At what point generally do people living in the western world realize that Africa is a continent and not a country?

Geography class in middle school (junior high) is my first recollection.

I share your frustration. But I must admit, there are two steps to this. The first one, not making the obvious mistake of calling a continent a country, is something that people might likely learn in school and if they don't, they didn't pay attention. But the second step is to understand that these countries all have different cultures, histories, mentalities, beauties and problems. And this awareness often just hits you (as outsider) after visiting your second African country. After the first visit to your first African country you think: "Now I know Africa." and start behaving like the expert. Then you travel somewhere else and start feeling ashamed for your arrogance and ignorance. I had spend about a year (on and off) in Namibia and then traveled to Ghana for the first time... To realize I knew nothing about Africa. And after living in the Upper East Region of Ghana for two years I realized I didn't even know much about Ghana as a whole but just about some northern tribes and their way of life. On a related note: Why do people call languages like German and Dutch "languages" and when it comes to African languages they always call them "dialects", even though they might be much more different to each other than these two northern European "dialects" (German and Dutch)?