Observation and Analysis of Map Drawing Exercise by Timothy

This post is with regards to the exercise of drawing a map of the world during Academic English a few weeks ago.

Preliminary observations of the drawings made by our classmates allowed me to make certain conclusions. Many similarities were found. Firstly, I observed that everyone's general outline of the world is similar where major continents are present and in their correct locations. Continents like Asia, Australia, North America, South America, Europe and Africa are present in most of the drawings. Next, I observed that everyone had Japan placed on their maps. This could be due to the fact that we are all currently in Japan, thus the awareness of our current location. Lastly, I noticed that everyone drew the map with the north pole in the top and south pole in the bottom as depicted in most standardized maps.

However, despite the many similarities, there were also certain differences. First, I noticed that there was a map with triangles, circles and rectangles used to symbolize the different continents. This was quite interesting as I have never thought that the continents actually resembled certain basic shapes. Next, some maps had the oceans of the world annotated, depicting the locations of these oceans. I think this is a very good observation as people tend to take landforms into considerations but not the ocean. A side-note, the oceans make up almost 75% of our lovely planet so it is of great importance. Lastly, I noticed that some individuals had the Aleutian Islands in their maps which actually pleasantly surprised me. The Aleutian Islands hold a great importance to human history as it was the land bridge between Russia and North America during the previous Ice Age where the early humans actually used it to cross the Pacific Ocean and populated North America. This held great significance to me as I learned it during high school in Singapore from a tutor who was of great influence to my growth and maturity.

Upon closer inspection and analysis, I realized that I've learned something from this simple exercise. I realized that despite having been taught with the standardized world map, the resultant interpretation and representation of the ideas we've learned is actually very different in different people. Some may have similar ideas, however others can have largely differing views with regards to an issue. In this case, the map drawing exercise showed me that even hard facts around us can be interpreted differently. As such, it is important to be able to present and express your ideas as close as possible to the truth of the matter.

Another observation I made was that people's ideas can be influenced to change by another person or a group of individuals. One such example is when we were told to draw the map again, some of my classmates actually presented a much different map as compared to their first drawing. In their new maps, I noticed that certain features were adopted from the maps of others and placed into their own ones. This made me come to this conclusion: Everybody will develop ideas on their own. However, these ideas may change or get altered according to external inputs. The end result could be a much better idea, or a loss in originality.

In conclusion, I am very intrigued by the overall intent of this exercise. Maybe there was an intent, maybe there wasn't. Ultimately, as long as I've learned something from this exercise, I am contented. Have you learned something?

Timothy See