Test How American You Really Are!
As promised in my last posting, here’s a simple self-assessment tool to rate yourself on your general knowledge of the world outside the United States. The fewer you get right, the more American you are, baby!
All have links so you can score yourself immediately (and get educated too—like you care, baby!).
1. Is Sweden East or West of Norway? Answer
2. Can you name the head of State for either Italy or China? Answer
3. Traveling west from Madrid, what country do you first encounter? Answer
4. Which is the most populous world religion—Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism? Answer
5. Where does the US’s biggest city (by population) rank globally? Answer
6. Have you ever heard of Shenzhen? Answer
7. In what country does Juventus compete? (bonus—in what sport?) Answer
8. Is Bangalore in the south or north of India? Answer
9. What language do they speak in Brazil? Answer
10. On what side of Australia (N, E, S, W) is Sydney? Answer
11. Is Ireland part of the United Kingdom? Answer
12. What currency is used in Belgium? Answer
13. Is Japan north or south of Vietnam? Answer
14. In which century was the country of Italy formed as a political entity? Answer
15. In which country is the United Nations headquartered? Answer
16. Which languages are spoken in Switzerland? Answer
17. Where is Catalunia? Answer
18. Where is Bosnia in relation to Poland? Answer
19. In what sport do the All-Blacks compete? Answer
20. What country lies between Iraq and Afghanistan? Answer part one and answer part two
21. Hugo Chavez—union leader, president, or owner of World Cup soccer champions? Answer
22. How many time zones are in Russia? Answer
23. Singapore is a former colony of what country? Answer
24. If you’re in The Hague, what country are you in? Answer
25. What language is spoken in Austria? Answer
OK, score time.
If you got:
20 or more: You are almost certainly a foreigner—absolutely not an American. You probably don’t know the difference between a Hoosier and a hot dog. You couldn’t tell motherhood from apple pie. You’re quite possibly a communist. We don’t like your kind around here. If you don’t like it here, go back to China and speak Japanese like the rest of them. Nuke gay whales for Jesus!
14 to 19: You may technically be an American, but clearly a lib-dem; 3 to 1 says you’re from New York, possibly San Francisco. You probably went to a private school, and you’re probably in favor of letting immigrants stomp all over our right to bear arms.
6 – 13: Wow, where’d you learn all that stuff? I mean, that’s a lot of work. Who’s got that kind of time? Don’t you think you should be spending your time more productively? It’s all well and good to travel internationally—hey I think Cancun rocks, and I even drove into Tijuana once—but you could be going to an MLB game instead, and supporting the US economy by buying American, like that Sharp TV I bought last month.
0 – 5: Congratulations, awright, you’re an American! Travel? Love it. Can you believe their accent in Buffalo? Great steaks in Dallas fer sure. I always liked the AFC teams best. We’re going overseas next summer, maybe Toronto. Or even New Mexico—do they take dollars there? Either that or a cruise to the Bahamas. Go Yew Ess Aye, Number One!
scored 17 and I’m as conservative as they come
Thanks for adding the links. I love the All-Blacks video 🙂
Actually, it seems that your test turns out to be identifying not Americans but Brits — at least among school-age children.
Shaula, that comparison is insulting to–wait a minute–lemme think–uh, who were you trying to insult?
Harold, you’re welcome–that video clip is a hoot indeed!
And anonymous, very interesting comment. To me it proves something I’ve been noticing a lot lately, e.g. at HuffingtonPost.com and other highly-trafficked places for comment.
What I’m seeing is that the convenient labels of conservative and liberal just don’t fit a lot of situations.
Though I used a sort of flippant style that one might associate with "conservative" in the US, anon. quite rightly points out that being geographically challenged is not something one political group has to the exclusion of the other. It is no surprise indeed that a "conservative" would get 17 points (heck, as Shaula points out it works the other way in spades–you don’t even have to be American to get low scores).
I notice on my own Huffington postings, and those of others, that an inordinate amount of the comments are monochramatic flames of two tones–liberal and conservative. But the issues don’t fit so neatly.
May we all be open to shades and nuances. Which of course is another good reason to travel.
Charlie – What a fun quiz. I’m practically a European, if I give myself credit for guessing that Catalunia was a fancy new spelling for Catalonia.
I’m guessing, though, that a lot of Americans would also fall down on a US-only quiz: Who’s the Chief Justice? What’s the electoral college? Name three of the five largest cities? As we have moved from citizen to citizen-as-consumer, more people probably know where WalMart is headquartered, and where the next Super Bowl will be played, than can tell you the length of a Senate term.
Good point, Maureen.
A good cross-check would be to try native-born (vs naturalized) Americans against the US citizenship exam.
Speaking of which, comparing the questions on different countries’ citizenship exams is an interesting exercise, too — it can reveal a lot about how the government defines national identity. (Here’s some sample questions from the Canadian citizenship exam for comparison.)
Years ago, I did a survey in Tokyo of Japanese perceptions and awareness of Canada (on a research scholarship from the Quebec Ministry of Education). On the whole, our respondents performed even better than we expected — with the notable exception that most people thought (circa 1991) that the current Prime Minister of Canada was Pierre Trudeau, or Bryan Adams.
(I wish Trudeau were still PM, and most of the time these days I’d even settle for Bryan Adams quite happily.)
Hmmm, Canada looks tougher, eh?
Happy Belated Independence Day and Canada Day, Charlie. (And, for that matter, last Thursday marked the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City.)
In honour of 2/3 of those events, The Globe and Mail just ran a great quiz to test your knowledge of Canadian and American History.
I thought you might have fun with it.