In my experience, many people outside of the states can only really name a few specific states. Often it’s New York, California, Hawaii, Texas, Florida, and/or Alaska.
I’d wager quite a bit of money that less than 50% of people outside of the US would be able to identify which name in the following list is not one of the 50 states: Navajo, Idaho, Utah, and Montana.
I mean if you want to argue anecdotal evidence with anecdotal evidence, then you’d have to match my knowing all 50 states alphabetically. You’d also have to account for my friend in Norway who, when asked what states they could name (specifically in regard to this thread, but wasn’t originally in reference to your reply), gave me 12 names. 10 of them were US states (5 of them were in my list of 6 commonly named states) and the other 2 were US cities. That being said I will also state that they did get my question right despite my expectations.
But more broadly, I’m not saying that there aren’t people in places outside of the US who know many/all of the states or who know much more about the US than myself/most US residents. I am saying that in my personal experience talking with friends I’ve made over the Internet who do not live in the US, those friends generally know only a few states and the 6 I’ve listed are by and large the most common ones I’ve seen them list.
People not from the US will prefer names, not some (for most of the world) meaningless abbreviations.
In my experience, many people outside of the states can only really name a few specific states. Often it’s New York, California, Hawaii, Texas, Florida, and/or Alaska.
I’d wager quite a bit of money that less than 50% of people outside of the US would be able to identify which name in the following list is not one of the 50 states: Navajo, Idaho, Utah, and Montana.
I’d wager quite a bit of money that I (EU) can name as many as the average US banana republic dweller.
I mean if you want to argue anecdotal evidence with anecdotal evidence, then you’d have to match my knowing all 50 states alphabetically. You’d also have to account for my friend in Norway who, when asked what states they could name (specifically in regard to this thread, but wasn’t originally in reference to your reply), gave me 12 names. 10 of them were US states (5 of them were in my list of 6 commonly named states) and the other 2 were US cities. That being said I will also state that they did get my question right despite my expectations.
But more broadly, I’m not saying that there aren’t people in places outside of the US who know many/all of the states or who know much more about the US than myself/most US residents. I am saying that in my personal experience talking with friends I’ve made over the Internet who do not live in the US, those friends generally know only a few states and the 6 I’ve listed are by and large the most common ones I’ve seen them list.