My Swiss girlfriend was on the phone with her brother the other day, and the topic of discussion turned to Americans. She was telling him about her many encounters with people in the U.S. who confused Switzerland and Sweden. There was a long pause on the other end of the line, before her brother exclaimed:

"Ahhhhh, so that's what he meant!"

He was referring to a conversation he had recently with his business partner where he made reference to Scandinavian time, believing, of course, that Switzerland was in that time zone.

I must admit, I've never quite understood this confusion myself. Ever since I was a kid, I had some knowledge of Switzerland and its location. Perhaps that had something to do with being a history buff from an early age. There was a large collection of books around the house on WW2, and I regularly consumed them. I understood Switzerland's roll in the trade of Nazi loot, for one thing. Of course it wasn't the only country that profited from the Nazi scourge, but I digress.

Perhaps Americans are just a little geographically challenged, as a whole. You would expect uneducated people to not confuse the two countries, but what is the excuse of those with a higher education? When my girlfriend lived in Seattle, she was dating a guy whose sister had been a teacher for decades. You'd think she'd know better, but apparently not. Suffice to say, she was quite embarrassed to be politely educated on the subject.

Is it just that the two countries begin with the same two letters? Or maybe it's because the U.S. is so large, it's enough of a task for Americans to learn about their own geography. And let's face it, the general populace couldn't point quite a number of those little states on the east coast if they weren't labeled. Hell, even I have a problem with that. Even some of those big rectangular states in the west get me confused

I'll make a confession: Before I met my girlfriend, I was under the impression that Switzerland was geographically located to the north of Germany. Whoops! Well, that's less embarrassing than confusing it with that big slab of a country up in Scandinavia.

Take a look at the map below which was featured on CNN some years ago. How does a major news network confuse the Czech Republic with Switzerland? Damn, my face would really be red if I were responsible for that blunder.