Sunday, June 12, 2011

Map quest


Map Quest


The twentieth Winter Olympics are being hosted in Italy by Torino. Or, is it Turin? Or, does it matter which? The real question should be, in the USA, does anyone even know the distinction?


Turin, Torino, Winter Olympics, Italy cities, Italian cities, Europe geography, NBC Sports, Cyberiter


Historians teach that the USA emerged from its isolationist ways when it entered World War I ...

Geography teachers may dispute that point.

Whenever an American media outlet wants to re-emphasize the issue, they merely find one of many studies that show a significant percentage of high school students can't locate major foreign cities or countries on a map. The inference is that, no matter what the foreign policy, the average American citizen doesn't know or doesn't care about much of the world beyond his borders.

If that's the case, I guess the average American viewer can't get any more confused when NBC follows the international 'corporate line' and promotes the Winter Olympics as being based in Torino.

Americans speak English. In their language, the name of the city is Turin.

Somewhere in the past, cultures have seen fit to customize geographic names for reasons known only to them at the time. Perhaps it was a 'pronunciation' issue or a translation matter. Whatever the origin, it's well-established

 



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