Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Los continentes

Here's a simple question...

How many continents are there? DUH, seven.

I can hear you now...where are you going with this Rodney, and what does it have to do with Spanish? And why you are asking such a silly question?

Well, in the good old US of A we count 7 continents - Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. Apparently not everybody in the world shares this theory, including our Spanish speaking friends.

There's the 5 continent theory- África, Antártida, América, Eurasia, and Oceanía.

And then there's the 6 continent theory - Asia, África, Europa, América, Oceanía y la Antártida.

So what's different? América includes both North and South America, and depending on whether you subscribe to the 5 or 6 continent theory, Europe and Asia are counted as one continent, or two.

When I heard this, I think my jaw, pants and socks dropped all at the same time.

If you want to read more about this, check out this wikipedia link (it's in Spanish) , or click here for the English version of the page.

You can also go here for a nice color map of the 6 continents theory.

Amazing huh? Not only am I learning a new language, I'm learning geography all over again too! I'm beginning to get the picture that my adventures in Spanish are far from over.

2 comments:

  1. Yes, it is interesting! Personally, I'll go with the 6-continent system, with Eurasia being a single continent, and North and South America being separate continents. That makes most sense to me as a geologist.

    What I did not know is that my Spanish-speaking ESL students were likely taught that North and South America make up a single continent. That explains some very puzzled looks I got one time in class. Hmm... I feel a new lesson plan developing. Heh.

    Love the blog! which I just discovered. Keep up the interesting posts!

    Karen

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  2. This is interesting! but what about Panama, El Salvador, Honduras and the ones in the middle? another continent? the center american one? XD

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