That the Danish school system might not be as good as I thought it was. I always thought the schoolsystem was pretty good in Denmark, and best of all it's free. But this Saturday I started to worry... I went to the post office (which is a part of a supermarket) there was this girl who was probably around 18 behind the counter.
I handed over my package and told her "I would like to send this to Scotland" (yeah Wendy something is on the way for you). She said something, but I didn't hear her, so I didn't answer her, she looked at my package, typed something.... then she turned the screen so I could see it and said "isn't that how you spell Scotland?" I told her that in Danish it was with a K instead of an C... but honestly how hard could that be. Well she typed it with a K... then she asked if I was sure, because Scotland didn't exist in her system... I looked at her screen again. There were a lot of flags, and I told her to use United Kingdom... and this was when I really started to worry because she said "But Scotland isn't a part of the UK" I told her it was, and she asked if I was really sure.... it's one of our neighbouring countries, you should know this!
Is it just because I always loved Geography? Or should you know this? I could understand if it was a country on the other side of the earth... but not our neighbour!
oh poor girl. yes, she definitely should have known that. i'd say it's a pretty basic piece of knowledge that people around the world possess. maybe it's just the post office? here in the u.s. i often have difficulty sending packages to u.s. territories like guam. the post office workers are often confused that i'm sending it "local" because they think it's a foreign country. how do post office workers in the u.s. not know all the territories of their own country? apparently post offices around the world don't hire the brightest minds. :)
ReplyDeleteOh yay - I shall keep my eyes on my postbox!!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, that is worrying! Once a lady in the doctors asked me my ethnicity. I said Caucasian, and she looked at me really confused. She said "no, where are you from". I told her that she meant nationality, rather than my ethnicity. She didn't like that. xx
Oh wow! That's the thing with teenagers today - they don't understand that a world exists outside of their little bubble! :(
ReplyDeleteOh wow, that's pretty bad! Also makes you wonder what parents are doing with their children. But you and Jonas will be just fine <3
ReplyDeleteWell, I wouldn't blame it on the school system. I'm sure she was taught geometry in school and she probably learned where Scotland was and that it was part of the U.K. However, I've come to find, that unless you need/use that info people forget it. So, people who have never been out of the U.S. and aren't interested in international things tend to not know where countries are located, etc. However, if you travel a lot and are exposed to things like that you tend to remember it. The schools are probably teaching what they should but unless it's reinforced at home/in life, it's in one ear and out the other!
ReplyDeleteI'm not even that great with geography and I now that. Eek.
ReplyDeleteJust be happy you don't deal with my boss. He says things like "I seen that car drive down the street." Totally ruffles my feathers, eek.