Why Americans think Portugal is a Spanish province????

[Henrique Fiuza]

portugal_map2.jpg

I'm Portuguese and I love to travel, it enriches my cultural knownledge and I've been 6 times in the US. I allways came across some Americans who thinks Portugal is a province of Spain, all the six times. I really never understood why a great number of Americans thinks that way. Why, I ask.

[Supreme Warrior]

I have no idea why, I always knew Portugal was its own country.

[Milady]

I have no idea why, I always knew Portugal was its own country.

This. I've never encountered anyone who thought it was a province of Spain. Though I can't say that I'm particularly surprised that they exist.

[Cosmic]

If anyone asks, I went to the Royal Wedding. Yep.

[Pickles]

I met a group of people last year when I went over to see family that thought Spain was in South America.

Alot of parts of America (such as the one I grew up in) have an extrememly shitty geographical education system, it basically doesn't exist, so alot of Americans grow up not knowing alot of basic stuff about the world. I think maybe alot of them dont see any need to know anything outside their own glorious country.

I am of course am only sharing my opinion about a minority, and in no way believe the USA is full of people who know fuck all about the rest of the world.

[TheRealSpiders]

I have a feeling that in the six times you've been to the US you haven't met enough people to entail a "great" number of people, but that's beside the point.

Anyways, I've never met anyone who didn't know Portugal was a country. Maybe you're just running into people who did poorly in elementary geography?

[Colamisu]

Most people don't really know much outside their own sphere of influence, to be honest. See the Jaywalking segments, or any similar videos.

I know that Portugal isn't part of Spain, but I couldn't tell you the capitals of all 50 states in the US.

[Henrique Fiuza]

I'm talking about one or two situations each time I went there, besides that I've met a lot of great people, who have showed me how great and interesting US are, and changed my mind about americans. Because in the rest of the world, mostly in Europe everybody see's americans as rednecks, lobists, rapers or short minded politicals, and that's not true.

[Mistral]

portugal_map2.jpg

I'm Portuguese and I love to travel, it enriches my cultural knownledge and I've been 6 times in the US. I allways came across some Americans who thinks Portugal is a province of Spain, all the six times. I really never understood why a great number of Americans thinks that way. Why, I ask.

Don't know. Why do so many non-Americans keep calling Georgians Yankees?

Ah, seriously, it's basically just a certain matter of geographical blindness. Basically, Iberia as a whole is out of the American purview in most circumstances, so it's generally not a topic one needs to know. If anything, the most people will know about Portugal is PIIGS, and that's pretty rare in itself. It also doesn't help that American scales in an economic, geographic, and to a large degree political level (in terns of internal autonomy) all put American states on a level very close to that of European nations, so whereas a Portuguese person would be expected to know the nations of Europe and Saharan Africa, an American would equate that to American states, Canada, Mexico, and perhaps the remainder of Latin America (knowing that Brazil was Portuguese and not Spanish is worth double-bonus points).

[Gypsy]

I met a group of people last year when I went over to see family that thought Spain was in South America.

Alot of parts of America (such as the one I grew up in) have an extrememly shitty geographical education system, it basically doesn't exist, so alot of Americans grow up not knowing alot of basic stuff about the world. I think maybe alot of them dont see any need to know anything outside their own glorious country.

I am of course am only sharing my opinion about a minority, and in no way believe the USA is full of people who know fuck all about the rest of the world.

As someone who grew up in the American school system and can pretty much fill in a blank world map I support this statement. I pretty much had to teach myself and I know what I know only due to my own interest to not be a dumbshit. America is glorious tho OFC.

[Cookie Monster]

I don't know what you people are talking about, Portugal is indeed part of Spain and Spain is in South America. I thought everybody knew that

[Elin]

I don't know what you people are talking about, Portugal is indeed part of Spain and Spain is in South America. I thought everybody knew that

Next thing you know, people will be forgetting the bravery of Brazilian soldiers fighting to protect their borders from the Nazi front line during World War 2. :O

[TheRealSpiders]

Next thing you know, people will be forgetting the bravery of Brazilian soldiers fighting to protect their borders from the Nazi front line during World War 2. :O

Don't say that, it was an especially terrible time in the war. A lot of good men were lost, especially when the Nazis marched through the Himalayas.

[deadlegion]

portugal_map2.jpg

I'm Portuguese and I love to travel, it enriches my cultural knownledge and I've been 6 times in the US. I allways came across some Americans who thinks Portugal is a province of Spain, all the six times. I really never understood why a great number of Americans thinks that way. Why, I ask.

In my opinion I don't really think this problem (if it exists) of lack of education is unique to the US.......plenty of Australians are ignorant about geography and history

Some people can't be bothered or don't want to have such knowledge........they just don't care I guess

[crimsonedge]

Don't say that, it was an especially terrible time in the war. A lot of good men were lost, especially when the Nazis marched through the Himalayas.

Its called sarcasm. I thought the comment was pretty funny TBO.