There are Americans whose grasp on world geography is a little shaky; possibly because so many never leave the country. I had a good example of that on Saturday when I saw a car dealership in Walnut Creek. The place was called “Cole European”, but not one of the marques on offer was from Europe. They sell Aston Martin, Jaguar, and Land Rover, all of which are built in the UK. I am sure the implication that the UK was part of Europe would be enough to cause serious distress to readers of The Daily Mail.
Geography 101
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In our defense …
We are no more wise as to local geography than we are to the geography of the lands across the seas. With the possible exceptions of Texas, California, Florida and Idaho, many of us would be hard-pressed to write the state names onto a map of our own nation.
So, it is not personal; we are generally ignorant.
[...] sorry Brit in California … Europe and the [...]
I would hope that Alaska and Hawaii would also be recognisable to the majority of Americans.
For those who wish to improve their knowledge in this area, I suggest looking at this site
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm
Which has excellent games to become familiar with the shape and location of the 50 US states.
It was announced today that Kuwait-owned Aston Martin are looking to build their cars outside the UK. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/23/naston123.xml