Can Europeans Answer Simple Geography Questions?

I attended the EGM (Erasmus Generation Meeting), organised by @ESNInternational, where 900+ people from all over Europe gathered to shape the future of Europe. Since this is one of the biggest international events of ESN (Erasmus Student Network), I decided to test the participants' knowledge on Geography. Here's what happened.

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#lingualizer

[lingualizer]

Sorry for the Italy/Ivory Coast mistake! Also for the "capital on the northern coast of Africa" question, as it was poorly phrased. I wanted to refer to the countries being located there, not (necessarily) the capitals. Same goes for the oldest country in the world, I should have said Republic instead. Thanks for all of your feedback and the love you've shown this video, I really appreciate it and promise to be a better interviewer in the next videos!

[Peo_Sahlin]

The difficulty level of the questions the Europeans get is incredibly much more difficult than the Americans. In addition, they have to answer in a language that is not their first.

[faraosha]

The level of questions asked by Europeans and Americans is significantly different.

[onionring]

Questions for Europeans: name all the landlocked countries in Africa in alphabetical order
Questions for Americans: name one European country

[danhodson]

Europe: "Why are there 5 olympic rings in the 7 continent model?" - Gets question right
USA: "What country do you live in?" - "Dafuq is a country bro?"

[IQEGO]

Now remember, they have to go through all countries AND translate evrything from their native language to english. Like the capitals - they are spelled differently in different languages. Like Rome has 4 letters in english but in my language it has only 3. This dual-language thinking is sometimes pretty insane.

[velars]

Not only are these definitly not "simple" Geography Questions, but the contestants had to answer them in english (not their first language). And you picked questions (especially the first ones) that get much, much harder in another language.
I came up with like two capitals with 4 letters in german, and then I realized oh, no, in English it has more letters. Like, you would have to actively think of capitals in english and count their letters in the first place. That's more an english test than anything else.

[mrdimitroff]

There's a catch here, those are not simply geography questions but lexical ones. Especially the ones with the letters expect the person to not only be somehow capable in geography but also in a foreign language as many of the toponyms aren't spelled the same in their own language

[SickPillow]

The "oldest country in the world" question is no good. It has many different answers based on how you define a country, and the answer changes depending on what source you are using.

[Brinta]

When you see videos like this filmed in an American city the questions are things like:
- What language is spoken in Germany?
- Is Canada to the north or south of the USA?

[hubertl]

You should do this with American college students. I do not think you would have to distribute any money!

[JasperNLxD]

"FROM ALL OVER EUROPE!"
Almost everyone is from the Netherlands xD

[devonmckinley]

Italy's flag flipped upside down is not the Ivory coast's flag, Ireland's flag flipped 180 degrees would be Ivory coast.

[mimmiblu]

Does the definition of "simple" vary in different continents? If you add to that that they all had to translate from their languages to English... at least in Italy we study geography in Italian and I was thinking... capitals with 4 letters... ok, let's translate everything into English... is Lima the same in English? Who knows... and it was.

[MsSharondenadel]

Questions to Europeans : How many words in the oldest country's constitution. Then divide per ten and multiplie by PI.
Questions to Americans : How many moons.

[Ulbre]

Interesting note on the question of 5 capitals in Asia.
The guy from Europe started answering capitals that were closer to Europe whereas I am from Australia and I automatically started naming capitals closer to Australia....Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Phnom Penh,

[xenotypos]

1. Your questions are harder than usual, those aren't "simple" geography questions (though it depended, a few were considerably easy, I'm just saying overall).

2. the questions with "letters" require to have a very good level in english too, so those are bad questions for people with another native language. The other questions were good.
You should really concentrate on questions that aren't about final letters, first letters, the number of letters...

[kennoth]

Most of these questions are not simple, and I consider myself a geography buff.

[LayllasLocker]

Hahahahhahaha. Moldovan guy killed it. XD 😅 I can totally see myself failing in many of these under pressure.

[hanswoast]

Some of these questions only made sense in English, e.g. are way harder for non-native English speakers (like most of the people in the video :P )