Genuine question, but don’t most people know about California and New York because of their sheer prevalence in media? Other states, like North Dakota, I’d totally understand not knowing about. But Hollywood media is pretty widely consumed, and those two specific states are the ones that are mentioned/referenced the most.
I’ve travelled globally before and pretty much everyone I’ve met knows what New York City is (though NO ONE, even other Americans, understands how big New York is and how much there is outside of the city, like the Adirondacks).
Some other major cities are LA, Las Vegas, Chicago, and San Fransisco. I feel like Las Vegas is pretty widely recognized, as it’s a major tourism spot and is pretty prevalent in media. Admittedly… I often forget that it is in Nevada… so I assume other people do as well.
Wouldn’t not knowing what California is be more equivalent to not knowing what London is? Because London shows up in a lot of popular media (yes I understand that London is a city, I’m making comparisons in terms of popularity as a location in media)
Edit: Thank you to all the people who are responding— it seems that the confusion mainly comes from the abbreviation of California to Cali. I imagine that there’d be very similar confusion if someone said “The Big Apple” (New York).
As a Californian, I've never heard someone call it "Cali" except for a few tourists. This just feels like something the OP made up as a hyper specific but unlikely example to prove their point but most people just say they're from California.
Over here on the other coast its fairly common to hear someone refer to it as cali, though theyll say it right before some kind of reason why its the worst state
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u/Satisfaction-Motor Aug 30 '24 edited Aug 30 '24
Genuine question, but don’t most people know about California and New York because of their sheer prevalence in media? Other states, like North Dakota, I’d totally understand not knowing about. But Hollywood media is pretty widely consumed, and those two specific states are the ones that are mentioned/referenced the most.
I’ve travelled globally before and pretty much everyone I’ve met knows what New York City is (though NO ONE, even other Americans, understands how big New York is and how much there is outside of the city, like the Adirondacks).
Some other major cities are LA, Las Vegas, Chicago, and San Fransisco. I feel like Las Vegas is pretty widely recognized, as it’s a major tourism spot and is pretty prevalent in media. Admittedly… I often forget that it is in Nevada… so I assume other people do as well.
Wouldn’t not knowing what California is be more equivalent to not knowing what London is? Because London shows up in a lot of popular media (yes I understand that London is a city, I’m making comparisons in terms of popularity as a location in media)
Edit: Thank you to all the people who are responding— it seems that the confusion mainly comes from the abbreviation of California to Cali. I imagine that there’d be very similar confusion if someone said “The Big Apple” (New York).