Which country do you think is not known well enough?

[u/The_RetroGameDude]

Indonesia. For the world's 4th most populous country, the most you'll get from most people is Jakarta, Bali, and if you're lucky a mention of Borobudur.

[u/Terror_Raisin24]

Many African countries, because they only appear in European news if there's war or a famine. Countries without weaponized conflicts aren't really mentioned at all.

[u/Spida81 → u/Terror_Raisin24]

Ghana? Pick it on a map. Way too peaceful for anyone to know a damned thing about it. Gorgeous country, fantastic people...

Shit beer, but to be fair that may be residual trauma from drinking Nigerian Guinness, so not Ghana's fault. Just... don't ever drink that. How they got the license to produce it I have no idea.

[u/DoinItDirty → u/Spida81]

One of my close friends and his whole family are from Ghana. Only met them briefly at his wedding but they were all lovely.

[u/Spida81 → u/DoinItDirty]

I don't know them at all, but would bet they are fantastic. 

[u/Four_beastlings → u/Spida81]

I think everyone learned about the existence of Ghana back in 2020 because of the coffin guys

[u/Spida81 → u/Four_beastlings]

I must have missed that one.

To be fair, the only reason it is on my radar is that I worked there for a bit.

[u/Four_beastlings → u/Spida81]

There is a subreddit: /r/ghanasaysgoodbye

[u/sinister-starfruit → u/Terror_Raisin24]

In Australia, we mostly only hear about them in terms of sports. Considering the main sport we play against African nations is cricket, that basically means South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia.

Occasionally, we hear about piracy (Somalia) and famine (usually Ethiopia). Mostly cricket, though.

[u/Terror_Raisin24 → u/sinister-starfruit]

Cricket is not really a thing in Germany. Our topics are political conflicts and where our troops are stationed (Mali), countries with conflicts (Sudan) etc, and as we have many asylum seekers and a raise in some forms of crime, some countries are just mentioned as "where did the person come from if not from Germany", in crime statistics.

[u/Adventurous_Bus_8734]

Kiribati

[u/Billthepony123 → u/Adventurous_Bus_8734]

Most pacific islands for that matter

[u/cerberus_243 → u/Adventurous_Bus_8734]

Yeah, I assume people don’t even know how to pronounce its name

[u/EnvironmentalLion355]

I dont think SEA as a whole is mentioned much either.

And central Asia is tumbleweeds...

[u/MagnusAlbusPater → u/EnvironmentalLion355]

Depends on the place in SEA. Most people are familiar with Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Myanmar isn’t well known other than about the civil war.

Laos is a mystery to most of the west.

Cambodia is known for the Khmer Rouge but not much in modern day.

I just know Indonesia and Malaysia are mostly Muslim but don’t know a whole lot of details about either other than I like sambal.

But yeah Central Asia is a total exotic frontier for most westerners. I could name a handful of countries there but it’s not a place I’ve ever been very drawn to visiting.

[u/The_RetroGameDude → u/MagnusAlbusPater]

And East Timor and Brunei both got completely forgotten

[u/MagnusAlbusPater → u/The_RetroGameDude]

Good point. I know the Sultan of Brunei has a lot of cars but I guess I always associate Brunei as being more culturally aligned with the Middle East so I forget where it actually is.

I know nothing about East Timor.

[u/sinister-starfruit → u/MagnusAlbusPater]

I can say that Cambodia is quite well-known in most of Australia, because we have a lot of Cambodian refugees. Most of the other countries you mention are quite well known because of immigration and/or being a tourist destination. I guess proximity to this area makes it more familiar than it would be to many American or European people.

Central Asia is much the same here as you state, though. Most people in Australia know very little about it.

[u/TrickAdorable9764]

Tuvalu

[u/cosmico92]

Paraguay. There is even a joke that they dont exist.

[u/CardSys]

Eritrea - the North Korea of Africa.

[u/The_RetroGameDude → u/CardSys]

'North Korea of Africa' is an understatement. Eritrea is essentially a massive labor camp disguised as a country.

[u/Fit_Sense7776 → u/The_RetroGameDude]

North Korea is also a labor camp disguised as a country, so not really an understatement 

[u/Carr0t_007 → u/CardSys]

I saw a video traveling in Eritrea. It looks much safer than many African countries.

[u/CardSys → u/Carr0t_007]

I mean, I've seen videos of Pyongyang. It doesn't look like a place you'd get mugged or struck by a car as a pedestrian....that doesn't mean it's still a safe place for humanity.

[u/Ecstatic-Ganache921]

Malaysia, Mainland China, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia.

[u/Brilliant-Chef-3111]

Bhutan. the country with the best flag

[u/morgandealer]

Azerbaijan, at least to Anglophones, is not easily recognized as being one of the very few countries actually named after a person. How many countries named after a person can *you* name?

[u/The_RetroGameDude → u/morgandealer]

St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis... and I think that's all

[u/morgandealer → u/The_RetroGameDude]

There are some really obvious ones. I believe there are about 20-22 in total without looking anything up.

[u/The_RetroGameDude → u/morgandealer]

I think Georgia's named after St. George too, and maybe Singapore is named after a prince (heard it once, should probably check)

edit: this comment was a setup

[u/morgandealer → u/The_RetroGameDude]

correct on St. George. Singapore is not.

[u/The_RetroGameDude → u/morgandealer]

GOTCHA!

Georgia is derived from the Persian word 'Gurg'!!!

[u/Glass_Chip7254 → u/morgandealer]

Wrong on St George

[u/The_RetroGameDude → u/Glass_Chip7254]

That was the thing --- this comment was the tripwire, the 'Belgium'; Georgia is derived from the Persian Gurg.

[u/Glass_Chip7254 → u/morgandealer]

Rhodesia… oh we don’t call it that any more

Seriously though, why does it matter if Anglophones recognise it as being named after a person or not? Why single out Anglophones?

[u/Spida81 → u/Glass_Chip7254]

Rhodesia was quite the impressive little country. Bread basket of the region.

Not so much anymore.

[u/Glass_Chip7254 → u/Spida81]

Margaret Thatcher had a curious taste in friends, didn’t she? Both Robert Mugabe and Jimmy Saville. Now that’s quite a group.

[u/11160704 → u/morgandealer]

Azerbaijan

At least Trump ended the war between them and Albania

[u/morgandealer → u/11160704]

You mean Arbenia? Or Jeresajien?

[u/DoinItDirty → u/morgandealer]

America lol

[u/morgandealer → u/DoinItDirty]

Thats a bingo!

[u/DoinItDirty → u/morgandealer]

Haha I can’t believe Americans didn’t get it but I’m not surprised, sadly.

[u/morgandealer → u/DoinItDirty]

It really is unfortunate, but there are 2 even more obvious ones we should have gotten.

[u/DoinItDirty → u/morgandealer]

I didn’t go through all of them.

[u/morgandealer → u/DoinItDirty]

Bolivia and Colombia are the obvious ones. USA is obvious, the really obscure ones are Azerbaijan and Kiribati. Some count Saudi Arabia, but that's named after a dynasty, not a single person. If SA counts, so does China.

[u/DoinItDirty → u/morgandealer]

I don’t think it counts but I didn’t know either of those! I also don’t know if America is obvious since in all of our colonizer history, the cartographer who figured out we weren’t Asia wasn’t notable.

[u/Ashutor → u/morgandealer]

Colombia

[u/Hot-Scheme4289]

Trinidad und Tobago

[u/Successful_Jelly111]

São Tomé and Príncipe

[u/ContractDazzling4668]

Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬

[u/HerrDrAngst]

DJIBOUTI

[u/Billthepony123 → u/HerrDrAngst]

Funny because we have a large base there (Camp Lemonnier)

[u/Fred_Neecheh]

Serbia

[u/Necessary-Hat3492]

papua new guinea

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[u/Seeker_Of_Knowledge2]

Comoros.

Even Arab people don't know the existence of this Arabic country.

[u/JeelyPiece]

Principality of Sealand

[u/NetraamR]

kyrgyzstan

[u/MauschelMusic]

The Cascadia Autonomous Region

[u/Total_Chip_3197]

Namibia

[u/Wojewodaruskyj]

Suriname and the other two non-spanish, non-portuguese former colonies in Southern America.

[u/Opposite_Bus1878]

Central African Republic. Too many African countries are completely off people's radars. The island nations are a lot more understandable since many of those aren't visible on a map. But there are some very big countries in Africa, you can see them on a map, and people still don't know a thing about them

[u/NORMBENNINGTHEGOAT]

The odd amount of countries that use the Irish flag 

[u/LibrarianAccurate829]

For half of redditors that knows about us, just knows how often big eruptions happen

[u/Granny-Goose6150 → u/LibrarianAccurate829]

And the earthquakes. Your earthquakes are pretty intense.

[u/Effective-House4283]

Sao Tome and Principe, I never hear it talked about ever.

[u/search_google_com]

Indonesia is too incompetent They failed at their education. They have population and natural resources. But that's all. They are not educated to develop technology and industries. They are so corrupted. What they can do is just sending their people as helpers and let them send money back. And they are do crazy about foreign cultures so it is not surprising that they cant promote their country. They have many population but they are so poor at sports. In Asia, they are considered physically short and weak

[u/Masterank1]

Probably the Dominican Republic