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3
Feb 05
Thu

Quick question

I am really amazed at how many people do not know how many states there are in the USA! Do you know the answer off the top of your head? (Americans don’t count for this question.)

This post has 18 comments

1.  BLG

Okay, let me wrap my brain around this. So you’re telling me there are actually people who exist on the planet Earth (older than, say, 12) who don’t know how many states there are in the Union? I’m an American and I know that Australia has six states (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, and Tasmania) and two territories (the Capital Territory and the Northern Territory). Doesn’t anybody teach geography anymore?

2.  Shish

I’m an Aussie, and strangely enough, although I can immediately say how many states are in the US (won’t spoil it for everyone :), I’d have to count it out to answer the same question for Australia. Question for BLG: did you immediately know 6/2 or did you have to count them?

3.  Teldak

No, they really don’t teach geography much anymore, BLG. I’m an American and know we’ve got […] states, don’t know how many territories we have (this should really be taught to us). I don’t know how many Australia has (while, I do after your comment, but didn’t before). Sheesh, geography in public schools here in America is crap. I don’t even know how many there are in Canada (though I think there’re something like 8) and I like in Washington, seemingly one of the more Canada-friendly states.

4.  MT

Actually, with all the rhetoric going on about Australia, Canada, the UK sharing the dubious title of being effectively the “51st state of the USA” due their willingness in following American policy, I ended up really think that there were 51 states. When I tried to use the rhetorical device, I called Australia the 52nd state, and got some strange glances.

5.  Stu

I’ll explain what people have been saying about the number of America’s states a bit later.

I don’t expect anyone out of Australia to know about how many states Australia has, or the fact that it has two territories (it really is a technicality, and many Aussies who know that we have two territories don’t know the significance of that fact – in the same way I don’t know the relationship Puerto Rico has with the States).

I don’t know how many provinces Canada, and can only name a few – Quebec, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Alberta… and then I’m stuck.

6.  Peter

There’s like, fitty fy a dem states ya?

7.  Shish

Diversion – it occurred to me a while ago how unimaginative Australian state and territory names are…

New South Wales – presumably something to do with the original South Wales, although oddly enough I don’t know the exact relevance.

Victoria – named after the queen.

Queensland – ditto.

South Australia – duh.

Western Australia – DUH.

Tasmania – named after Abel Tasman; that’s the only name that’s even remotely interesting.

Northen Territory – *DUH*.

Australian Capital Territory – sigh.

8.  BLG

Good question Shish, but yeah, I immediately knew them. Technically I was wrong though, as I left out the Coral Sea Territory and the Australian Antarctic Territory, which are uninhabited and not permanently populated respectively, and then there’s Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, and the Keeling Islands, but those are self-governing territories.

I don’t know about the study of geography in public schools all that much Teldak, because I only attended them for three years of my education (5th, 7th, 8th). However, even when I was in public school, and in the rest of my private schooling, we were pushed to learn geography (I still know all the capitals of US states, all the Canadian provinces, obviously Australia’s political geography, and almost all the countries in the world).

Canada, east to west, has ten provinces (Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia) and three territories (Nunavut [the newest territory], the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon Territory).

If I’m not mistaken Stu, Australia is a Commonwealth and the ACT is a territory of said Commonwealth that internally has self-government but doesn’t have the legislative independence of the states. The Northern Territory has a legislature similar to (but not the same as) the other Australian states, but its powers are not constitutional, rather they spring forth from the Commonwealth, so to speak. Puerto Rico is, to be very technical, a self-governing unincorporated organized territory (and for us in the US, a small ‘c’ commonwealth, which only describes our political relationship). This means, very simply, that only parts of our Constitution apply there, they must have their own Bill of Rights, and their government must be split into the three branches provided for in our Constitution.

9.  Patriot

Whoever is criticising the names of the Australian states…. well… F’k you.

And here is tingers up for you.

I love Australia, any critiscing anything about it I won’t tolerate. Its my second home. F’k you!

10.  Patriot

last message is suppose to be … “tingers”

Stuart – mate, for some reason the words didn’t come out… why?

11.  Patriot

F’k its happening again.

Stuart – mate… you gotta check this out.

12.  Patriot

FYI, tingers… its suppose to be “2 fingers”

but it seems to drop the “”

13.  Patriot

Mate…

dropping the “double u”, “o”, “space”, “f”

14.  Shish

Second home? It’s my first home. I love it. I wouldn’t live anywhere else for all the tea in wherever I would potentially otherwise live. But that doesn’t change how dull the state names are.

Of all the things you could criticise a country for, I would have thought that unimaginative place names would be the *least* controversial and flame-worthy. (If I were to criticise the state of public education and hospitals, for example, that would be a different story. But I won’t. At least not now.)

And yeah, I agree, Stu, there’s been a bug in the posting system for ages that introduces typos… Could you look into it?

15.  Stu

Ok, finally fixed the problem that’s making people randomly sound deranged. “Tingers!” hahah.

16.  Patriot

Testing “two fingers”

17.  Patriot

Well done Stu!

18.  Shish

And there was much rejoicing.

(Yay)

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