How can I, as an adult American, get better at geography?
Today @berz schooled me when I wanted to discuss genocide in Tigray, but I guessed incorrectly the country it took place in (Ethiopia). Yes, I have difficulty distinguishing countries in Africa, and no, I'm not proud of it.
@skyfaller I have similar problems, not even just with Africa but with much of South America and eastern Europe – primarily because I have no interactions with them, so holding those map spaces in my head is nothing but an abstraction, and the abstraction goes away when I stop thinking about it. But that's true of many things.
@cjonthehudson That's the thing, we do have constant interactions with these faraway places, we just aren't aware of them. Like, when the wildfires in Canada put smoke in our air and made it dangerous to breathe, we suddenly were aware of their local fire problems, but we were breathing their smoke particles to a lesser extent before that.
Events in far away places affect us, but maintaining awareness of how we are being affected is a lot of work. It's often easier to just accept how things are
@skyfaller Americans don't get taught enough geography, but there's also the fact that political boundaries do change over time. Sometimes you might know what it was before but not be caught up on how it's changed since. I'm still fuzzy on that part of East Africa, on the post- Bosnian War, post-Kosovo War, and other post-USSR breakup lines.
Keeping up on political boundaries involves reading news combined with Wikipedia. It also helps to have a diverse feed on social media.
@glightly Yeah, my dad's advice when I was younger was "read the Economist", which did in fact cover news from around the world.
But it, uh, has/had a specific worldview (economics, yuck), and I don't live with my parents & get their magazine subscriptions anymore.
I think I know more about the outside world than many Americans (my mom worked at the UN and dragged me around the globe), and I'm still constantly embarrassed by my ignorance.
@skyfaller@berz Man, I feel this in my very bones. I am terrible at geography. I can name tons of countries, I can tell you what continent they're on, but no, I cannot point them out on a map. And I can recognize that's Not Good, and definitely a privilege to not have to know.
Add comment