Feb 20
Well it seems that most of you are in the US and Canada, at least those that bothered taking the poll. I knew we had a good Europe group going so that was a good number. The rest of you need to tell your friends…or something. 
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As a geographer(and Canadian)I take offense to you calling equating “North America” to the US. Canada is in North America, in case you forgot. I know sometimes it can be easy to miss, all tucked away down there . .but still.
Yeah! Jerk.
You should have had an option for UK separate from Europe, I think we would have taken up the large majority of Europe. Anyhoo interesting results.
Umm, is it just me, or do 29 of the people that took the poll live in Antarctica?
Nope i disagree i think the Uk fanbase seconds the US but there are to many Scandinavians and German fans. Yeah a lot of Brits but no majority…
Scott, since when is UK == Europe? That’s quite offensive for people like myself, living in Sweden and loving EL(R)
yeah joey thats what i thought. what would count as “other”? o_O
Well, i told you that in uruguay (south america), there are ten people at least that i know about, listening to ELR weekly, if you consider that in a three millions population it is a LOT.
Yes, my first thought was, the UK is an Island and so does not share the land mass that is usually referred to as Europe, apart from the linkage by way of the Channel tunnel. Thinking about Ehm’s comments, we often forget here in the UK that a lot of Europeans don’t see us as part of Europe either, in the same way that we don’t.
Mind you, they still want us to buy their Abba records and freaking crappy Ikea furniture!! Joking here – Ikea is always good times.
Europe IS NOT UK OMGWTFBBQ!
And you would be surprised to see the actual numbers, I’m not so sure as someone over here that the majority of readers from Europe are UK’ers.
Anyway, again, UK is as subset of Europe the same (concept, I know it’s no the exact same) as Utah is a subset of the United States of America. The rest of Europe is much, much, MUCH larger (size and population) than the UK.
By the way, I’m from Spain (that’s in Europe).
Just a clarification, I see UK *as part of* Europe, what I mean by saying “Europe is not UK” is that Europe is much more than just UK.
dixit
Well – i’ve been listening here in Hong Kong to ELR since ep. 12 and reading EL for quiet a while. : )
Just meant that I knew we had a lot of UK peeps, and therefore they were representing…not that the UK was ALL of Europe.
“Thinking about Ehm’s comments, we often forget here in the UK that a lot of Europeans don’t see us as part of Europe either, in the same way that we don’t.”
So Wayne, you UK’ers don’t see yourselfs as Europeans? That would mean you all voted for “Others”, since the UK is not in Europe, wouldn’t it? Now that would explain the 29…Yeah i know I’m a smartass
Go Europe BTW
i miss Ghandi
Holy crap, we know the UK is only part of Europe, Jorge! Do you think we grew up in pods and emerged at age 16? Just messing, but seriously, we know.
Well, I just have to assume it’s a general miss with people from USA that they use UK for Europe at any time since I keep seeing it in the news, TV, blogs, from actual friends over there, etc.
So not grew in pods, I guess is a generalized problem of the education system or general culture or whatnot. So, yeah sorry to go that cranky rant way but it kinda pisses me off from time to time
North America is Canada, USA and Mexico, or just USA?
And South America is from Mexico till Chile?
whatever…
Well, as far as my elementary school teacher is concerned, I live in the continent of North America and the country of México. Or am I suddenly from South America? If that’s the case, I think my vote went to the wrong option…
Don’t forget the Dutch fan base! If there even is one besides me
Where is everybody?
Over here! Polo!
Ah well no hard feelings about the Europe-Uk confusion. Just glad you know one Europe country
that’s more than average American
Surak, you’re not alone. Also a big fan of EL. And no Amsterdam is not a country…
*Snif, can’t join the next poll, no option for those that haven’t seen it yet. Shame on me.
1 from Brazil right HERE!
Bogotá – Colombia
“Umm, is it just me, or do 29 of the people that took the poll live in Antarctica?”
GRRR! New Zealand is not AUSTRALIA!
It’s part of AUSTRALASIA though!
grrrrrr
I’m from México which isn’t anywhere near the south of the globe, but if I go with North America you’ll assume I’m Canadian or from de US? WTF
Ok, I had to post again and this isn’t necessarily in response to the comments here, just an all-around response to the “interwebs”. Seriously, the Americans you see on tv are not you’re average Americans. I know you know this, too. It really gets me frustrated though that people outside think we’re just a bunch of fat, ignorant, stupid people.. and then again, this is a common misjudgment on our part of other’s thinking. But come on! I knew 95% of the countries in the world by name when I was 10. Ahh, I’m not stupid, at least I hope not! Again, if everything you know of American people is from tv, movies, etc., well, there are a lot of Americans and most aren’t bumbling idiots. Please, just cut us normal Americans some slack because, man, I love other people around the world and think it’s awesome how we have so much diversity here in the states. I think this is reflected in Scott during the podcasts when people from overseas call in.. he gets giddy because it’s cool to talk to different people! Also, I hate the crap the media (South Park, etc.) shoves on Canada because we have so much in common with Canada, it’s crazy. I love the relationship between the two and it’s just like you can go there and blend in and they can come here and blend in — it basically just rocks. My whole point in this long comment is that I get so frustrated that Americans gets a bad image around the world of being stuck up, ignorant, whatever because, well, I for one just like hanging out with whoever and getting to know people everywhere else! It sucks that those idiots here get the loudest say, but hey, what can you do? In contrast to all of this, however, is the common viewpoint that we have of other countries — the viewpoint that they think of us in the afore-mentioned way. Anyway, in closing (man this is turning into a fricking book!), realize that we care about what’s going on in the world and aren’t just focused on ourselves. Everyday people can’t always control the image of a big group, and it sucks that some Americans are dumb and fling that bad image on other people. So yeah, I’m sorry this was in response to a poll (haha), but I guess I’m just venting here. Thanks for listening, then
Vlaardingen – The Netherlands ^^ (that small country east of England yes =P)
Philippines here!!!!
sorry.
…just didn’t vote.
Actually I’m in Mexico, part of North America last I checked
While I don’t really care about the “NA is Canada & US” remark, it seems by these comments quite a few took offense. Heck, it seems some UK people took offense with Europe. Everyone should lighten up, but alas… it ain’t a successful day till you offend people right? You can’t please everyone.
Of course the UK is part of Europe. my point was that it was not part of the land mass of Europe.
Was there not that study recently that reflected that many Americans had no idea where other countries were, such as Iran being assumed to be Australia? Of course, if they ask all the stupid people, that will alter the results, but I guess my point is that many Americans, by virtue of how big the country is, are more inward looking, not ignorant, but just never have to think about where places are, because it does not matter to them day to day. Is it still the case that less that 10% of Americans have passports?
It does particurly irk me though that people assume London= the UK, and ,bizarrely for a country with 60m people, assume I would know someone living in London. This has happened to me.
Ok, and what I would say to that is… isn’t that an assumption, too? No assumptions are right, no matter which way you look at it. Surveys… ahhh, wonderful surveys… come on, who believes them? If I had the money to go to Europe, I WOULD – I would go see where my great-grandpa grew up in southern Germany in the Bavarian area near Munich. I had a passport when I was 13 and went to Guatemala. My bro went to Thailand and Burma a few years ago, is going to Israel and Italy for his senior trip in May and is doing a missions trip to Egypt in the summer. My parents went to Europe last summer. My point is, well I’m not sure what my point is, but I really don’t think I’m in the minority here. A LOT of people would go overseas if it wasn’t so expensive. Ok, yes by virtue of how big this country is, it’s hard to know everything about the US, let alone somewhere else – many of the vacations we take as Americans are inside the country. What I was trying to get across, though, is that I want to know more about other places and trust me, other people here do, too.
Just cause they did the survey in America…. I imagine if you go to any country and do a survey like that you’ll find millions of ignorant people, just the same. I live in Canada, and though there are some stupid people in America, there are stupid people in EVERY country. I don’t think it’s fair to assume just because you grow up in America you’re some kind of self-righteous moron….
volendam ftw ! (the netherlands)
I have to agree with Tyler and Lindsay, I live in Belgium (fartingpigcartoonland) and I used to think (like most Europeans) that America was full of ignorant lardo’s.
But a few years ago I went to America on vacation and I quickly learned that nothing of that was true (ok I DID see some rly rly fat people and some neverending buttcracks). I also learned people in America are often friendlier and more social then Europeans and know about their stupid government and even apologise for it. So now when a fellow European has a negative attitude towards America I always clearify that the fat ignorant American is just a stereotype. And like Lindsay said, there are stupid people in every country. I also don’t think its fair to say that Americans don’t go to other countries on vacation enough, America is a beautiful, big country so they don’t really NEED to go to an other continent (If you’ve never been out of Belgium thats just sad). I hope you get my point.
And if Americans are bad at geograpy, can you blame ‘em? We Europeans see and hear America everyday. For every European movie I’ve probably seen 50 American movies. Heck, I even learned English thanks to the simpsons, but how much of Europe does the average American see in the media?.. So the next time they think Belgium is the capital of Brussels just nod and smile :p
so my point: I know it’s hard but let’s stop thinking in stereotypes, not every Frenchman is a mime, not everyone from Holland smokes pot, not every German is a nazi and not every American is a fat moron (But that doesn’t excuse them for having a monkey president
)
Ooh, a lot of debating going on.
It may have been worth putting the UK and RoI as seperate from Europe, if only to see how many non-English speaking (as a 1st language) Europeans there are- Britain has a population of less than 20% of North America’s, so the fact that Europe makes up 50% as many listeners as N.America is probably significant- it means that 2/3 of the European Listeners are non-English speakers, which is pretty cool.
Scott, in the future you should do a language poll, to see how many English and non-English speakers listen. It may be tricky to pick which languages to list, though and you may have to group some similar ones together to avoid having a hundred different options- e.g. German and Dutch; Spanish and Portugese; Danish, Swedish and Norwegian.
“you may have to group some similar ones together to avoid having a hundred different options- e.g. German and Dutch; Spanish and Portugese; Danish, Swedish and Norwegian.”
WTF?
Let’s group up arab/hebrew while we’re at it, they do have the same roots.
Yeah i know that’s a bit much, but you do get the point, don’t you?
I swear these polls must start while Australia is asleep and finish before we get up (otherwise I would’ve voted ^_^).
I check the site daily (typically from work), and always seem to miss the voting stage…
“you may have to group some similar ones together to avoid having a hundred different options- e.g. German and Dutch; Spanish and Portugese; Danish, Swedish and Norwegian.”
Why not make it into a Romanic, Latin, etc. language contest then?
Come on, that would be just plain stupid.
Oh and greetings from Portugal
India! Namaste!
I’ve been with you Scott since Real Toons, Crustone and Shorts by Scott!
Thank you Lindsay and Alimantado. And actually you had perfect English in your post, Alimantado!
UK FTW!
For those of you saying ‘I think we should stop thinking in stereotypes’, I say to you, from a psychological perspective it is extremely hard to do this.
As human beings we are exposed to a rediculous amount of information on a daily basis. In order to help us classify the information and make sense of it, all humans have a mechanism known as ‘SCHEMAS’. These schemas are there to help us with the information overload. This is the idea that people are ‘COGNITIVE MISERS’, this was developed by Nisbitt and Ross (1980) which says that in our heads we have a limited amount of resources and in order to help us schemas give us a short cut.
It has also been stated by prominent social psychologists that stereotyping happens in an automatic manner, without us even realising we are doing it. For example, if we were to walk into a library, we may make the judgement that a librarian is shy or/and boring in effect your ‘librarian’ schema would be activated without you ever having conscious control over it!
Saying that, an American psychologist: Lippman (1922) did describe stereotyping as “selective, self-fulfilling and ethnocentric, constituting a very partial and inadequate way of representing the world”
Brown (1986) states that stereotypes are “Universal and inevitable… an intrinsic, essential and primitive aspect of human cognition’
I now pronounce everyone who disagrees totally psychotic!!!!!
OK… enough of the psycho-babble!
I find it very interesting that everyone is getting so uptight about the continental groupings of their respective countries. Being from the UK I know that us Brits don’t consider ourselves part of Europe even though technically we are European! I myself am not perticularly bothered, if I was forced to give an answer I would probably consider myself British rather than European. As a training scientist I would generally question the accuracy of the poll results… but I suppose its just a bit of fun.
Just for the record, I’m American (although I live in Japan) and although I doubt many Americans could pick Iran, Iraq or Afghanistan our on an unlabeled map, anyone who mistook Australia for Iran is exceptionally and unusually stupid, and any “poll” that used people like that should be treated with skepticism.
Also, I have never in my life met an American who mistook the U.K. for Europe, I think that statement had to originate from a miscommunication somewhere.
Plenty of American’s couldn’t tell you the difference between the UK, Great Britain and England, but I know people who live in the UK who can’t do a very good job of it either =P
Make that 37 for Australia, I didn’t get to vote in the poll.
I was asleep for over a week.
And 313 for Europe (Netherlands), I was on vacation in the Czech Republic…
Excuse, and what you think concerning forthcoming elections?
cool blog!
cool blog!
nice photos of this blog