I think I follow you. Let me present an analogy, closer to my own expertise.

I can read French fairly well. I can (or could, at one time) speak it reasonably well, too; I once spent a month in France, traveling solo, speaking French almost exclusively. But there is a very real sense in which I do not know French; I can't tell a Norman accent from a Parisian, or either from a Nicoise. Slang, subtle distinctions, cultural allusions which any Frenchman would catch immediately - these would escape me.

All of which is rather far from the superficial discussion I was expecting. Trust a geographer to stretch one's mind on a geographical issue...