Monday, May 21, 2012

Map of the World by Zheng Jie


After the introductory class for Academic English class II, All of us were asked to draw a map of the world. There were no additional requirements, and limitations. I suppose to start drawing very quickly, but my pen stopped at least 30 seconds. It is not only because I am generally not good at drawing, but also because I do not know what was the world map usually looked like. Finally, I used last 10 seconds just draw some circles and rectangles to represent continents. As soon as I walked around the classroom, I found some similarities and differences according to other students drawing.

For the similarities, firstly, most of us drew countries and continents as the main content. Also, we tend to drew countries which we are familiar with, such as the country we came from, countries we are interested in or had been to more detail. Following, all of us drew the map of the world in two dimensions, we put world in oblong shape. On the other hand, there are 2 differences from the drawings. The first difference is that our centre lines are different. Some put Japan in the middle but some of us were not. In addition, it seemed that some students really know about the world, their drawings were very specific and detailed even for the small islands. In addition, some of us attached each country’s name in order to make their drawings much clear and easy to understand. 

Carrying on, all of us started to think about what was missing from the drawings we drew. “There were no timeline on the drawings, there were no North Pole and South Pole”, students spoke out what they have found from drawings. Then, we were told to draw another map of the world and also walked around to see others drawings. I realized that everyone’s drawing changed slightly after listened to the suggestions from our classmates. Compare with the previous drawings, I classified them into 3 groups. The first group people drew the similar drawings from the first one, however, they take the suggestions from other students and drew the second drawing based on their first drawing and seemed to be more perfectly. Secondary, a number of students like me drew a completely new drawing of the world. There was no connection between neither first drawing nor suggestions written on the blackboard. Thirdly, a small group of students left a blank piece of paper.

To conclude, what I have learned from the first drawing were that all of us came from different countries, backgrounds, cultures and a diversity of the education systems we have result in the different kinds of drawing in the class. However, our drawings were alike in general. Although we are generally different, it is better if we can still believe that we are all the same. It is nature and normal if we have distinct ideas, to understand and respect the differences is essential and necessary. Also, I started to think that the world is much bigger than I used to imagine, I know nothing about the world and surroundings. From the second picture, I thought it showed the character and personality. It showed how each individual digests new things and in what way they show off it. I am not confident with the understanding of second drawing. Hopefully I will find out and know more about my classmates gradually throughout this term.   

Zheng Jie

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