CHAT: American vs European educational standards

In Zompist's list of things that're typical of Americans, one point is "You
can probably not name the capitals or the leaders of all of the nations of
Europe". That's a pretty safe bet as far as Americans are concerned, but is
there any place where people are expected to know that? Among the pretty
well-educated people I meet in daily life, I'm most probably the only one
who could name the capital of Moldavia (it's Chisinau, or Russianized
Kishinyov, with variant transliterations), and even if we by Europe mean
merely EUistan, I'm afraid I'm only entirely typical in failing to recall
the name of, say, Portugal's President.

                                              Andreas

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