 🎉 and I also understand why many answered 52 States - Puerto Rico and D.C It has been up in the news, here in Europe, that there have been attempts to try to get both accepted, into the USA hello from Denmark 🌸
I wonder if there's a video asking random Americans the same question. I have seen one where US college students don't know how many US states there are.
At least these are actually random people in Ljubljana. The one with Europeans answering questions that most RUclipsrs react to is from an Erasmus conference, which kind of per definition does't make them random or average.
I am in my mid 30s and even if I forget some stuff from school, I still try to inform myself about different stuff from around the world. I think it is very important to be informed about the world.
I wish more people did this. A lot of people you find in RUclips comments believe they are right and have no curiosity to find out true facts. Only yesterday the comment "I have never heard of this [therefore you must be making it up]".
In Belgium we had an assembly factory for Opel cars, which had "General Motors Continental" on top in big letters. My father used to refer to General Motors as "GMC" because that's what it said on the front of the big army trucks he drove at the end of WWII. The full name is, after all, "General Motors Company".
Those questions are fairly easy for an educated citizen, even the Sacramento one. If you choose random ordinary people in the street who are able to speak English, as you said, there are chances that they're well aware of United Kingdom or United States culture, including geography and history, even politics. If it were a recent video, the Trump/Kamala fight has been all days in all TV station for 2 months at least, even here in Europe.
You sure have some high demands or expectations for what an "educated citizen" is, if you include sacramento being in it. I would wager quite a bit less than 1% of europeans knowing that. For college or university educated ones, perhaps 10%.
I think there is a bias in the candidate selection, as all those people speak English aaand speaking it is really correlated with education level and exposition to British and American cultures. The sample is definitely not representative of the overall European population (or the population of the countries they are from).
@@noefillon1749 For sure. Like that older woman speaking near fluent English. What are the chances? I'd say less than 0.001% of people in that age group even know the basics of English in former Eastern block countries.
@@Glotttis Oh really ?! This few ?! I mean I'm French and my French grand parents don't know a word of English ofc, but most people with some higher education (bachelor or more) know some English, even among the older ones, so may be 5 or 10% or smth like that.
Aljaška is what its called in slavic languages (at least czech and slovakian). Originally it used to be a russian land afaik. Alaska is english version of the original, its not really an english word/name. Right?
Alaska was named Аляска ("alyaska") when it was part of the Russian Empire. It was purchased by the United States in 1867 although it didn't become a state until 1959.
Some confusion about the number of American states might come from frequently hearing about the lower 48 or the continental 49. So, if you are not paying attention, you might associate 48 or 49 with the United States. Ditto in the other direction, people might remember the number 50 but then think they need to add Alaska and/or Hawaii to that.
There were rumors going round at some time, that there are more states than stars, because 1 or 2 were added after the flag was designed. Even I thought so - but well. Everybody in this world know the leaders of the US and Russia. The vice president is much more tricky. Most Europeans know also their own president, but that's it. Some leaders are not even presidents but something else, like in San Marino they have two captains if I'm not mistaken.
I mean knowing russian "prezident" (more like tzar) is, considering how long he s got power, and then UK, France are quite eazy. (nobody know german president :D )
I wouldn't be sure but I'd say either Lincoln or Washington, because they're just the most famous (I never liked history class in school, but I was generally solid at it still fun fact about Croatia, our history class had a unique style of curriculum. We have it as a mandatory class from 5th grade of elementary to 8th grade (we have no middle school) and some high schools also have it (this would then be from 1st grade to 4th grade). The way the curriculum has it is based on periods of history, first year of history we learn from the beginning of man all the way up to the 7th century AD (the time when Slavs settled in the area now known as Croatia). Then 2nd year we learn from where we left off through the middle ages all the way up to around when America was discovered. Third year we learn from where we left off up to the 20th century. Fourth year is just the 20th and 21st century however the curriculum has us doing 1 period in world history then usually a test, followed by that same period but what happened in Croatia as the second test (example: middle ages in Europe and Asia, then middle ages in Croatia) Our history class is also super vast, to the point that some teachers require you to know stuff that are more fitting other subjects (literature, music, chemistry, biology, physics) Renaissance, for example, is etched in my brain as I had to learn it in 4 different subjects while looking at different perspectives.
That is a bulls*it statement, and you know it! There are plenty of Europeans who don't know a lot of things, no matter if we had it in school or not. Just because you have a subject in school that doesn't mean you are going to know it by heart for the rest of your life. If you are not interested, you will forget it quickly.
Nice Video. You get results like these when education is accessible to everyone, when news not determined by media moguls and church and state are separated. At least that's what I assumed when I heard that certain books were banned in some states.
The US are so influential and news and data about them are on every media every day to some extent; so some basic notions enter your mind without you even noticing it. It's not a matter of better or worse education.
Yes, you were right, we Europeans pretty much consume more American media than other European content mostly because of the English language and the internet being mostly an English environment, almost everyone knows English, due to that, British content also is more common than other European languages. The geography is way easier in the Americas of course and overall we have more international history and geography in the education system.
Oddly enough, at least in Italy, the news gave a lot of space to the american elections. Kamala was originally presented as the vice president of Biden when she candidated replacing him
Pretty good result, and I would say that if I asked the same questions from some random people here in my neighbourhood in Finland the result would be about the same. I new them all, but don't ask me how I new Sacramento, because I don't know most US state capitals. My theory about 51 and 52 states is that some might not count Alaska and/or Hawaii in 50. Many Americans don't seem to understand how much who the president of the USA is affects the rest of the world, so of course many of us are interested in who is the US president. And many know Kamala Harris because she was a presidential candidate. "Fun" fact how much people dislike Trump in Europe: according to a poll, over 90% of the Finns would have voted for Harris.
Apart from Sacramento I knew the answers. In Europe very often the biggest city is the capital but obviously not always. I did not it wasn't LA but I didn't know the name of the capital. I think a big reason as to why people know your president and often other politicians too is because the US is very active internationally and their politics affect all of us too. If Biden wants war with Russia, he will use military bases close to Russia and Russia will attack these first. You won't have war in your home land- but we might. Your political decision affect us and everyone on this globe so much more than you are aware of. People don't just make fun of Trump, they are worried for women in the US, for children, for poor and sick people and for themselves, for the Ukraine, for so many things.
2:30 There's 50 states, but it's commonly confused as 51 or 52 because of Washington DC, which can not acquire statehood and territories like Puerto Rico that belong to the US but isn't acknowledged as a state. Though, you did mention as much literally right after where I paused, oops.
4:24 Question is wrong already. There are 3 countries bordering the US, not 2. USA shares a border with Russia as well (no international waters between the 2 at some points)
On the other hand in The Atherton Tablelands, Far North Queensland where I live we have an Italian taxi driver who hasn't been in a Australia very long. He recently had a conversation while he was driving me to a nearby town. In general Aussies are friendly people who will talk to anyone. Our taxi and Uber drivers love it if you sit in the front seat next to them. Back to my story. Even though he's Italian, he didn't know where Finland was or that it's part of Europe. I started telling him about meeting a distant cousin and her husband. He asked me where Finland was. My grandma on my mum's side of the family was Finnish. Her family immigrated during WWI. Great grandpa was a blue-eyed blonde Fin. Great grandma was a Russian of Mongolian descent. Grandma's eyes were blue with her mum's almond shaped eyes. With auburn (brownish red) hair.
For comparison, US citizens would have to be asked and answer in a foreign language… What you haven‘t consider, though, is that asking only Europeans fluent and confident enough in English to even participate on camera is selecting a well-educated, young part of the population. They usually have a much wider lens and have interests in developments outside their own country
Nonsense Ive travelled a lot in Europe and most speak English from media coverage. Myself I can speak Italian and can understand French Portuguese, just by my location on the Globe. If you go to Asia they also have a grasp on English.
There was also a couple of "not so young generation" people in the video. There are a lot of people in their 50-60s who speak English. It is not that usual as in younger generation, but still, older people who speak English exist 😊.
@lynnm6413 my mom is 63 and she learnt Russian at school, they can't choose any other language back in the day. Later she started to learn a bit German. English was too much for her. And my grandma could not attend more than 4 grades in the primary school, because of her life circumstances. So, you are partially correct, but there are also other things, not just the will to learn.
@@MissSlovakia2 In the Netherlands people of my generation (Late 50s) had English, French and German in school. The level they have retained over the years varies of course.
I‘m German and I could swear we learned 51 states…we even had to be able to fill in a blank map with the state names just by identity shapes…is it possibly D.C. counted as a seperate state?
Once watched two drunk men having a fierce argument about birmingham,on was talking about birmingham,alabama,the other about birmingham england, very amusing😅
I believe, Europeans in particular (I am one) saying 52 is because they think it 50 in the mainland + Alaska and Hawaii. While its actually 48 + 2 I say that because most European don’t even think of Puerto or any of their overseas territories
I also learned about the 52 “states” at school, but it was always noted that this was also the case with the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. I have to note that back then (I went to school in the 70s and 80s) I learned a lot about the whole world in geography lessons. Including the USA, the Soviet Union (which still existed back then), of course Europe, South and Central America, Oceania, etc. And we were taught a lot more than how many states the USA has, or the capital of any country. In Austria at that time, geography lessons were intertwined with history lessons. But I have to admit that this has changed a lot. My son, for example, who went to school in the early 2000s, learned all of this much more superficially, but also has subjects that didn't exist at my time (e.g. basic IT knowledge).
1:44 to be fair, "it's in the name" applies to almost all countries if you're using the same standard across the board, for example: (United States of) America & (Federal Republic of) Germany - union & federation describe the same type of national setup i.e. states. Shortening the name of your own country because every native gets the reference is also pretty common: 'The United States' & 'die Bundesrebublik' (german again)
Commenting from Sweden here. As for other countries besides America also having "states", I would say this is not really the case. All countries have regional entities - parts of the country - that are typically called "regions", "counties" etc., but the word "state" usually corresponds to a separate country with a national Government. For example, in Sweden, Germany etc., "state owned" means "Government owned". Like the postal services or the national military forces. In Sweden, U.S. states are referred to in Swedish as "delstater", literally meaning "part states" or "co-states". Because they are "joint states" belonging to a bigger structure. But, to wrap it up, in almost every other country besides the U.S., a state is the same as the national Government. A major difference is also that countries that make up one state have the same laws throughout the entire country, unlike the U.S. where the laws can vary between different states.
The number of states being 51 eventually could come from the popularity of the movie "51th state" with Samuel L. Jackson from 2001 which was really funny.
There are two reason - I think - why people say 51: 1. 50 seems to be too much easy (for the same reason a lot of Italians say that Italy has 21 regions instead of 20, the funny thing is that most of the people who answers 21 can name every region) 2. The District of Columbia.
We in school never really focussed on the exact number, but we were alluded to believe that DC and Puerto-Rico had full statehood. And if they don't yet, shame on you US. Also, American Politics are so in your face, that the whole world knows about the president in office. Surprised to hear you'd think that's hard.
In almost every country in Europe it is common to learn at least one other language. For most countries it is english - the kids start to learn it in most school systems starting at 10 years old. But especially in the smaller countries it is common that kids learn more than english - but also the languages of the surrounding countries. Thinking of the balcan states. And there are also quite a few kids - especially in the bigger nations - who learn english, french and/or spanish, and/or italian. If you meet foreign students at university - in my case especially at the universities in Munich - it is very common that the students speak their native language. Plus (german), english, plus spanish, plus french - and often even some more. If they grew up in eastern europe even russian comes into "the mix". In Germany - if you have the degree (Abitur) to go to university - two languages are necessary. For most kids starting with english - then either french or spanish. In regions not far from the border to another country - like france - they start teaching the "second language" even to kids in the "Kindergarten". Starting at age 3 to 4. Those are towns often situated a short walk (!) from France (and other neighbouring countries) - and growing up "bilingual" is a thing most kids could cope with ease. You wouldn't be able to "detect" any accent - besides the local ones. A kid born for instance in Saarbrücken would have a distinctive german accent - different to one kid born and raised for instance in Freiburg im Breisgau. Both "native speakers" of german - but you get the hang of where they grew up like the types of "slang" (accent) in the south, the new england states, the midwest and west coast. But knowing the differences - it even helps in adding further languages later in life. So - I guess - english is the "second language" spoken by most people on earth. With language comes knowledge ...
52 is a strange phenomenon. People might remember wrong from their time in school. Until a while ago I could have sworn that I learned 52 in school as well.
I got Sacramento right because I worked for a season at a ski resort in California and some friends went to concerts at the ARCO Arena. plus, it's also the hometown of one of my favorite bands (Hella)
I guess the 52s comes from mixing "shipping lower 48" which you see a lot when shopping internationally and it being 50 states. They know 50 and think they have to add 2.
"Some of the people don t speak english as a first language" well exactly none of them.
They ARE however , taught English from VERY early , so in general speak English extremely well .
@@johncunningham4820 idk man, I'm European and i haven't started learning English until i was 18
@@prince.rastislav I've started at 30......
@@johncunningham4820 I've started at 13 but it was just basics. I've learned more by watching TV.
@@Yoonji9212 where are u from i ve started learning in first grade as everybody in cz
First US american to realize that these people do this in a foreign language. Very smart. 👍
Of course we know Abraham Lincoln in Europe…. He is a famous Vampire Slayer.😂
That's what he became when he stopped killing Zombies.
Yes, like the Underworld movie series 🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Ahh yes...Abraham 'Buffy' Lincoln.
Hell yeah
I wonder how many Americans could answer these questions... But in a second language such as Italian, French, Slovenian or Czech?
Way less than 1% . Americans tend to think the Entire World revolves about them .
as we seen they would struggle to answer the same six question (eg.: for their own country in their own language), knowing a foreign language and knowing any of these for a different country, maybe a few percent could even try.
if only they knew the answers...as US people...
It would seem some Americans don't realise some people's primary language was Spanish long before where they live was part of the US.
@@grahvis. Yeah , the Spanish were in the Americas way before the Brits .
They CERTAINLY influenced the Southern Continent , but not so much Territorial Northerners .
The education in Europe is not living in it's own bubble. Also we do interact more with foreigners and visit other countries. I'd imagine the number of countries an average person visits during lifetime is much higher in Europe than in the US.
In the US you can travel thousands of miles to 50 states w/o leaving the country, how cool is that ?
@@altblechasyl_cs2093 not much. You can easily travel within EU even without a passport, no visa, no border control, just your local ID card is enough, pretty much the same way as traveling through USA. But you can enjoy far greater variety in culture, food, sights, architecture, landscape on smaller space.
@@altblechasyl_cs2093isnt it boring?
@@altblechasyl_cs2093 You can travel from canada to chile, and only experience 4 main languages.
Come to rural europe and strugle in each step to someone speak any language beside the local language. How many languages and dialects europe has? The experience are not measure it in miles. Its actualy measure it in deep split ethnic diversity.
1 car driving hour per totaly diferent ethnick, and their rules...
@ricardoxavier827 Anglais ? Espanol ? What else ?
12:30 There are so many of those reruns of "The A-Team" on TV in Europe that it's really hard not to remember the brand of their van...
i love it when a plan comes together!
And the Fall guy too.
Well, I think they've only ever shown the Neeson movie on Finnish free-to-view channels, so there's that.
Every day, Americans arrive at Anchorage International Airport in Alaska and ask where they can exchange US dollars for the local currency. If you don't believe it, just ask the staff there.
Is it treated as a domestic flight or do you need a passport in case you get diverted to Canada?
@@thel8815 I see reading comprehension is hard for you huh?
@@Phiyedough You would not be able to leave the plane in Canada, those US foreigners are probably going to be interned into a refugee camp, and be exchanged at a later date for Alaska.
@@burnyboi if they go to alaska in a boeing made in USA plane, they are lucky to reach there with all doors of the plaine closed. ;)
@@ricardoxavier827 Lmao that guy deleted his comment XD
The current president one is probably not as hard as you expect considering even our local news constantly report about US politics.
Slovenian here. 👋 Us Europeans are much more plugged into American politics than you might think.
It's not uncommon know somebody here who talks (and knows) more about US politics than their own.
Is this a (very good) pun aimed at Melania? 🤣 'plugged' wink wink
@@miroz5824 It's not, but now I can't unsee it. 😅
@@morskakumara1003 Is there a high-five emoji that I can use? :DD Good one brate/sestra :)
its more or less like reality show tbh, and no one takes it seriously.
The answers of 51 and 52 include Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
yes because we think logically and wouldn't snubb them i personally would also add the other territories . my answer would be "50 but should be 53"
@@reddevilben2112 If we're including all US overseas territories the answer would be 65.
Are you sure the 51st and 52nd aren't Denial and Paranoia?
52 would have been my first answer as well because of this.
@@Korrihor butbutbut, Denial is a river in Egypt!
OK, I show myself out... ^^
Whilst there seems to be an element of surprise that Europeans are able to articulate a world view on things, you really have to wonder what goes on the US school system that seemingly leaves a lot of America's floundering with the most basic grasp of the world that surrounds them.
It's not only the school system. It's a lack of news coverage. And some kind of protectionism when it comes to foreign media (no matter if fiction or non-fiction).
Better education would mean that republicans would have no chance to win elections, so if half of your politicians dont want public education to be better then it wont be. Trump said that he will cut funding to schools that teach about USA being built on stolen land and about slavery, they just hate education and they want to rise another generation of blind nationalists.
It's fun to see what you'd consider easy or hard.
State capitals are really tough tho becaause in so many cases it's none of the obvious big ones. So knowing big cities in a state, which is already relatively impressive, might not help you getting lucky.
Indeed, just look up how Americans answers those questions
for sure .. can honestly say i probably cant name all out of the blue even as a European .. my knowledge on US capitals r even worse
but as Ian say naming capitols of Europe as an merican in a random European language would be to go overboard, it would need to be in a common language of US .. most Europeans speak atleast two languages, and alot atleast three, and some alot more .. asking a merican to answer in an unknown language would be unfair ..
Dude I just googled Capital of Florida. What is is Talahassee? Where is it? :D
@@sorin_channel Tallahassee is the capital city of the state of Florida in the United States. It is located in the northern part of the state, in the Florida Panhandle region. The city is situated approximately 20 miles (32 km) east of the Gulf of Mexico.
Tallahassee serves as the political and administrative center of Florida and is home to several key government buildings, including the Florida State Capitol. It is also known for being a hub for higher education, as it is the location of Florida State University (FSU) and Florida A&M University (FAMU).
Latitude: 30.4383° N
Longitude: 84.2807° W
@@Patrik6920 Thank you, Chat GPT.
I imagine schools innEurope would teach world geography and world history. In Aussie schools, we certainly knew these things from about sixth grade upwards. The same can’t be said for American schools, their knowledge is limited to the US, and these days, even that is asking a lot!
We have loads of young Australians passing through London and you can enjoy a perfectly normal conversation with them but with young Americans you immediately hit a brick wall of ignorance.
They do, i remember, i have history of the creation of the usa on history class in high school.
From the first grade here in Denmark we have world geografi and history and they start having english and I think German to now I think
In Sweden from what I remember from the early 2000s we had history in general from around grade 2 or 3 with general basic world history up to grade 6, then more in-depth Swedish history from grade 6-9. In-depth US history appears more in grade 10-13 (Gymnasium). Though we also have Religionskunskap* for most of our school years as well, and that usually incorporates some world history since Religion and History tends to be highly relevant to each other in most cultures.
*Literal translation "Knowledge of Religions", encompasses the 3 major Abrahamic Religions, Buddhism, Hinduism and some smaller ancient as well as more modern Religions like Wicca and Heliolatric cultures.
Certainly in the UK we start world history and geography from junior school. I also went to school in South Africa, and possibly being part of the former British Empire meant there was more of world view. We definitely learned the history of Australia, the formation of the United States & civil war, Russia and the Soviet Union, India and the Scramble for Africa. I meet older people from Jamaica who have a similarly thorough education, and interestingly, a better standard of English than many people in England.
regarding the 51/52 states answer.. from my german brain i think those who answer it wrong believe that alaska and hawaii is not included within the 50 caus they are somewhat "detached" from what appears to be the USA when you look at the map... as in "theres 50 states on the connected landmass but wait there were the two others"
i know that doesnt make a lot of sense but i try to think and explain the answer through their brains :D
The actual reason is much simpler. Because a regular deck of cards have 52 it somehow often gets confused with that.
I do wonder how often all the flags are revised though. Because Hawaii wasn't technically a state before 1959.
@@AltCutTV Well that might well be "the actual answer" in some of the cases.. But I dont think its all that common. Anyway, its not even close to all cases, and quite possibly the minority. In Sweden for example, we were taught US had 52 states, because they included for example Puerto Rico in that.
@@GoldenCroc I thought for a long time it was 51 because of hawaii and that they probably don't change flag everytime they add new state. But I was wrong, they do change their flag :D
@@Miccielly Exactly right, we were taught they just didnt change the flag after including the other ones, which seemed to make more sense than changing it. Considering most famous flags of countries were I am from are unchanged for hundred of years, changing it more often than, or even at all, seemed ludicrous.
Alaskans call them "The lower 48", what do you think why ?
Geography questions should be easy for EU citizens as it's really taught a lot in schools. For exemple they made us learn all countries and all capitals of the world for one test, and then asked us randomly 100 of them. 50 countries and their 50 capitals. And that was like when I was 13 or something
Yeah and you probably learnd those exactly for that one test and then immediatly moved on to the next thing for the next test and never heared about most of those countries ever again.
@@monkeyboy275bobo8 Well yeah. Like everything you learn in school. Do you remember the math formulas, the whole story of all books they made you read? Probably not. But you still retain chunks. While I can't sit down and recite the countries by heart, there is a pretty good chance if you bring it up I can give you the capital and roughly place it on the map. People with better memory will do even better.
One thing to note that those kind of shows are usually shot during weekday when majority of people work and not roam streets. I remember a few years ago when shows like this were popular and they usually picked strange people who knew nearly nothing.
Yeah, in high school they made us memorize all countries and capitals, and to show them on the map. This was over 15 years ago for me, and yet I still remember some of the more obscure/funny ones.
Yep, got that in my country too.
⏩⏩⏩One other thing that is noticable about Europeans VS Americans in these kind of tests on YT, Europeans actually understand the questions...🤣🤣🤣
5:09 'Alaska' is an adaptation of the slavic word 'Aljáska' (which is pronounced the way she pronounced it). The slavic word was in turn derived from the native word, 'alaxsxaq'.
In Czech it's Aljaška and we read it with "i" Alijaška, so years ago when i started to hear how it's in english, it sounded weird to me - not soft and fluent, like if its wrong.
The Slavic (Russian) word is Alyashka for the English speakers (the j is a y).
@@jrjrjrjrjrjrjr But English speakers would just say 'Alaska' because that's the English name for it.
I think a lot of Europeans think of Lincoln more than Washington, because of his iconic looks which has been parodied a lot over the years.
Yeah. I'm Finnish, I actually only know it's Washington because I played the video game Assassin's Creed 3, otherwise I would also have thought it's Lincoln.
I think most Europeans know both Washington and Lincoln but might not always know who came first or was the earliest of the two but know that Lincoln was one of the relatively earlier ones.
Might it be he was the president after the civil war.
@@seanscanlon9067 I was like Its either Washington or Lincon i am not sure haha
Popular joke at the moment is 'do you know what is bordering of stupid?' - Mexico and Canada.
It's "bordering on". But yeah, that is a funny joke.
Please explain...
Popular among communists, maybe, but not among rational people.
Good one!
@@edonveil9887 Don't .. please don't ask that question .. please..
I think many people say 52 states because they know there are 50 states but in last second cross their mind "oh, and Hawaii and Alaska so it is 52".
As a European. I know about the “Lower 48” 😂
yes, same went through my head :)
@@muchtarka Some places teach that DC and Puerto Rico are included, making it 52.
@@GoldenCroc In that case those places didn't do a good job at teaching because the answer is obviously not 52.
@@Glotttis well, yeah. "Close enough" is was the thinking, I guess.
funny thing is most people in europe would more likely know the name of the president of the US than a president of some country in europe because of how out there the US politics and media are.
Thats so true!
Bombarded in the news with the crazy landscape of US politics. Specially when is voting time.
@@J8922-o4vyes and same UK😅😅😅this royal family......
12:20 my man probably just watched A-Team with Mr T like we all did as kids :D
51 - District of Columbia, 52 - Puerto Rico
These are the most commonly mistaken districts.
I love how respectful and open you are. Very refreshing. Hope you're having a good day and wish you success with your video(s)!
I think he actually meant GMC. They established their name back with the A-Team 😁 and their vans are still a thing onto themselves, even in Europe
Yes, in the rare case that you see a GMC van around here, most of the time it's even painted like the A-Team van.
Yeah, they somehow managed to make a van look cool and muscular.
Which is surprising because those old gas guzzling V8's are definitely not economic to drive.
I think many non-Americans have in the back of their minds somewhere that the US has 50 states, yet many are also aware or vaguely aware that Alaska and Hawaii were later added to make up that 50, but perhaps some people add those one or two that are already included and get 51 or 52.
When i was in school like 30 years ago the teachers said there was 52 states...
I have a feeling we learned that too but I've no idea why. We actually did more on south America, particularly Brasil.
Some places teach that DC and Puerto Rico are included, making it 52
The Joke is on the US. You have, for some reason, tendency to have capital being some random small hole in the ground. Recently I learned that Vegas is not capital of Nevada, instead it's some 60k people city I have forgotten again.
Carson City.
Btw. Did you know that in Czech (and presumably other languages) we have different spelling (names) for some US states? We have Aljaška, Severní Karolína, Jižní Karolína, Kalifornie, Severní and Jižní Dakota (obviously), Havaj, Georgie, Nové Mexiko, Pensylvánie, Virginie and Západní Virginie. Could be fun for you to try to pronounce those :-D if other languages have them too.
@@Phiyedough Thanks :-D
which is actually smart, to detach the political ccity from the main one. here in italy we have all the politics in Roma and how i wish this were in a different place, leaving room for the locals and the tourists to chill instead of having to stand all the protests, the blue sirens and the suits moving around the historical monuments
@@AtrolinK I dont think, that if switched capital to (imaginary) city of Tagilatele with 50 k inhabitants, that all the protesting would suddenly happened there :-D
Why are not Russia considered a boardering country? Alaska with the Diomede islands surely is border.
Most US Americans probably prefer to keep that fact buried deep in their minds.
A little water in between?
and Cuba !
@@ktadesse But only a little, really. Less than 2.5 miles between the Diomede islands, to be precise.
For comparison, the Mississippi is up to 11 miles wide in places and is not seriously perceived as something that effectively separates parts of the US from each other.
@@marcromain64It's a river, mate
Atlanta is the capital of Georgia.
Boston is the capital of Massachusetts.
Boise is the capital of Idaho.
Denver is the capital of Colorado.
Oklahoma City is the capital of Oklahoma.
Salt Lake City is the capital of Utah.
But yes, most of the time you are right that the capital is not the biggest city.
In Germany, most of the time the largest city is the state capital, with exceptions:
Schwerin is the capital of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, but Rostock is the largest city.
Düsseldorf is the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, but Cologne is the largest city.
Wiesbaden is the capital of Hesse, but Frankfurt is the largest city.
Dresden is the capital of Saxony, but Leipzig is the largest city.
Oh, I knew all the answers, including that Sacramento is the capital of California.
I knew that one, too, but I've also been to California. Although I think I new before.
There are actually 17 US capitals that are also largest cities in the state, the rest of them are:
Arizona - Phoenix
Arkansas - Little Rock
Hawaii - Honolulu
Indiana - Indianapolis
Iowa - Des Moines
Mississippi - Jackson
Ohio - Columbus
Rhode Island - Providence
Tennessee - Nashville
West Virginia - Charleston
Wyoming - Cheyenne
There was a movie called "The 51st State" maybe that's where they're getting it from...
I think we learned that USA has 50 states plus District of Columbia
I would have guessed ppl thought of alaska and Hawaii there.
Some places teach that DC and Puerto Rico are included, making it 52. This could be why. The title of that movie is unlikely to influence much. It would be extremely unlikely to show up like this .
This was the reason I thought it was 51 back in the day that movie came out
The answer is much simpler: European schools (and books) used to teach that there are 51 or 52 US states. I. e. this what they have learnt at school, so the answers are kind of correct.
In Hungary, the waterwork guys in the village of Juta (I live in Hetes, that's the next village to the west (Somogy County) have and old (might be '70s-'80s) GMC truck with a water tank.
The challenge in Hungary would be finding people willing to admit that they speak English!
@@Phiyedough True. :D
Fun fact: Did you know that the Northern border of Mexico has a almost identical shape as the Southern border of the U.S. 😉
Is there overlap, or is there so e no mans land then? 😆
😂😂😂😂
@@Mus.Anonymousebecause it is same border
@@Ryuuoo_ I know, but if it’s not exactly the same, there’s either overlap or a piece of no mans land in between. (Or a micro state like Andorra)
wtf 😂
6/6 for me 🎉
and I also understand why many answered 52 States
- Puerto Rico and D.C
It has been up in the news, here in Europe, that there have been attempts to try to get both accepted, into the USA
hello from Denmark 🌸
No I think chances are higher they were thinking of Alaska and Hawaii. But in the end it doesn't matter as those answers were wrong.
They are part of the US, they're just not states
I have never heard about this addition, I have thought that it is been 52 always.
I wonder if there's a video asking random Americans the same question. I have seen one where US college students don't know how many US states there are.
Yes there are, and many Americans don't know *their own* vice-president's name.
I’ve seen where college students didn’t even know about the war of independence. I didn’t even know how many states there were.
@@DameMitHermelinSeriously doubt that’s true
+ in a foreign languages.
@@randomvids2837 well, the same people were asked on what day was the 4th of July, and were helpless. XD
I would swear that we learned that the 51st states is District of Columbia. I am from Czechia and far from school :D
👋Myslím že nám taky něco takového říkali
There is definitely a reason, I seem to remember thinking it was 51 some years ago.
At least these are actually random people in Ljubljana. The one with Europeans answering questions that most RUclipsrs react to is from an Erasmus conference, which kind of per definition does't make them random or average.
50 plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico.
I am in my mid 30s and even if I forget some stuff from school, I still try to inform myself about different stuff from around the world. I think it is very important to be informed about the world.
I wish more people did this. A lot of people you find in RUclips comments believe they are right and have no curiosity to find out true facts. Only yesterday the comment "I have never heard of this [therefore you must be making it up]".
In Belgium we had an assembly factory for Opel cars, which had "General Motors Continental" on top in big letters. My father used to refer to General Motors as "GMC" because that's what it said on the front of the big army trucks he drove at the end of WWII. The full name is, after all, "General Motors Company".
Those questions are fairly easy for an educated citizen, even the Sacramento one. If you choose random ordinary people in the street who are able to speak English, as you said, there are chances that they're well aware of United Kingdom or United States culture, including geography and history, even politics. If it were a recent video, the Trump/Kamala fight has been all days in all TV station for 2 months at least, even here in Europe.
You sure have some high demands or expectations for what an "educated citizen" is, if you include sacramento being in it. I would wager quite a bit less than 1% of europeans knowing that. For college or university educated ones, perhaps 10%.
I think there is a bias in the candidate selection, as all those people speak English aaand speaking it is really correlated with education level and exposition to British and American cultures. The sample is definitely not representative of the overall European population (or the population of the countries they are from).
@@noefillon1749 For sure. Like that older woman speaking near fluent English. What are the chances? I'd say less than 0.001% of people in that age group even know the basics of English in former Eastern block countries.
@@Glotttis Oh really ?! This few ?! I mean I'm French and my French grand parents don't know a word of English ofc, but most people with some higher education (bachelor or more) know some English, even among the older ones, so may be 5 or 10% or smth like that.
Love to watch your video's! You really try to spread knowledge and connect people in a positive way!
Had a perfect score until the California capital question, I thought that it was Los Angeles as well ahah
Aljaška is what its called in slavic languages (at least czech and slovakian). Originally it used to be a russian land afaik. Alaska is english version of the original, its not really an english word/name. Right?
It's originally from the Aleut language.
Alaska was named Аляска ("alyaska") when it was part of the Russian Empire. It was purchased by the United States in 1867 although it didn't become a state until 1959.
@@nbartlett6538 exactly... Aljaška is the same word/sound just Czech/Slovak way of writing it.
As a Dutchman I can't let it slide that the girl named Shell as an American company 😂 it started as a Dutch/British company
It still is - headquarters is in London
Some confusion about the number of American states might come from frequently hearing about the lower 48 or the continental 49. So, if you are not paying attention, you might associate 48 or 49 with the United States. Ditto in the other direction, people might remember the number 50 but then think they need to add Alaska and/or Hawaii to that.
Lincoln's figure also highlights the fact that he was almost 3 meters tall 🤣🤣🤣
Including the stovepipe hat? Easily 😛
7:05 ...the Indian woman.
Man, you made me spill my coffee! 🤣
Dane here, got all right except for the Capital of California.
Got all right, but only thanks to the serie The Mentalist, where the federal cops are based in the state capital. ^^
I was surprised that so many mentioned GM but no one mentioned Ford
There were rumors going round at some time, that there are more states than stars, because 1 or 2 were added after the flag was designed. Even I thought so - but well. Everybody in this world know the leaders of the US and Russia. The vice president is much more tricky. Most Europeans know also their own president, but that's it. Some leaders are not even presidents but something else, like in San Marino they have two captains if I'm not mistaken.
I mean knowing russian "prezident" (more like tzar) is, considering how long he s got power, and then UK, France are quite eazy. (nobody know german president :D )
Dude...i sooooo overlooked the second language part....that makes it way more cool!
I wouldn't be sure but I'd say either Lincoln or Washington, because they're just the most famous (I never liked history class in school, but I was generally solid at it still
fun fact about Croatia, our history class had a unique style of curriculum. We have it as a mandatory class from 5th grade of elementary to 8th grade (we have no middle school) and some high schools also have it (this would then be from 1st grade to 4th grade). The way the curriculum has it is based on periods of history, first year of history we learn from the beginning of man all the way up to the 7th century AD (the time when Slavs settled in the area now known as Croatia). Then 2nd year we learn from where we left off through the middle ages all the way up to around when America was discovered. Third year we learn from where we left off up to the 20th century. Fourth year is just the 20th and 21st century
however the curriculum has us doing 1 period in world history then usually a test, followed by that same period but what happened in Croatia as the second test (example: middle ages in Europe and Asia, then middle ages in Croatia)
Our history class is also super vast, to the point that some teachers require you to know stuff that are more fitting other subjects (literature, music, chemistry, biology, physics)
Renaissance, for example, is etched in my brain as I had to learn it in 4 different subjects while looking at different perspectives.
GMC Trucks are world wide. Especially here in Australia. Great Truck
World wide perhaps, but hardly any in europe, making his observation correct.
All Europeans know their geography, it is teached in the school.
yes because everyone listens in school lol
We are also usually taught English, so we should know that it is taught and not teached.
That is a bulls*it statement, and you know it! There are plenty of Europeans who don't know a lot of things, no matter if we had it in school or not. Just because you have a subject in school that doesn't mean you are going to know it by heart for the rest of your life. If you are not interested, you will forget it quickly.
@@Bronzescorpion I knew it was wrong but I was lazy to check the spelling so I took the shortcut.
They eat cats and dogs in Springfield 😂. And you guessed it right, Europe is better educated.
You can sometimes see GMCs in Czech as well :)
Lot of people say 51 bcs , District of Columbia :)
Nice Video. You get results like these when education is accessible to everyone, when news not determined by media moguls and church and state are separated. At least that's what I assumed when I heard that certain books were banned in some states.
The US are so influential and news and data about them are on every media every day to some extent; so some basic notions enter your mind without you even noticing it. It's not a matter of better or worse education.
True, if the questions were about Japan or Chile we would do way worse (at least I would).
Yes, you were right, we Europeans pretty much consume more American media than other European content mostly because of the English language and the internet being mostly an English environment, almost everyone knows English, due to that, British content also is more common than other European languages. The geography is way easier in the Americas of course and overall we have more international history and geography in the education system.
I knew all answers. Dutch TV news has a US related item at least every other day.
Oddly enough, at least in Italy, the news gave a lot of space to the american elections. Kamala was originally presented as the vice president of Biden when she candidated replacing him
Pretty good result, and I would say that if I asked the same questions from some random people here in my neighbourhood in Finland the result would be about the same. I new them all, but don't ask me how I new Sacramento, because I don't know most US state capitals.
My theory about 51 and 52 states is that some might not count Alaska and/or Hawaii in 50.
Many Americans don't seem to understand how much who the president of the USA is affects the rest of the world, so of course many of us are interested in who is the US president. And many know Kamala Harris because she was a presidential candidate. "Fun" fact how much people dislike Trump in Europe: according to a poll, over 90% of the Finns would have voted for Harris.
Some places teach that DC and Puerto Rico are included, making it 52
I like your educational tone, you sound like a teacher! Love from Spain. :)
51 possibly from District of Columbia?
Likely, or Puerto Rico.
9:38 I didn't even know there are such things as a "capitals of states".
That's were they have their state governments. ;)
Apart from Sacramento I knew the answers. In Europe very often the biggest city is the capital but obviously not always. I did not it wasn't LA but I didn't know the name of the capital.
I think a big reason as to why people know your president and often other politicians too is because the US is very active internationally and their politics affect all of us too. If Biden wants war with Russia, he will use military bases close to Russia and Russia will attack these first. You won't have war in your home land- but we might.
Your political decision affect us and everyone on this globe so much more than you are aware of. People don't just make fun of Trump, they are worried for women in the US, for children, for poor and sick people and for themselves, for the Ukraine, for so many things.
"capital of california", I immediately thought "sacramento???" and then "corrected" myself, telling myself Sacramento is in Florida XD
She said Aljaška, that is how we call Alaska 🙂
where ; in china?
@@Ge0rGi. Not yet
2:30 There's 50 states, but it's commonly confused as 51 or 52 because of Washington DC, which can not acquire statehood and territories like Puerto Rico that belong to the US but isn't acknowledged as a state. Though, you did mention as much literally right after where I paused, oops.
4:24 Question is wrong already. There are 3 countries bordering the US, not 2.
USA shares a border with Russia as well (no international waters between the 2 at some points)
It's more than three. Like the British Virgin Islands.
These are all no land borders. I guess they mean this variant.
2 land borders and 23 maritime borders... even Venezuela 😅
@@altblechasyl_cs2093 It's possible to cross the border between Russia and USA by ice during the winter.
@Miitaaal yes, but thats no land border anyway...
Would've got a perfect score, greetings from Finland.
The USA was founded by Europeans, of course we Europeans are interested in how the US develops.
Does the average American even remotely care what happens in Liberia?
@@to_loww Neither in Liberia nor in its own country.
I bet many think 52 state's and that Alaska and Hawaii are 51st and 52nd
They count Puerto Rica
Poaibly pouerto rici
@matsv201 right
On the other hand in The Atherton Tablelands, Far North Queensland where I live we have an Italian taxi driver who hasn't been in a Australia very long. He recently had a conversation while he was driving me to a nearby town. In general Aussies are friendly people who will talk to anyone. Our taxi and Uber drivers love it if you sit in the front seat next to them. Back to my story. Even though he's Italian, he didn't know where Finland was or that it's part of Europe. I started telling him about meeting a distant cousin and her husband. He asked me where Finland was. My grandma on my mum's side of the family was Finnish. Her family immigrated during WWI. Great grandpa was a blue-eyed blonde Fin. Great grandma was a Russian of Mongolian descent. Grandma's eyes were blue with her mum's almond shaped eyes. With auburn (brownish red) hair.
For comparison, US citizens would have to be asked and answer in a foreign language…
What you haven‘t consider, though, is that asking only Europeans fluent and confident enough in English to even participate on camera is selecting a well-educated, young part of the population.
They usually have a much wider lens and have interests in developments outside their own country
Nonsense Ive travelled a lot in Europe and most speak English from media coverage.
Myself I can speak Italian and can understand French Portuguese, just by my location on the Globe. If you go to Asia they also have a grasp on English.
There was also a couple of "not so young generation" people in the video. There are a lot of people in their 50-60s who speak English. It is not that usual as in younger generation, but still, older people who speak English exist 😊.
@@MissSlovakia2 my mother is 74 and speaks English fluently.
However, her generation generally speaks worse English, and is less willing to do so.
@lynnm6413 my mom is 63 and she learnt Russian at school, they can't choose any other language back in the day. Later she started to learn a bit German. English was too much for her. And my grandma could not attend more than 4 grades in the primary school, because of her life circumstances. So, you are partially correct, but there are also other things, not just the will to learn.
@@MissSlovakia2 In the Netherlands people of my generation (Late 50s) had English, French and German in school. The level they have retained over the years varies of course.
The front of the $5 bill shows a portrait of Lincoln. That's why he's so known outside US!
In Norway many was sure there was 52 states in USA, we even learned it in school, not sure how that happened, its strange.
I‘m German and I could swear we learned 51 states…we even had to be able to fill in a blank map with the state names just by identity shapes…is it possibly D.C. counted as a seperate state?
When it started there were only 13 states.
Some places teach that DC and Puerto Rico are included, making it 52. LIkely that could include Norway, since thats what they did in Sweden.
Once watched two drunk men having a fierce argument about birmingham,on was talking about birmingham,alabama,the other about birmingham england, very amusing😅
I believe, Europeans in particular (I am one) saying 52 is because they think it 50 in the mainland + Alaska and Hawaii. While its actually 48 + 2
I say that because most European don’t even think of Puerto or any of their overseas territories
Some places teach that DC and Puerto Rico are included, making it 52
I was more about the movie "The 51st state"
I also learned about the 52 “states” at school, but it was always noted that this was also the case with the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. I have to note that back then (I went to school in the 70s and 80s) I learned a lot about the whole world in geography lessons. Including the USA, the Soviet Union (which still existed back then), of course Europe, South and Central America, Oceania, etc. And we were taught a lot more than how many states the USA has, or the capital of any country. In Austria at that time, geography lessons were intertwined with history lessons. But I have to admit that this has changed a lot. My son, for example, who went to school in the early 2000s, learned all of this much more superficially, but also has subjects that didn't exist at my time (e.g. basic IT knowledge).
12:00 Shell is not American, it is a Dutch company!
It is a merger between a dutch and british company. Hence the still even so confusing name.
There is one GMC, that possibly every European kid knows: Sgt. B.A. Baracus Vandura.
Might…..there are mushrooms growing in the arse end of nowhere …who know more than Americans
1:44 to be fair, "it's in the name" applies to almost all countries if you're using the same standard across the board, for example: (United States of) America & (Federal Republic of) Germany - union & federation describe the same type of national setup i.e. states. Shortening the name of your own country because every native gets the reference is also pretty common: 'The United States' & 'die Bundesrebublik' (german again)
Commenting from Sweden here. As for other countries besides America also having "states", I would say this is not really the case. All countries have regional entities - parts of the country - that are typically called "regions", "counties" etc., but the word "state" usually corresponds to a separate country with a national Government.
For example, in Sweden, Germany etc., "state owned" means "Government owned". Like the postal services or the national military forces.
In Sweden, U.S. states are referred to in Swedish as "delstater", literally meaning "part states" or "co-states". Because they are "joint states" belonging to a bigger structure.
But, to wrap it up, in almost every other country besides the U.S., a state is the same as the national Government.
A major difference is also that countries that make up one state have the same laws throughout the entire country, unlike the U.S. where the laws can vary between different states.
The number of states being 51 eventually could come from the popularity of the movie "51th state" with Samuel L. Jackson from 2001 which was really funny.
Everyone remembers seeing that bright red GMC logo on the front of the A-Team van, when they were kids. 😂
There are two reason - I think - why people say 51: 1. 50 seems to be too much easy (for the same reason a lot of Italians say that Italy has 21 regions instead of 20, the funny thing is that most of the people who answers 21 can name every region) 2. The District of Columbia.
It is because of that simpsons gag where grandpa Abe is in flashback and is grumpy about america having different number of stars.
We in school never really focussed on the exact number, but we were alluded to believe that DC and Puerto-Rico had full statehood. And if they don't yet, shame on you US.
Also, American Politics are so in your face, that the whole world knows about the president in office. Surprised to hear you'd think that's hard.
Of course we do know Abraham Lincoln, aka Honest Abe, who in the end made an end to slavery in the USA
In almost every country in Europe it is common to learn at least one other language.
For most countries it is english - the kids start to learn it in most school systems starting at 10 years old.
But especially in the smaller countries it is common that kids learn more than english - but also the languages of the surrounding countries.
Thinking of the balcan states.
And there are also quite a few kids - especially in the bigger nations - who learn english, french and/or spanish, and/or italian.
If you meet foreign students at university - in my case especially at the universities in Munich - it is very common that the students speak their native language.
Plus (german), english, plus spanish, plus french - and often even some more.
If they grew up in eastern europe even russian comes into "the mix".
In Germany - if you have the degree (Abitur) to go to university - two languages are necessary.
For most kids starting with english - then either french or spanish.
In regions not far from the border to another country - like france - they start teaching the "second language" even to kids in the "Kindergarten".
Starting at age 3 to 4.
Those are towns often situated a short walk (!) from France (and other neighbouring countries) - and growing up "bilingual" is a thing most kids could cope with ease.
You wouldn't be able to "detect" any accent - besides the local ones.
A kid born for instance in Saarbrücken would have a distinctive german accent - different to one kid born and raised for instance in Freiburg im Breisgau.
Both "native speakers" of german - but you get the hang of where they grew up like the types of "slang" (accent) in the south, the new england states, the midwest and west coast.
But knowing the differences - it even helps in adding further languages later in life.
So - I guess - english is the "second language" spoken by most people on earth.
With language comes knowledge ...
52 is a strange phenomenon. People might remember wrong from their time in school. Until a while ago I could have sworn that I learned 52 in school as well.
I got Sacramento right because I worked for a season at a ski resort in California and some friends went to concerts at the ARCO Arena. plus, it's also the hometown of one of my favorite bands (Hella)
I guess the 52s comes from mixing "shipping lower 48" which you see a lot when shopping internationally and it being 50 states.
They know 50 and think they have to add 2.
Got them all right!
History was always one of my favourite subjects at school, so I would probably find the history questions easier than the geography ones :D
about the US* not all of america