Re: CHAT: American vs European educational standards

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andreas Johansson [mailto:and_yo@HOTMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Tuesday, 2002 September 24 2:20
> To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
> Subject: [CONLANG] 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.
I'm not sure that that question's lack of results is an indication of
the U.S. educational standards, since I don't think I can even do the
capitols of all the _states_, which I know was presented at one point or
another.

When it comes to the European nations, I'm not sure I could successfully
(from memory, without a map) list off all the european nations, much
less their capitols.  With a map, I could probably figure it out...and
oddly, I bet the map would have the capitols on it.

The question raises a question of "is this information even relevant?"
If I need to know the capitol of someplace, I can go look it up.  Mass
memorization of facts does not an education make. :).  A better question
to be asking is: "Do you know how to find out the capitols and/or
leaders of the nations of europe?"

Unfortunately, I have bad feeling most of my ex-classmates wouldn't be
able to do that either. :).  Missouri's educational system is...limited.
:)

Iain

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