As a Colombian, I can only cringe inside and sigh a little every time I see someone misspell the country as Columbia, when it is spelled as Colombia. While we all love our Columbia ski jackets and raincoats, the company and the country are two very different things. As with all things, if you are ever hesitant about the spelling of a country, someone's name or anything else, look it up on Google first. Especially in a professional setting, misspelling something as simple as the country you were researching hurts your credibility.
Last semester, I took a class where we had to give group presentations as a final project in front of the entire class. One of the groups had a case that included Colombia. Throughout the entire presentation, the group had misspelled every slide title and mention of the country. Instead of using the correct spelling, they had written Columbia. It is one thing for one person to make the mistake, but none of the other three team members caught the spelling error either. It is crucial to be aware of not only spelling, but cultural sensitivity. A lot of countries and languages are hard to spell, so looking up for two seconds on the internet is the easiest way to avoid embarrassment or decrease your credibility.
To make matters worse, I am currently in a course where the professor spelled the country as Columbia on the board for the entire class. It is definitely understandable that we all make errors and cannot spell everything correctly all the time. However, in an educational or professional setting, if you don't know how to spell the name of a country, language or anything else, it is important to look it up. Doing a one minute Google search can save you an issues and make sure you seem credible, apt and culturally aware of your students and/or colleagues.
Something as simple as misspelling the name of someone's country can be offensive and make you look bad. It is something that is easily avoidable and preventable with a quick question or an internet search. Remember, it's Colombia, not Columbia.
