I just moved into a new dorm in Korea and I now have a Finnish room mate. Super cool guy, but today we started talking about geography, and after some talking back and forth he started quizzing me.
I have never really been good at geography, but he just made everything seem even worse. I couldn't even remember Oslo when he asked about it, and said that Africa was a country by accident. Everything just fucked up. I WOULD NEVER FORGET THAT OSLO IS NOWAYS CAPITAL!!!! And yet I did.... Feel so ashamed and stupid... Things like that should never happen....
I feel so bad atm. that I started practicing geography on the internet again whenever he is out of the room.
Have you ever experienced something similar that made you not only want to change it, but also do something about it?
Why would anyone quiz someone like that ??;; If I knew about something and it was apparent that the other person didn't know anything about it, I wouldn't quiz them.. it seems a bit rude.
I think there is a saying that there is no shame in ignorance but shame in not trying to learn. (not sure the exact wording because I heard it in Korean). And you seem like a person who is eager to learn, so there is no shame in what happened. :D
Lot of Europeans think that Americans suck at geography and you proved that dude right haha ^^ but why don't you get back at him by asking him about geography in the US... I mean it's not strange that you arent as familiar with European geography, but calling Africa a country was kinda dumb xD
But look on the bright side, he exposed a weakness in your general knowledge and now you can improve it... No harm done right?
On September 08 2012 20:05 B.I.G. wrote: Lot of Europeans think that Americans suck at geography and you proved that dude right haha ^^ but why don't you get back at him by asking him about geography in the US... I mean it's not strange that you arent as familiar with European geography, but calling Africa a country was kinda dumb xD
But look on the bright side, he exposed a weakness in your general knowledge and now you can improve it... No harm done right?
Denmark dude... Denmark... Which is why it was so embarrassing...
On September 08 2012 20:28 Ryhzuo wrote: I thought the capital of Russia was Berlin. I'm from New Zealand and was homeschool for most of primary school, so I never learned geography. Ever.
if you played awesome board games like risk and diplomacy you'd never need to :D
On September 08 2012 20:05 B.I.G. wrote: Lot of Europeans think that Americans suck at geography and you proved that dude right haha ^^ but why don't you get back at him by asking him about geography in the US... I mean it's not strange that you arent as familiar with European geography, but calling Africa a country was kinda dumb xD
But look on the bright side, he exposed a weakness in your general knowledge and now you can improve it... No harm done right?
I can't remember ever having geography in school,, but i do have an okay grasp over the geography of our planet,, not sure why though,, must've picked it up somewhere.. O_o
If remembering which country Oslo was the capital of was important and/or useful then you'd have been able to regurgitate the critical knowledge no problem. I doubt you'd be embarrassed if you failed when quizzed on what I ate yesterday-- it's simply not important to you.
What makes this geographical fact so important that you should never have forgotten it?
Plenty of times in my life I've had the experience of needing to make change once my eyes had been opened to my ignorance. Just like you probably don't care to learn what I ate yesterday, you get to decide whether or not learning geography is something worth pursuing. To me, remembering to lock the front door is more important than remembering the capital of a country I've never visited XD
On September 08 2012 20:05 B.I.G. wrote: Lot of Europeans think that Americans suck at geography and you proved that dude right haha ^^ but why don't you get back at him by asking him about geography in the US... I mean it's not strange that you arent as familiar with European geography, but calling Africa a country was kinda dumb xD
But look on the bright side, he exposed a weakness in your general knowledge and now you can improve it... No harm done right?
hahaha ok stupid me for not checking your home country but yeah if you dont know the capitals of your neighbouring countries you have some studying to do ^^
It's cool that you have a roommate that managed to make you start trying to fill a gap in your knowledge. You never know when something like geography could come in useful.
One thing I find weird is that I've met a lot of people in my travels that didn't know Ireland (Not Northern Ireland) is not part of the U.K. I suppose it's not exactly a relevant piece of information to a lot of people but I just find it strange people don't know.
I'm so fucking awful in Geography, it's almost embarrassing. I know why I am awful as well. I never had Geography past elementary school(age 4-12). The thing is, that should've given me at least basic knowlegde of the world Geography, and it would have. If it wasn't for me finding a great method of studying Geography.
Basically, every Wednesday the first thing that happened that day was testing your Geography. What I would do was wake up 10 minutes earlier get my Geography book, and study the region we had to study. Usually the region didn't have more than 20 or so different rivers/city's you had to remember. What I did was come up with a rhythm/song that used these city's as lyrics whilst visualising the map in my head. I would repeat this song in my head during the trip to school. Because the test was the first thing in the morning I would still have the song fresh in my memory and ace the test. The thing is, I almost always used the same rhythms, very basic and very easy to remember,verygeneric. Which resulted into me forgotting the song only hours after the test. I would seriously get a perfect score on the test the first thing in the morning and when I got home after school I would not for, the life of me remember anything at all about what I had studied in the morning.
Oh I love Le dessous des cartes/Mit offenen Karten on ARTE. Go check it out if you can understand french or german and want to learn some geography coupled with history.
Knowing geography is great, it always impresses people when they are from a distant country and you know some of the cities. I learned geography by playing a game with my grandpa. In his study there was (what seemed, for my age, to be) a huge globe. We'd have to find the city that he gave us in exchange for candy
On September 08 2012 20:28 Ryhzuo wrote: I thought the capital of Russia was Berlin. I'm from New Zealand and was homeschool for most of primary school, so I never learned geography. Ever.
if you played awesome board games like risk and diplomacy you'd never need to :D
Yep, I'm glad I know that Kamchatka borders Yakutsk, Irkutsk, and Mongolia.
eh...if you look at Dota 2 map,you see dot of russian server placed in stockholm.no kidding.
On September 08 2012 19:47 Haze.884 wrote: Why would anyone quiz someone like that ??;; If I knew about something and it was apparent that the other person didn't know anything about it, I wouldn't quiz them.. it seems a bit rude.
I think there is a saying that there is no shame in ignorance but shame in not trying to learn. (not sure the exact wording because I heard it in Korean). And you seem like a person who is eager to learn, so there is no shame in what happened. :D
I hope you have good time in Korea!
becouse it is fun .i always teas one guy about basic everest camp at 10 000 metres and ceylon near korea.
On September 08 2012 20:05 B.I.G. wrote: Lot of Europeans think that Americans suck at geography and you proved that dude right haha ^^ but why don't you get back at him by asking him about geography in the US... I mean it's not strange that you arent as familiar with European geography, but calling Africa a country was kinda dumb xD
But look on the bright side, he exposed a weakness in your general knowledge and now you can improve it... No harm done right?
On September 08 2012 20:28 Ryhzuo wrote: I thought the capital of Russia was Berlin. I'm from New Zealand and was homeschool for most of primary school, so I never learned geography. Ever.
I was homeschooled from most of primary school and I was forced to memorize all the countries of Africa, Europe,Central America, South America and Asia. lol
On September 08 2012 20:28 Ryhzuo wrote: I thought the capital of Russia was Berlin. I'm from New Zealand and was homeschool for most of primary school, so I never learned geography. Ever.
if you played awesome board games like risk and diplomacy you'd never need to :D
The only skill I got from Diplomacy was how to get really good at lying .
I think I've had to study close to every Country (with often capital) of the world in elementary school and a little bit in middle school. But a week after that I had already forgotten most of it...
I didn't know that Oslo was the capital of Norway either :D I am terrible at geography too, distinguishing the Nordic countries is already enough of a pain in the ass for me :<
On September 08 2012 20:28 Ryhzuo wrote: I thought the capital of Russia was Berlin. I'm from New Zealand and was homeschool for most of primary school, so I never learned geography. Ever.
if you played awesome board games like risk and diplomacy you'd never need to :D
Better is Europa Universalis. That's where I got all my knowledge of the middle ages >:-)
Doesn't work if your good at it (NA/SA and all these countries are just conspiracies, it's the new switzerland) .
I once mistaken slovenia for slovakia... Was trunk.. Still felt horrible... In the big picture.. I'm not "great" at it but normally i can tell what belongs to what and where it is .
On September 08 2012 20:28 Ryhzuo wrote: I thought the capital of Russia was Berlin. I'm from New Zealand and was homeschool for most of primary school, so I never learned geography. Ever.
if you played awesome board games like risk and diplomacy you'd never need to :D
Yep, I'm glad I know that Kamchatka borders Yakutsk, Irkutsk, and Mongolia.
We always had a world map on the wall which helped a lot as well to clean up the bits like that :DD
I think I'm somewhat decent at it. I remember in 5th grade one of my teachers made us remember the capitals of all the states. Outside of the U.S., I know the capitals of a few countries, but I'm definitely not the best at it.
I even forgot the capital of a Dutch province (we only have 12). Well who gives a fuck about Drenthe anyway? I'm pretty good at geography but there's always some you "should know" that you forget. You don't use this information all that much.
I remember playing a game as a kid, learning all the capitals of the european countries. Was one of those games I could play on the computer as much as I wanted. (with 2 hour week limit on the others) Europe has changed a bit since then though, but I'm happy I had a game like that. Geography was so much easier in school. Though I'm quite weak on US states, African, Asian & South American capitals including some countries.
On September 09 2012 03:06 Paperplane wrote: I even forgot the capital of a Dutch province (we only have 12). Well who gives a fuck about Drenthe anyway? I'm pretty good at geography but there's always some you "should know" that you forget. You don't use this information all that much.
I actually have no idea either at one time I couldn't even remember all 12 provinces lol. I am significantly better at european geography though since that's a lot more useful and interesting IMO.
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