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my jografy isnt gud
Nov. 14th, 2007 03:06 pmI've never been very good at geography. I was fine when it was colouring the sea in blue and the land in green, but when you had to start knowing where places were, and words like 'tertiary industry' started being used, I blanked out somewhat. The last eve geography lesson I ever had (having already chosen my GCSE options and therefore not bothering to listen much or do any of my homework for months) I skived by taking part in a mass aerobics-athon out in the school playing fields.
I've also had problems understanding the world as a globe after seeing it as a flat map with Russia-to-the-right and America-to-the-left.
Perhaps these reason explain why yesterday I found out that Greenland is not where I expected it to be.
We were stumbling, and came across this totally pointless and yet oddly compelling site which I can't stop watching which shows you in near-real-time when and where anonymous edits to wikipedia take place, and what page they are editing. I really could watch this for ages, and I have no idea why.
An edit was made in Greenland, and the map moved up, to show Greenland all the way above Iceland, towards America-to-the-right. I went O_O and Mark laughed at my ignorance. I had always assumed Greenland was landlocked, somewhere in between Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden. You know, somewhere near Russia-to-the-right.
The extent of my ignorance was quite scary really - I didn't realise Greenland was in the Arctic, nor that the north pole was at the top of Greenland. I didn't realise that geographically, it was in the continent of North America, although politically and historically associated with Europe.
I happily spent the next 15 minutes learning all about Greenland.
Then I noticed a small island between us and Iceland, and asked Mark if that was the Faroe Islands he'd told me about - but no! It was an archipelago (which I now know means a small collection of islands) called Svalbard, which belongs to Norway. Only 3 of the islands are inhabited! And there are these great street signs, seen only in Svalbard, which look like they say BEWARE OF THE POLAR BEAR - it's informing people to take care outside of the settlements, and the writing says 'Applies to the whole of Svalbard'. In my head though, it still says BEWARE OF BEARS so that's ok.
I spent the next 15 minutes happily learning all about Svalbard.
Learning is fun, no? I also now have an overwhelming desire to go to Greenland, despite the fact I will probably spend most of the time complaining about how cold it is.
I am rather concerned that I've managed to live for nearly 30 years on this planet, and yet know so little about it that I thought entire countries (apparently, Greenland is the largest island that isn't a continent!) were somewhere else entirely; or never realise that Japan was so tiny, or so close to America.
I want a globe now so I can learn more!
Was there anything you found out as a Grown Up that you felt a bit silly about not knowing?
I've also had problems understanding the world as a globe after seeing it as a flat map with Russia-to-the-right and America-to-the-left.
Perhaps these reason explain why yesterday I found out that Greenland is not where I expected it to be.
We were stumbling, and came across this totally pointless and yet oddly compelling site which I can't stop watching which shows you in near-real-time when and where anonymous edits to wikipedia take place, and what page they are editing. I really could watch this for ages, and I have no idea why.
An edit was made in Greenland, and the map moved up, to show Greenland all the way above Iceland, towards America-to-the-right. I went O_O and Mark laughed at my ignorance. I had always assumed Greenland was landlocked, somewhere in between Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden. You know, somewhere near Russia-to-the-right.
The extent of my ignorance was quite scary really - I didn't realise Greenland was in the Arctic, nor that the north pole was at the top of Greenland. I didn't realise that geographically, it was in the continent of North America, although politically and historically associated with Europe.
I happily spent the next 15 minutes learning all about Greenland.
Then I noticed a small island between us and Iceland, and asked Mark if that was the Faroe Islands he'd told me about - but no! It was an archipelago (which I now know means a small collection of islands) called Svalbard, which belongs to Norway. Only 3 of the islands are inhabited! And there are these great street signs, seen only in Svalbard, which look like they say BEWARE OF THE POLAR BEAR - it's informing people to take care outside of the settlements, and the writing says 'Applies to the whole of Svalbard'. In my head though, it still says BEWARE OF BEARS so that's ok.
I spent the next 15 minutes happily learning all about Svalbard.
Learning is fun, no? I also now have an overwhelming desire to go to Greenland, despite the fact I will probably spend most of the time complaining about how cold it is.
I am rather concerned that I've managed to live for nearly 30 years on this planet, and yet know so little about it that I thought entire countries (apparently, Greenland is the largest island that isn't a continent!) were somewhere else entirely; or never realise that Japan was so tiny, or so close to America.
I want a globe now so I can learn more!
Was there anything you found out as a Grown Up that you felt a bit silly about not knowing?
