It's Colombia, not Columbia

Columbia is in South Carolina. Colombia is in South America. And no, it's not Columbia in English and Colombia in Spanish. It's Colombia in both languages.

Having been born to a Colombian mother in Miami, and having loads of family down there which I visit frequently, it's a pet peeve of mine when Americans misspell it. And it happens way too often.

Cheers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia

I get ticked off when just about everyone who sees it thinks the dutch flag is the same as the french one.

lets review:

Netherlands:




France:

And can understand the frustration.

American's lives are dominated by television. We are raised in a coccoon created by media executives, corporate tycoons, and political manipulators. Our grade schools are some of the worst in the Western hemisphere and have been made even worse thanks to Bush's so-called "Leave no Child Behind" Act and other right-wing fundamentalist attacks on science and education.

I mean, can you imagine living in a state where the official science curriculum advocates creationism? What is this, the Dark Ages? They may as well teach that the world is carried around on the back of a giant turtle who roams the heavens - a beautiful story but it ain't science and won't help anybody in today's climate of economic repression.

So when some uneducated American misspells your country's name, be thankful he even know your country exists. And when this poor bastard mangles your flag and gets it confused with another's, be happy they at least got the continent right.

And if you think I exaggerate, here are some facts about "No. 1" to stun and amaze your friends:

# The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

# The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

# Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).

# "The International Adult Literacy Survey...found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.78).
http://www.citypages.com/databank/26/1264/article12985.asp

I know that I must but......
(Liberalitch primal screams, runs from room)

:patriot:
Everything's going to be fiiiiine, juuuust fiiiiine.

would the French then be the Netherlands...and so on?

the flags are rectangular, the bars in the Dutch flag are narrower and longer.

maybe not?

Grenada (small island nation) is pronounced Gre-nay-dah.

Grenada, Spain is pronounced Gre-nah-da.

Thanks. I used to date a guy from Grenada (small island nation.)

Beautiful place.

:)

but it's GrAnada, Spain. Granada.

And I do know that. Now if I can only go back and edit that post.

It's sad that so many people are so clueless about the rest of the world.

Would it be Columbia in English and Columbia in Spanish? What about Portuguese?

Only they would pronounce it "Col -- oom -- bia"

Back in the 1500s it was common to Latinize the names of scholars. For some reason the wrong name for Columbus stuck in the English literature.

so you know that makes me CRAZY!!!!!!!

Ambrose Bierce once wrote that "war is how americans learn geography"
So true!

What's the capital of Burkina Faso?

Something like that?

You mean to sit there and tell me that you didn't do a quick Google search? And we're all supposed to believe THAT? Oh, come now...

Just kidding! That was very good. I like to use that when someone explains something and then asks, "Are there any questions?" Other times, I say, "Yes. A train leaves Baltimore at 9:00 in the morning doing 125 MPH. At the same time, a train leaves..."

who is dead on on this type of stuff.

:evilgrin:

Sorry. I have to be bad sometimes.