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eldin raigmore
PostPosted: Fri 01 Jun 2012, 02:09 
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Curlyjimsam wrote:
When I was very young (about six), I used to think Timbuktu was in Scotland.

Close to Midlothian, right?

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taylorS
PostPosted: Mon 04 Jun 2012, 08:27 
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Khemehekis wrote:
When I was browsing through the World Almanac, I had never heard of Gabon.

And the Maldives? You never hear about them. There are also a lot of people who have never heard of Brunei.

(I'm from the United States, by the way. California, to be exact.)

At least with countries like Burkina Faso, they're so obscure that people frequently use them as examples of random countries, so most Americans have heard of them.
Back when Burkina Faso was called Upper Volta in the 80s Reagan made a joke calling the USSR "Upper Volta with missiles". [xD]

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taylorS
PostPosted: Mon 04 Jun 2012, 08:29 
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I never heard of Abkhazia and South Ossetia before it was in the news when Russia invaded Georgia.

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taylorS
PostPosted: Mon 04 Jun 2012, 08:31 
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rickardspaghetti wrote:
CrazyEttin wrote:
Maximillian wrote:
CrazyEttin wrote:
I thought, until i was ~12 years old, that Moldova and Timbuktu were just some random made-up countries mentioned in comics or something.

I used to think the same about Timbuktu and Karaganda. In Russian, if you want to say that something is located in a distant, unknown, god-forsaken place, you say "Где? В Караганде!" ("Where? In Karaganda!"). :mrgreen:


Haha. [:D] In finnish you say "Huitsin Nevadassa" (I don't know how to translate "huitsi" and i have absolutely know idea why Nevada is used in this expression)

In Swedish we say "Långtbortistan". "Långt bort" means "far away", and "-istan" is pretty self-explanatory.
In the US we sometimes call some obscure, socially backward place a "dumb-fuck-istan"

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Aszev
PostPosted: Mon 04 Jun 2012, 15:04 
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taylorS wrote:
rickardspaghetti wrote:
CrazyEttin wrote:
Maximillian wrote:
CrazyEttin wrote:
I thought, until i was ~12 years old, that Moldova and Timbuktu were just some random made-up countries mentioned in comics or something.

I used to think the same about Timbuktu and Karaganda. In Russian, if you want to say that something is located in a distant, unknown, god-forsaken place, you say "Где? В Караганде!" ("Where? In Karaganda!"). :mrgreen:


Haha. [:D] In finnish you say "Huitsin Nevadassa" (I don't know how to translate "huitsi" and i have absolutely know idea why Nevada is used in this expression)

In Swedish we say "Långtbortistan". "Långt bort" means "far away", and "-istan" is pretty self-explanatory.
In the US we sometimes call some obscure, socially backward place a "dumb-fuck-istan"

Is this an old term or something invented after the recent wars?

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Solarius
PostPosted: Mon 04 Jun 2012, 15:51 
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Aszev wrote:
Is this an old term or something invented after the recent wars?

I think it's more inspired by other central Asian countries, such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

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Milyamd
PostPosted: Mon 04 Jun 2012, 17:56 
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East Timor.

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eldin raigmore
PostPosted: Mon 04 Jun 2012, 22:26 
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Aszev wrote:
taylorS wrote:
In the US we sometimes call some obscure, socially backward place a "dumb-fuck-istan"
Is this an old term or something invented after the recent wars?

TTBOMK "Canuckistan" (for Canada) dates back to the last years of the Soviet Union. That's not really a direct answer to your question, but it's maybe relevant.

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taylorS
PostPosted: Sat 09 Jun 2012, 04:13 
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Aszev wrote:
taylorS wrote:
rickardspaghetti wrote:
CrazyEttin wrote:
Maximillian wrote:
CrazyEttin wrote:
I thought, until i was ~12 years old, that Moldova and Timbuktu were just some random made-up countries mentioned in comics or something.

I used to think the same about Timbuktu and Karaganda. In Russian, if you want to say that something is located in a distant, unknown, god-forsaken place, you say "Где? В Караганде!" ("Where? In Karaganda!"). :mrgreen:


Haha. [:D] In finnish you say "Huitsin Nevadassa" (I don't know how to translate "huitsi" and i have absolutely know idea why Nevada is used in this expression)

In Swedish we say "Långtbortistan". "Långt bort" means "far away", and "-istan" is pretty self-explanatory.
In the US we sometimes call some obscure, socially backward place a "dumb-fuck-istan"

Is this an old term or something invented after the recent wars?
I'm 26 and have heard it my whole life.

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Xing
PostPosted: Tue 12 Jun 2012, 02:10 
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My favourite little-known country is Palau. An Island-nation with about 20000 inhabitants. It is subdivided into 16 municipalities, referred to as states. The smallest states have a few dozen people living in them.

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Solarius
PostPosted: Wed 13 Jun 2012, 01:28 
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Xing wrote:
My favourite little-known country is Palau. An Island-nation with about 20000 inhabitants. It is subdivided into 16 municipalities, referred to as states. The smallest states have a few dozen people living in them.

I know, right?

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C.J.
PostPosted: Wed 27 Jun 2012, 19:55 
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_sudan

Most people don't seem to know South Sudan declared independence from Sudan last year, with about eight million people.

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Kaylee
PostPosted: Thu 28 Jun 2012, 04:33 
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I can only think of one at the moment; Eritrea. I didn't know about its existence until a friend of mine pointed it out while we were chatting a few months ago.

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Maximillian
PostPosted: Sun 15 Jul 2012, 16:41 
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I have just learned of a great country of Malawi from a YouTube video.

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Zifre
PostPosted: Mon 16 Jul 2012, 01:35 
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I just went through a list of countries and the only one I had not heard of was Kiribati.
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Pirka
PostPosted: Mon 16 Jul 2012, 01:59 
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Am I weird one out for knowing all the countries in the world? [:(] I blame having an atlas as my favorite book in fifth grade.

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CrazyEttin
PostPosted: Mon 16 Jul 2012, 02:04 
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Pirka wrote:
Am I weird one out for knowing all the countries in the world? [:(] I blame having an atlas as my favorite book in fifth grade.


No, you're not weird. Or well, you are. But you're not the only weird one.
(I read through a list of countries and recognised every one of them)

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Avo
PostPosted: Mon 16 Jul 2012, 12:19 
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CrazyEttin wrote:
Pirka wrote:
Am I weird one out for knowing all the countries in the world? [:(] I blame having an atlas as my favorite book in fifth grade.


No, you're not weird. Or well, you are. But you're not the only weird one.
(I read through a list of countries and recognised every one of them)

Same here. But I too had an atlas as a child, with an index of all sovereign states and their flags and capitals and all that kind of stuff.
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CrazyEttin
PostPosted: Mon 16 Jul 2012, 12:30 
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Avo wrote:
CrazyEttin wrote:
Pirka wrote:
Am I weird one out for knowing all the countries in the world? [:(] I blame having an atlas as my favorite book in fifth grade.


No, you're not weird. Or well, you are. But you're not the only weird one.
(I read through a list of countries and recognised every one of them)

Same here. But I too had an atlas as a child, with an index of all sovereign states and their flags and capitals and all that kind of stuff.


Same! And i loved copying the maps, i think i still have somewhere a map of Africa i drew based on the one in the atlas. [:D]

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Ossicone
PostPosted: Mon 16 Jul 2012, 18:29 
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I also had an atlas as a child but it wasn't much help as it was already outdated by the time I could read. (USSR lol.)

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