Stereotypes which you are qualified to verify

Hmmm... I´d argue that it may actually have been worse in the 80s. Police presence and stadium bans have had a major effect on violence in Italy. I have no real statistics to back this up though.

The age of multimedia information so to speak also tends to play things up more than was possible twenty years ago.

Funny coming from a Welshmen that, but then again the Kiwis do have something like 20 sheep per person (Australia has fewer than 10 these days) .

Most famous New Zealand invention - velcro gloves.

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84 points in the geography test.
I am so bad with all the eastern european countries.
I have to admit that.

I think i could name the capitals of most of the european countres but the capitals in the states are a bit fucked up. Who would gues Albany is the capital of New York?

The residents of New York may well guess that Albany is the capital of New York. What's weird about that? Why shouldn't it be Albany?

Reminds me of one Who wants to be a Millionaire episode in which 99% of the audience thought Melbourne or Sydney was the capital of Australia.

What's weird about that? It is the instinct of anyone outside of New York, particularly outside of the US, to assume that the capitol of New York is New York City.

Likewise, nobody in Australia could tell you if San Francisco is north or south of Los Angeles.

Btw, there's a couple radio talk show hosts in Australia who had a popular TV program during the Sydney olympics pretty much making fun of the whole olympic program. They did another show during the olympics in Salt Lake City, and at one point they had random people trying to paste city labels on a map of Australia. It was a pretty sad display.

That all Brazilians are sex manics... It's not true...

Oih... Not my fault that there was so much scenery around that i couldn't concentrate on my Rollerblading... Yep I fit into that typical Bloke stereotype

Slight exaggeration, that. I wonder how many people were in that survey.

It's only a slight exaggeration in the sense that I said "nobody" when it should indeed be "few." That was reflected in my experience when I was there, though I was actually just repeating what my hubby tells me - and he'd know better than I would.

The bigger question most people miss is that Las Vegas is further west than Los Angelos, not if LA is south of San Francisco

Isn't it weird though how people pick on others countries by highlighting how much the other country doesn't know about their own one. Not just on here - I mean in general? Like for instance that Who Wants To Be A Millionaire audience or the radio show hosts having a laugh.

I wouldn't imagine that the average Australian would give a toss what compass direction LA lies in relation to San Francisco. And on the same note why an average American would care all that much about Australia's geography.
Unless an individual has a specific interest in a country (like traveling, study or business dealings)- it's probably not all that important to the average citizen.
I don't think it means the people from any country is exactly stupid - more like they just couldn't care less and have other knowledge that's more important or interesting to their lives than foreign geography.

Of course, that was exactly my point and also why I gave examples of both Americans and Australians not knowing about the other's geography. We know what's closest to us.

depends who's inside the 3/4 length pants and high heeled shoes...

coming from a citizen of a country that used to have Bonn as the capital that's probably a bit hypocritical!!

Although I can't promise you that most Australians know whether LA is north of San Francisco or not, my impression is that most would know such things. But then again, I used to think that Australia was becoming a relatively progressive place that would never vote a fuddy duddy conservative like John Howard in. Funny how distance can change how you see your own country.

Whether they know this exact detail or not, I do think the average Australian has a vastly greater knowledge of America than the average American has of Australia. Now this is not America bashing, in that it is easily explainable by the relative size and importance of the two countries in relation to each other. Couple that with the saturation level of American TV and films (which is of course not the case with Australian TV and films in America) and I would be surprised if Australians did not have a few basic ideas (and prejudices) about America. I reckon most Australians know much more trivia about America than they do about neighbouring New Zealand, or as another example, most non-Sydneysiders know more about the different boroughs of New York than they do about Sydney.

Always good to have your geogers trivia duly memorised for the pub quiz, though, I find

@bludger

No, of course I wouldn't see that as America bashing. I totally agree. It kind of sucks being the culture in the spotlight. I always find it delightful to hear new slang from people that I've never heard before, but there's no such cute revelation about the US. Everybody knows it already. Of course, the biggest downfall is that you get lots of people who've never even been there thinking they know more about the place than they actually do.

London is the correct answer no?