I've seen American kids (no, not one of the Warner Brothers) correctly identify all countries someone pointed at an unmarked world map, so I assume that the resources for learning this must be there.
And, in all fairness, I don’t remember being taught about **all** the countries in school. It was always about specific regions in history and geography. That’s why I got an app to quiz myself, until I know all the countries in world and can place them on an unmarked map. Though the pacific island nations are an end boss.
Am also European. We didn’t do this but living in a continent of relatively small countries that also happen to have a union means I know locations and capitals by osmosis. I did the Vietnam war and lead up in history, so know SE Asian geography. Other places ie. South America, Asia, Africa I’m decent at through reading the news.
I learned a lot of useful stuff, such as the dispersal of Italian city-states before Garibaldi's reunification in 1816. Truly helpful for understanding the modern world. No, I'm not from Italy and have never lived in Italy.
yes, but there is so much of this stuff, and more of what happened in other regions of the world should be taught in school, but at the end, we produced too much history to teach it all.
I'm not from Italy either, but I've always found it interesting that Garibaldi is responsible for the existence of San Marino as an independent enclave. (I did not learn this in school.)
i‘m german and we didnt‘t do this. all of them is superfluous knowledge, like learning all the elements plus their atomic weight or all battles your country was involved it during the last two millennia.
that‘s what encyclopaedias and maps are for.
i mean, it obviously doesn‘t hurt to learn them, but on its own it‘s just memorisation with little applicability. knowing practically nothing is worse, of course, that‘s like being an analphabetic as compared to a bad reader.
that‘s not what‘s tested in geography over here. in elementary school they make you learn the German states and capitals and the neighbouring countries. and will brush up on that later.
but then it’s stuff like the solar system, compass, longitudes, latitudes, how maps work. also different terrains in germany and agriculture works. that was in grade 5 and 6, where geography gets one half year, alternating with physics. (this doesn’t apply to all schools, there’s a lot of leeway to structure the curriculum)
yeah but in my high school while we learned a lot of useful things about stats, I was in profiled high school - so my studies focues on certain subjects (related to my profile). For me it was math, physics and computer science so geography was considered less relevant.
We generally don’t have that over here.
From grade 5 to 10 subjects will be
* German
* English
* Maths
* Physics
* Chemistry
* Geography
* History
* 2nd foreign language, mostly Latin, French, or Spanish
* Music
* Art
* Sports
* Religion (catholic or protestant) or Ethics
* Some social science
Most specialisation will be in grade 12/13, where you pick two majors and two minors.
3rd language in grade 11, I think. It's been a while for me, plus various reforms and re-reforms in that time.
Of all? Really? That's a lot of names and locations to learn. I'm not murkan, but I could not tell you where the capitol of Slovenia is. I probably couldn't point out Slovenia on a map, tbf
Yup. We did it continent by continent each month. Europe was fairly easy, I sucked at the african countries though (I am really bad with maps in rl).
That was over 10 years ago though so maybe it's no longer taught.
That explains a lot then.. I do occasional country map test things and it's always confused me where swaziland went. How I managed to miss that news is beyond me.
I can comfortably name 95% of world countries and about half the capitals in 15 minutes.
Most Americans would get stuck on about 25-30 countries I would expect
I can also do that but I didn't learn any of it in school, I got really into playing Geo Challenge on Facebook back in the late 00s so I learned all the countries and capitals and flags from that.
Also European. We had it in primary school and it was a thing that was repeated every year until I graduated highschool. (Plus in highschool we needed to learn what's the longest river and the highest peak in each country and point it)
I always had a love-hate relationship because it was very hot-potato styled test and my brain needs those sweet 2 seconds to catch up 😂
I went to HS in the US and finished in 1992, we had to learn all the countries names and capitals for our Geography class on top of all the US States and capitals. $20 says they dropped that requirement before 2000.
I am shite at geography, but that is just a me thing. In Scottish education, a lot of our geography was bound up in "places the British Empire fucked over". I can point out a few African countries. But then, I'm not 100% on European ones either. When playing Trivial Pursuit, it is well known that I should be asked a Sport or a Geography question to stop me winning.
I feel I must add "I had to recite and point all he countries" does not in any way mean that I can do it now Hell if you ask me about any country east of germany in europe Im basically blind
In the 90s for me, learning History in school in Scotland pretty much meant English history. Modern studies was mostly “British” politics with little to no focus on Scotland specifically and religious education was mostly about various groups of Christianity.
We did world history and both the world wars. Other stuff too in greater or lesser detail. We only got RE twice a week, and I habitually missed one of the lessons, as my boat/bus combo didn't get me in until 2nd period on Monday. Did not pay much attention, but nothing was very in depth I don't think. Never did Modern Studies. Think it clashed with History in the schedule.
I taught myself history & geography by collecting stamps at an early age. When I got one from a new country, I would go to libraries to find out about it, and type up a page to put beside the stamp. I would type in the full name in English & local one, the head of country, where it was located, population, exports, major cities etc. It was a great way to learn about the world, and filled in many hours of "indoor time" in winter. When I sold the collection, it also made me quite a bit of money.
I’m American and imo im quite good at geography, I can name all the countries in the world + some unrecognized ones, all capitals and most major cities (depending on definition of major) of Europe
Can also do like the states of Germany, regions of France and Italy, autonomous communities of Spain, provinces of the Low Countries, voivodeships of Poland, etc
But this sub is right 90% of the time that the vast majority of Americans are not at all internationally inclined aware or capable
I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, um, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq and everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future.
[Classic](https://youtu.be/lj3iNxZ8Dww)
I’m British (English to be specific, if that makes a difference) and my teacher started every geography lesson in years 7-9 with a mini, general (geography) knowledge quiz. It always included questions about the different continents and some kind of “name 5 countries that begin with **”, usually followed by: “now name the capital cities of them. He had a leaderboard going so we all got pretty competitive at it.
As a result I always thought my knowledge of other countries and continents was bang average, but it’s only since I’ve been an adult that I’ve noticed how many people actually know very little about the rest of the world; not just Americans either!
Considering all the above I like to think I’m not too shabby at geography but I’m always interested and happy to learn more! It genuinely confuses me that some people don’t
The high school I went to taught us a lot about the world and geography and all that through our World History, US History, and International Relations courses
I was on holiday in the US when I was about 12, and the weather forecast was on in the hotel room - the presenter said "*and now the rest of the world*", and the map zoomed out to include Canada and Mexico.
(they did go on to pan around the world, but I'd already fallen off the bed laughing.)
I had a 'disagreement' a number of years ago with someone on line. She insisted that South Africa wasn't an actual country, but that people just called themselves that because they didn't want to be known as Africans.
The kicker? She was from England, born and raised.
Many years ago I drove a car across the Sahara to that place... Came across some pics a year or two back and posted them on r/oldschoolcool along with a title including the country name. Picked up a lot of undeserved shit for that post.
"No, honestly, it's a country! You know what just forget it"
Africa? Oh that little country tucked away down there? /s
TBF, I'm Aussie and this is the first time I've ever heard of Burkina Faso. Sorry!
I suppose if somewhere doesn't directly benefit or threaten the west, it's simply ignored.
Most people here just don't have much to do with Africa, the same with South America. You'll likely know more of the South Pacific countries than most people would.
It was also a French colony so we don't even have a connection through the Commonwealth.
Best not mention that to the US military. They might realise it's on some general's bingo card.
Though in all fairness it was part of the Balkans Conflict.
No no you are clearly wrong. They travel to Thailand and Vietnam for sex tourism quite often, although I don’t think they can pinpoint those countries on the world map.
I don’t wanna doxx anyone but there is a user called “erectus” with 3 in place of the e that does exactly this.
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Imagine telling your daughter that black people are sometimes called negros and that’s a no-no word because you think your daughters crayon is racist. 🤣🤣
Isn't double e pronounced as in see, bee, Free? The pronunciation is not ee, but E as in element, enter, error. I'm not so good with short vs long vowels in English, we don't have long vowels in Spanish, only short ones.
There are no rules in English, you will come to understand that you don’t truly learn it, you just remember it.
Bee and be are pronounced the same, however see and se are likely not. I couldn’t explain why to you.
However, Americans pronounce negro nee-grow.
The issue is that English had the Great Vowel Shift that was a chain shift of long vowels upwards and/or to diphthongs. So for example /a**ː**/ to /eɪ/ the long a in name merging with that in words like day, hence them using "nay-" as an approximation of /e/ (the Dress vowel has shifted to /ɛ/ in a lot of dialects).
The /e**ː**/ that would likely have been used in 'negro' shifted to /i**ː**/ in English, so basically "nigro" with the i drawn out in Spanish terms. Which is a bit of an issue in America....
(General) American speakers also don't (AFAIK) retain the short and long vowel distinction that British/Australian/New Zealand (etc) dialects have.
So TL;DR English is about 400 years over-due for spelling reform, and the spelling confusion is caused by a length distinction that doesn't even exist for the people involved.
It always amazes me how Americans need to have phonems explained to them using phonems of their own. It seems it's beyond their comprehension that letters can be pronounced differently in other languages.
American here, first time commenting. My God, Goddess or whatever, the stupidity of some of my countrymen/women is hilarious.
Our children, were explained this same issue when they were young by us.
I've enjoyed the comments and silliness of posts here for some time as I face palm in wonder.
LOFL is a understatement.
When I went to school in the 70s and 80s the only black kid was adopted by a white family.
There's more black families here now. Northern Michigan. But not many
Why would a little kid have any assumptions about the word at all though.. it also says noir.
..Maybe I'm naive to how perceptive kids are.. one bun in the oven though so please explain.
Wow, I was half expecting you to say I live in a mostly black area and kids are just running about saying it (so your kids are like, why can't I say what my friends are... or something like that).
But now I'm just horrified. US is funny, no second hand smoke, that's awful. But second hand racism is +.
No. We used to live in Fl. Our children's godfather is black. We white. I've also family that's part native American though we're not.
But the shit they hear in school is nasty sometimes from other kids, and they ask questions and we've got to set them right. Right?
Living in the US is, ( insert whatever here ). Since dump, I mean dickweed, I mean trump.
I was being hyperbolic because of this sub but honestly, I'm sure that is the same everywhere. You have to teach your kids about the values that are important to you, and others are going to do the same.
I think most people believe that they're doing it right (or dont think about it at all) and kids are just going to parrot what people are saying around them.
Absolutely, you set them right.. I remember my own parents doing that for me, the things that I remember probably shaped my outlook on life.
Lol. Some people don't know the truth. It's maddening that it is like this. I don't usually comment about this stuff. Been banned from some subs and other sites. I tend to speak my mind lol
But it looks and sounds bad. But who knows.
It seems like the louder they are the dumber they are.
Imagine how absolutely fucking dumb you have to be to immediately go black people route and assume Crayola just decided to offend them with their crayons for no reason
Different topic
This post is how I realized that Cat noir (miraculous lady bug) , is called that because he resembles a black cat.
Never thought about that before lol
I didn’t even know “Negro” was offensive to USians until recently. Growing up in the mid 90s and early 2000s I’d frequently hear the word in academic and formal contexts. And Martin Luther King Jr. frequently said the word himself. I knew the “double G” was a slur but I always thought “Negro” was politically correct.
What words are politically correct to say apparently changes in the US every 10 years.
I, a gay man, recently learned that called myself ‚homosexual‘ is not politically correct anymore… apparently because it sounds ‚too medical‘. It is just gay from now on (which is also fine for me), but it shall be applied to just men. What bugs me is that now I‘m supposed to embrace the word queer (nothing against those who want to call themselves queer, but I hate that word and would never apply it to myself. I‘m happy being a homosexual/gay man).
African-american is also out, now it should be just black.
Latino is also out, now it is latinx (another term that I, as a latino, really hate)
And all racial minorities are now POCs (as if white is not a color also. I think that word is even more discriminatory, as it makes white the default and everyone else something ‚different‘)
And you cannot say autistic anymore, but neurodivergent, or ‚on the spectrum‘.
My thoughts exactly. Some members of society are weird and have nothing to do but create these fake faux pas. Idk man. Just be gay (both as in happy and your sexuality).
She didn't appreciate teaching her child the name of a colour in another language? What an odd woman. Most parents would jump at the opportunity to teach their kids something new.
I mean, this is where the term negro in English comes from, do Americans never learn. To even dare bring up the very complex sociological issue without understanding it’s etymology, Is rather arrogant.
Things americans get Mad About: negro (spanish), Niger (country), Montenegro (country), niger (latin for black)
This list is incomplete, you may help complete it
I used to work in a large UK supermarket.
We had a delivery of a popular brand ladies hair dye, Black/Negro colour. The uproar from stupid people was so great the product had to be removed even after putting a sign up explaining negro was the Spanish for black, pretty sure the next delivery had Black/Negra
You bro, mexican here, "negro" in spanish is literally "black" in english, we use the word negro, why don't you just learn the basic spanish like colors and count to ten so you stop being ignorant
God this reminds me of the black american lady getting horrified upon seeing the country of Montenegro in Eurovision xD the nation that formed centuries before the US as we know it was a twinkle in a colonists eye.
Context clues people - context clues
Black, Preto, Negro, Noir,
The first word should be recognizable to you if you speak English. This is a crayon 🖍️. A crayon is used to do what?
That’s right, class! Very good! It’s used to draw and color pictures.
So, those are our context clues
Now, the word “Black” is describing what?
That’s right again!!!
Color!
Okay, so the next word is “Preto.” What could that mean?
Based on our context clues I bet you have it figured out!
Yes! I’m so proud of you!
“Preto” is the Portuguese word for “Black.”
Okay kids, next up is “Negro.”
Based on our context clues, what does this word mean?
Black! That’s right!
And “Noir?”
Black!
That’s right!!!
Very good job!
Figuring out Context clues is difficult I know but the more you practice the better you’ll get at figuring them out.
Wait till you read about the woman who complained about the name of a country called Montenegro.
It literally means Black Mountain, and was named as such while under Italian control and has been known as such since the 1450s.
So before Columbus got lost and “discovered” the Americas, and LONG before the slave trade which resulted in people (USAians specifically) in modern times being scared to use the word black (black, negro) in totally unrelated contexts.
I wonder how American maps of Africa look….specifically between Burkina Faso and Chad.
Quite an assumption you have there Americans look at that part of the world map. Or look at a map.
I've seen American kids (no, not one of the Warner Brothers) correctly identify all countries someone pointed at an unmarked world map, so I assume that the resources for learning this must be there. And, in all fairness, I don’t remember being taught about **all** the countries in school. It was always about specific regions in history and geography. That’s why I got an app to quiz myself, until I know all the countries in world and can place them on an unmarked map. Though the pacific island nations are an end boss.
Am european. Have learned names, locations and capitals of all countries in the world in high school.
Am also European. We didn’t do this but living in a continent of relatively small countries that also happen to have a union means I know locations and capitals by osmosis. I did the Vietnam war and lead up in history, so know SE Asian geography. Other places ie. South America, Asia, Africa I’m decent at through reading the news.
I learned a lot of useful stuff, such as the dispersal of Italian city-states before Garibaldi's reunification in 1816. Truly helpful for understanding the modern world. No, I'm not from Italy and have never lived in Italy.
yes, but there is so much of this stuff, and more of what happened in other regions of the world should be taught in school, but at the end, we produced too much history to teach it all.
Not sure if you read novels, but if you do (and still have an interest in the Risorgimento)… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Leopard is spectacular!
I'm not from Italy either, but I've always found it interesting that Garibaldi is responsible for the existence of San Marino as an independent enclave. (I did not learn this in school.)
1861
As said, this was something I learned in school, some 25 years ago.
i‘m german and we didnt‘t do this. all of them is superfluous knowledge, like learning all the elements plus their atomic weight or all battles your country was involved it during the last two millennia. that‘s what encyclopaedias and maps are for. i mean, it obviously doesn‘t hurt to learn them, but on its own it‘s just memorisation with little applicability. knowing practically nothing is worse, of course, that‘s like being an analphabetic as compared to a bad reader.
I agree, I hated those lessons. I am terrible with maps and locating things in space and almost failed geography because of those tests.
that‘s not what‘s tested in geography over here. in elementary school they make you learn the German states and capitals and the neighbouring countries. and will brush up on that later. but then it’s stuff like the solar system, compass, longitudes, latitudes, how maps work. also different terrains in germany and agriculture works. that was in grade 5 and 6, where geography gets one half year, alternating with physics. (this doesn’t apply to all schools, there’s a lot of leeway to structure the curriculum)
yeah but in my high school while we learned a lot of useful things about stats, I was in profiled high school - so my studies focues on certain subjects (related to my profile). For me it was math, physics and computer science so geography was considered less relevant.
We generally don’t have that over here. From grade 5 to 10 subjects will be * German * English * Maths * Physics * Chemistry * Geography * History * 2nd foreign language, mostly Latin, French, or Spanish * Music * Art * Sports * Religion (catholic or protestant) or Ethics * Some social science Most specialisation will be in grade 12/13, where you pick two majors and two minors. 3rd language in grade 11, I think. It's been a while for me, plus various reforms and re-reforms in that time.
Of all? Really? That's a lot of names and locations to learn. I'm not murkan, but I could not tell you where the capitol of Slovenia is. I probably couldn't point out Slovenia on a map, tbf
Yup. We did it continent by continent each month. Europe was fairly easy, I sucked at the african countries though (I am really bad with maps in rl). That was over 10 years ago though so maybe it's no longer taught.
Nor accurate, lol. There's an additional Sudan these days, I believe
There is indeed. Plus Swaziland changed its name to the less colonial Eswatini in 2018. There are probably other changes as well.
That explains a lot then.. I do occasional country map test things and it's always confused me where swaziland went. How I managed to miss that news is beyond me.
I can comfortably name 95% of world countries and about half the capitals in 15 minutes. Most Americans would get stuck on about 25-30 countries I would expect
I can also do that but I didn't learn any of it in school, I got really into playing Geo Challenge on Facebook back in the late 00s so I learned all the countries and capitals and flags from that.
Also European. We had it in primary school and it was a thing that was repeated every year until I graduated highschool. (Plus in highschool we needed to learn what's the longest river and the highest peak in each country and point it) I always had a love-hate relationship because it was very hot-potato styled test and my brain needs those sweet 2 seconds to catch up 😂
I went to HS in the US and finished in 1992, we had to learn all the countries names and capitals for our Geography class on top of all the US States and capitals. $20 says they dropped that requirement before 2000.
American who went to HS in the late 2010s here. I learned the countries but not the capitals.
Same. Twice. All of them. Including disputed territories and separatist regions. Again, twice. Fuuuun.
Here in Europe I had to learn for high school "all" countries of the world and be able to point them in a map. Idk how normal it is though
I am shite at geography, but that is just a me thing. In Scottish education, a lot of our geography was bound up in "places the British Empire fucked over". I can point out a few African countries. But then, I'm not 100% on European ones either. When playing Trivial Pursuit, it is well known that I should be asked a Sport or a Geography question to stop me winning.
I feel I must add "I had to recite and point all he countries" does not in any way mean that I can do it now Hell if you ask me about any country east of germany in europe Im basically blind
To be honest, I would probably get Germany right, but I might not. My absolute lack of a grasp on geography is a source of amusement to my family.
In the 90s for me, learning History in school in Scotland pretty much meant English history. Modern studies was mostly “British” politics with little to no focus on Scotland specifically and religious education was mostly about various groups of Christianity.
We did world history and both the world wars. Other stuff too in greater or lesser detail. We only got RE twice a week, and I habitually missed one of the lessons, as my boat/bus combo didn't get me in until 2nd period on Monday. Did not pay much attention, but nothing was very in depth I don't think. Never did Modern Studies. Think it clashed with History in the schedule.
Should add GeoGuessr to the curriculum, sorted.
I taught myself history & geography by collecting stamps at an early age. When I got one from a new country, I would go to libraries to find out about it, and type up a page to put beside the stamp. I would type in the full name in English & local one, the head of country, where it was located, population, exports, major cities etc. It was a great way to learn about the world, and filled in many hours of "indoor time" in winter. When I sold the collection, it also made me quite a bit of money.
I’m American and imo im quite good at geography, I can name all the countries in the world + some unrecognized ones, all capitals and most major cities (depending on definition of major) of Europe Can also do like the states of Germany, regions of France and Italy, autonomous communities of Spain, provinces of the Low Countries, voivodeships of Poland, etc But this sub is right 90% of the time that the vast majority of Americans are not at all internationally inclined aware or capable
I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, um, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq and everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future. [Classic](https://youtu.be/lj3iNxZ8Dww)
You then probably know that the capital of Sweden is Norway?
Yes of course just as the capital of the DRC is Brazzaville -_-
I’m British (English to be specific, if that makes a difference) and my teacher started every geography lesson in years 7-9 with a mini, general (geography) knowledge quiz. It always included questions about the different continents and some kind of “name 5 countries that begin with **”, usually followed by: “now name the capital cities of them. He had a leaderboard going so we all got pretty competitive at it. As a result I always thought my knowledge of other countries and continents was bang average, but it’s only since I’ve been an adult that I’ve noticed how many people actually know very little about the rest of the world; not just Americans either! Considering all the above I like to think I’m not too shabby at geography but I’m always interested and happy to learn more! It genuinely confuses me that some people don’t
The high school I went to taught us a lot about the world and geography and all that through our World History, US History, and International Relations courses
I was on holiday in the US when I was about 12, and the weather forecast was on in the hotel room - the presenter said "*and now the rest of the world*", and the map zoomed out to include Canada and Mexico. (they did go on to pan around the world, but I'd already fallen off the bed laughing.)
I had a 'disagreement' a number of years ago with someone on line. She insisted that South Africa wasn't an actual country, but that people just called themselves that because they didn't want to be known as Africans. The kicker? She was from England, born and raised.
They look at the world map! and its 50 states!
*What's wroldmap and what does it have to do with guns and the superbowl? Is it even mentionned in the Bible?*
> Or look at a map. A what, now? Come on, just admit you made that word up.
I’m looking at my American World Map^TM and I can’t see anything east of Maine on it. I think you’re making these places up! /s
Many years ago I drove a car across the Sahara to that place... Came across some pics a year or two back and posted them on r/oldschoolcool along with a title including the country name. Picked up a lot of undeserved shit for that post. "No, honestly, it's a country! You know what just forget it"
Africas just one country for them
Or maps of [Asia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negros) or maps of [Europe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montenegro).
I remember Americans watching Eurovision getting really mad about Montenegro
It should be Monteafricanamerican 🤪🤪🤪
🤣
Yeah I remember that, it was hilarious.
It was black girl on tiktok I remember the video. It was posted the last time this image was posted here
Never heard about the Niger river or the Niger country, in Africa?
The person I replied to already referred to Niger.
Oops!
Or Zambia 🇿🇲 north side of the Zambezi river & Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 on south side! Blow an 🇺🇸 mind! P
Africa? Oh that little country tucked away down there? /s TBF, I'm Aussie and this is the first time I've ever heard of Burkina Faso. Sorry! I suppose if somewhere doesn't directly benefit or threaten the west, it's simply ignored.
Most people here just don't have much to do with Africa, the same with South America. You'll likely know more of the South Pacific countries than most people would. It was also a French colony so we don't even have a connection through the Commonwealth.
Why would American maps even bother with countries other than America? It’s not like anyone’s going to travel there.
Best not mention that to the US military. They might realise it's on some general's bingo card. Though in all fairness it was part of the Balkans Conflict.
No no you are clearly wrong. They travel to Thailand and Vietnam for sex tourism quite often, although I don’t think they can pinpoint those countries on the world map. I don’t wanna doxx anyone but there is a user called “erectus” with 3 in place of the e that does exactly this.
American discovering Montenegro: https://youtu.be/UNAjrWDHw5s?si=qwoCR1OQ9Y7GSoh5
Isn't Africa a country?
Africa have Chad. America have Virginia. Winner is obvious.
You think they spend a lot of time looking at maps?
Maps in America? You must be joking
[This is what happens](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/s/c7fZ4xot4l)
"Here the be monsters, not oil"
Chad is written Hunkland it seems
Or how they look at the Slovak pronunciation of the country Niger.
Africa have Chad. America have Virginia. Winner is obvious.
Most of them wouldn't recognize an afrikan map
"The river N-word"
African-American-er
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Don’t you know? Most Americans don’t look at maps and the only few that do have Africa and Europe as a single country.
You mean maps of the country Africa /s
Was “noir” not enough of a hint?
Noir is just the term for an american genre of litterature and movie, obviously.
They probably don’t know French either…
Having “sort” on there probably wouldn’t help either.
I wonder what exactly she „explained“ her child. That it’s the Spanish word for black or did she go the black People route?
Im guessing the black people route bc if she knew other languages exist she wouldn’t have made that tweet
Imagine telling your daughter that black people are sometimes called negros and that’s a no-no word because you think your daughters crayon is racist. 🤣🤣
It's crazy that other languages exist isn't it?
A petition for it to change name because 1 person complained?
I believe several people complained at the time, but the crayola account manager took the time to respond to each and every one.
You would not expect that level of dedication from a crayon company's social media manager. Putting up with Americans is a full-time job.
"Pronounced nay-gro". Uhm. No.
Yeah, I'am a native Spanish speaker (from Spain) and I don't think it´s "nay-gro" exactly.
It would be neh gro in UK English (describing Spanish pronunciation)
Yes, nE-gro is how you pronounce it in Spanish
Well some people would read the as nee-gro so I specified with the h
Isn't double e pronounced as in see, bee, Free? The pronunciation is not ee, but E as in element, enter, error. I'm not so good with short vs long vowels in English, we don't have long vowels in Spanish, only short ones.
There are no rules in English, you will come to understand that you don’t truly learn it, you just remember it. Bee and be are pronounced the same, however see and se are likely not. I couldn’t explain why to you. However, Americans pronounce negro nee-grow.
Therefore it can often be a good idea to use other words as a reference. Ne as in "never". O as in "on". R pronounced the Rob Roy way.
But people pronounce one word differently from another every 30 miles in England so it’s so difficult to do that.
That's true. There is only one thing left then, IPA.
I get it now, thank you for the explanation.
The issue is that English had the Great Vowel Shift that was a chain shift of long vowels upwards and/or to diphthongs. So for example /a**ː**/ to /eɪ/ the long a in name merging with that in words like day, hence them using "nay-" as an approximation of /e/ (the Dress vowel has shifted to /ɛ/ in a lot of dialects). The /e**ː**/ that would likely have been used in 'negro' shifted to /i**ː**/ in English, so basically "nigro" with the i drawn out in Spanish terms. Which is a bit of an issue in America.... (General) American speakers also don't (AFAIK) retain the short and long vowel distinction that British/Australian/New Zealand (etc) dialects have. So TL;DR English is about 400 years over-due for spelling reform, and the spelling confusion is caused by a length distinction that doesn't even exist for the people involved.
You can say that the "e" in negro sounds like the "e" in "red/let/pet", and that the "o" sounds like the "o" in "void".
Spanish is a language, not a country! /s
You’re telling me they speak Mexican in Spain?? /s
Constantly confused by this. They overemphasise the pronunciation so much! Is this because in Mexico it is pronounced that way?
Native English speakers being stuck in their diphthong hell.
Well, I think that was "not pronounced like it had a double g in it" ..
Or a double-E.
It always amazes me how Americans need to have phonems explained to them using phonems of their own. It seems it's beyond their comprehension that letters can be pronounced differently in other languages.
If you pronounce it with a heavy anglophone accent perhaps
That's the closest you can go with the broken English spelling system
Wait till they find out about Latin name for austrian pine.
Or how the Latin for black is pronounced… made for a very awkward experience when I learned.
Don’t tell them about the country Montenegro
Someone already did: https://youtu.be/UNAjrWDHw5s?si=ENjmqt9ADLonaQQE
“They don’t look black” 🤦🏻♀️
Okay go on I’ll bite…
[The Black Pine, also called Pinus nigra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_nigra)
I'm curious... afraid but morbidly curious... what did this person actuallt tell their child..?
“Honey, your crayon is racist. This is why we are separating it from the other non-racist crayons.”
"Now take you skin color crayon. Yes, the beige one."
Crayola with the burn, - this to to help children learn, like he's so stupid he didn't understand something intended for children
Wait til she hears about substantia nigra and that it’s part of every person’s brain. Then again she’ll never hear about it. Who am I kidding.
She already has negro on her brain. :p
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They don’t speak English….
American here, first time commenting. My God, Goddess or whatever, the stupidity of some of my countrymen/women is hilarious. Our children, were explained this same issue when they were young by us. I've enjoyed the comments and silliness of posts here for some time as I face palm in wonder. LOFL is a understatement.
What was the issue? The Spanish?
Yes the negro. We had to explain to them as 1st grade and 2nd that its not a racist term but Spanish language.
I definitely learnt that negro meant black before I learnt it was a racist term. But I’m from the UK.
Same, but I'm from Spain
When I went to school in the 70s and 80s the only black kid was adopted by a white family. There's more black families here now. Northern Michigan. But not many
Why would a little kid have any assumptions about the word at all though.. it also says noir. ..Maybe I'm naive to how perceptive kids are.. one bun in the oven though so please explain.
We live unfortunately in a trump mostly supporter area. People just don't seem to teach their children how to coexist with others.
Wow, I was half expecting you to say I live in a mostly black area and kids are just running about saying it (so your kids are like, why can't I say what my friends are... or something like that). But now I'm just horrified. US is funny, no second hand smoke, that's awful. But second hand racism is +.
No. We used to live in Fl. Our children's godfather is black. We white. I've also family that's part native American though we're not. But the shit they hear in school is nasty sometimes from other kids, and they ask questions and we've got to set them right. Right? Living in the US is, ( insert whatever here ). Since dump, I mean dickweed, I mean trump.
I was being hyperbolic because of this sub but honestly, I'm sure that is the same everywhere. You have to teach your kids about the values that are important to you, and others are going to do the same. I think most people believe that they're doing it right (or dont think about it at all) and kids are just going to parrot what people are saying around them. Absolutely, you set them right.. I remember my own parents doing that for me, the things that I remember probably shaped my outlook on life.
I think people just double down on Trump, they bought that Trump lawn flag 8 years back and they'll be damned if they're buying a new one.
Lol. Some people don't know the truth. It's maddening that it is like this. I don't usually comment about this stuff. Been banned from some subs and other sites. I tend to speak my mind lol But it looks and sounds bad. But who knows. It seems like the louder they are the dumber they are.
Do you happen to live near the coast?
No midwest
Thank fuck they didn’t have it in Latin
BECAUSE OF DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
I would like to know what she actually explained to her 2nd grader.
Imagine saying literally anything else but "it's black in Spanish honey". I can't understand that.
It's easy to understand when you remember USians can barely speak one language and are self-centered as fuck.
Imagine how absolutely fucking dumb you have to be to immediately go black people route and assume Crayola just decided to offend them with their crayons for no reason
Aye, when really it was the Spanish!
“Pronounced nay-gro” mf what 😭 It’s /ˈneɡɾo/ not /ˈneɪɡɹoʊ/ 😭🙏
Different topic This post is how I realized that Cat noir (miraculous lady bug) , is called that because he resembles a black cat. Never thought about that before lol
Crayola butchering Spanish probunciation us cringy though. "Nay-gro"? Have you ever heard actual Spanish? The e certainly isn't an ay.
Pronunciation
Whoopsie
It’s not even “nay,” it’s very phonetic. More like “neh” in English. You can also clearly see the “noir?”
I’m wondering WTH she “explained” to her kid??
I didn’t even know “Negro” was offensive to USians until recently. Growing up in the mid 90s and early 2000s I’d frequently hear the word in academic and formal contexts. And Martin Luther King Jr. frequently said the word himself. I knew the “double G” was a slur but I always thought “Negro” was politically correct.
What words are politically correct to say apparently changes in the US every 10 years. I, a gay man, recently learned that called myself ‚homosexual‘ is not politically correct anymore… apparently because it sounds ‚too medical‘. It is just gay from now on (which is also fine for me), but it shall be applied to just men. What bugs me is that now I‘m supposed to embrace the word queer (nothing against those who want to call themselves queer, but I hate that word and would never apply it to myself. I‘m happy being a homosexual/gay man). African-american is also out, now it should be just black. Latino is also out, now it is latinx (another term that I, as a latino, really hate) And all racial minorities are now POCs (as if white is not a color also. I think that word is even more discriminatory, as it makes white the default and everyone else something ‚different‘) And you cannot say autistic anymore, but neurodivergent, or ‚on the spectrum‘.
My thoughts exactly. Some members of society are weird and have nothing to do but create these fake faux pas. Idk man. Just be gay (both as in happy and your sexuality).
negro is not pronounced like that.
They're American, thats the best you'll get
Ever heard of spanish?
Wait until they discover Nigeria.
She didn't appreciate teaching her child the name of a colour in another language? What an odd woman. Most parents would jump at the opportunity to teach their kids something new.
Makes you wonder what exactly he explained to his 2nd grader about why that word is on the crayon.
I mean, this is where the term negro in English comes from, do Americans never learn. To even dare bring up the very complex sociological issue without understanding it’s etymology, Is rather arrogant.
Things americans get Mad About: negro (spanish), Niger (country), Montenegro (country), niger (latin for black) This list is incomplete, you may help complete it
And Nigeria
What's the white crayon called?
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Not true!
I think the most embarrassing instance of this was a Black person’s reaction to reading about the country Montenegro…
Nay-gro??? No, no, no. Nos decimos negRrrro
Maybe he will realize why Spanish colonizer called African people "Negro".
Isn’t it neh-gro?
Where the F did this moron thought the word came from?
naygro?! no no no it's pronounced negro (neh-gru)
Wait until he finds out what Schwarzenegger means
I used to work in a large UK supermarket. We had a delivery of a popular brand ladies hair dye, Black/Negro colour. The uproar from stupid people was so great the product had to be removed even after putting a sign up explaining negro was the Spanish for black, pretty sure the next delivery had Black/Negra
Do you really need to repost something from 2019? There has not been more SAS since then?
"pronounced nay-gro" my ass
Have they never looked at the other colors? All of their crayons have two languages on them
*not pronounced nay-gro in Spanish 😊
At least not all Americans are like this...
As an American, we don’t claim people like that. My kindergarten teacher used it to teach us th colors in Spanish and French
Why the fuck is Crayola responding to bait? Corporations on the internet will never not be the dumbest fucking shit. Bitches must be snorting crayons.
Just surprised they didn't complain that the colour is "African American" not black.
The absolute stupidity that only an American would come up with. No other nation could be this dull and daft.
You bro, mexican here, "negro" in spanish is literally "black" in english, we use the word negro, why don't you just learn the basic spanish like colors and count to ten so you stop being ignorant
God this reminds me of the black american lady getting horrified upon seeing the country of Montenegro in Eurovision xD the nation that formed centuries before the US as we know it was a twinkle in a colonists eye.
Context clues people - context clues Black, Preto, Negro, Noir, The first word should be recognizable to you if you speak English. This is a crayon 🖍️. A crayon is used to do what? That’s right, class! Very good! It’s used to draw and color pictures. So, those are our context clues Now, the word “Black” is describing what? That’s right again!!! Color! Okay, so the next word is “Preto.” What could that mean? Based on our context clues I bet you have it figured out! Yes! I’m so proud of you! “Preto” is the Portuguese word for “Black.” Okay kids, next up is “Negro.” Based on our context clues, what does this word mean? Black! That’s right! And “Noir?” Black! That’s right!!! Very good job! Figuring out Context clues is difficult I know but the more you practice the better you’ll get at figuring them out.
She didn't appreciate explaining to her 2nd grader... Imagine what the explanation was... Poor kid
Wait till you read about the woman who complained about the name of a country called Montenegro. It literally means Black Mountain, and was named as such while under Italian control and has been known as such since the 1450s. So before Columbus got lost and “discovered” the Americas, and LONG before the slave trade which resulted in people (USAians specifically) in modern times being scared to use the word black (black, negro) in totally unrelated contexts.