Hi everyone! 😊
I come back today with something special.
Since a little time I am interested in geography, and I wanted to expand my knowledge.
Indeed, I was pretty bad in this discipline ; apart from the main ones, I was unable to place many countries on a map. It was starting to bother me a lot.
So... as whenever I take something to heart, I don't do things by halves, I decided to study all the countries and capitals of the world! 😄
And eventually, it was pretty simple for me to memorize, especially for the countries (the capitals is quite harder). I use a geography application on phone and I see it like a game.
So, as it was playful, it was very effective for the brain. I always recommend this kind of method to learn something.
-> The main thing is always to have fun!
Besides... other animals learn by having fun. Did you know that in Latin "ludus" means both game and school? 😄
An another point that inspired me into this path was a map of the world I drew as a child.
I remembered when and how I made this map, and the care I took to put progressive edges on the seas (it is common on maps in children's books to see this, but certainly not at this scale 🤣)
I found it touching to see my perception of the world at that time, how I had managed to transcribe my vision.
And I thought : Oh, and what if I made that today ? I mean, drawing the world by imagination ! With just much more knowledge, more precise, but still trying to redraw the shapes as I perceive them in my memories.
And I must make a confession... It is reaally hard 😱
I mean, at first, we thought that would be easy, as we memorize by heart countries and that we have already seen the outline of the continents over and over again.
But... in front of a white paper, it is so difficult!
We feel lost in our marks, the proportion are specials and we can't quite grasp this memory which seems so precise.
So, my first attempt of Drawing the world from memory was Europe. It was obvious to start by it, as it is my continent (I live in Belgium)
Europe wasn't that hard to do as I used to learn it and see the map often.
But, despite that, the area of hongria, serbia, crotia, and others was reaaally hard to do.
There is a lot of little countries, and when I draw the map, I found it hard to weave them together, as each line depends on the second!
People used to learn geography with blank maps, but I am an original person 😂
So... Here I am with today's attempt, Africa !
I start by tracing the major form of Africa.
It was pretty simple to do, it is a well-known form, easily identified.
But, obviously, placing the countries wasn't easy! 😝
I had a big doubt on how to place the Congo, the DRC and Gabon. I knew that they were intertwined and that the DRC had a kind of shape that extended towards the sea, but I was not sure how they were intertwined.
Then, I added the countries names and capitals, and added some colors for aesthetic 😊
My major doubts about the names was for islands capitals, which were not so obvious in my memory (besides I did not find the capital of Mayotte)
Let's see if I've been a good student !
First, it is fun to see that I used to see the countries as square blocks 😂
Because of this, I seriously under or overestimated the proportions of some.
It makes me laugh to see how big I represented the islands. It is probably my personnality to focus on details - I exagerate them 😆
Also, I have indeed confused the position order of the Congo and Gabon, and also the Ivory Coast, which is on the in the west of Ghana.
For the names, I mostly made mistakes on spelling (of course you notice that I learned them in french as I am a french native)
So, it is "Kinshasa" and not "kinchasa", "bangui" and not "bengui", etc.
And the capital of Nigeria was not Aruba but "Abuja". (I probably confused it with the island)
But the most important is that I managed to memorize them, my only memory lapse being "Mamoudzou" the capital of Mayotte.
So... I think I've covered it all!
Here was my experienced about drawing Africa from memory ! 😊
The next step will be America.
Don't hesitate to test this experience, testing your knowledges and trying to trace a map from memory, you'll see, it's a singular experience!
See you soon for more creations 😄