What can a world map tell us? by Shun

I think there were three important reasons why we studied and drew a map of the world in the first class of Academic English. I assume that geographical knowledge, observing different ways to express our ideas by drawing a map, and finding out the common ground were crucial for the process of learning about Academic English towards to International Relationships. Especially we, the Global Studies students, are supposed to have global knowledge since our class is organized by many students who are from different countries.

            As I mentioned, geographical knowledge is important to communicate and convey our ideas with people. For example, if a person does not know much about the geographical information, then that person should not be in major of International Relationships because that person can not diplomatically discuss, share, or exchange its opinions and statements with other students who are from different countries. In International place, this knowledge is also useful and helpful to observe and see what is going on around the world. People will recognize the International topic clearly and lucidly. The faculty of International Relationships focuses on how the culture, economy, and politic are intertwined. In addition, we are motivated to pursue International peace and security. To obtain and gain this achievement, geographical knowledge is obviously required and essential to this faculty.

            In this class, I realized that everyone drew a map differently and distinctively. I deem this is because we have different backgrounds, cultures, and education system. For example, I found the map which Japan was centralized, and in my opinion this explains how we observe the world. In addition, it also shows our perspectives towards the world and provides how we are educated. Only few of my class mates drew a map which North Pole or Africa was centralized. However, most of my class mates portrayed a map which their native countries are centralized. From this experience, I gained new knowledge that students are tended to draw a map which centralizes their native countries because of the different education system, culture, and historical background. There is one more common ground that I found by observing many different maps.

            Students are tended to have lots of information and knowledge about their neighboring countries. When I saw maps, a lot of students jotted down maps of their neighboring countries and continents clearly. On the other hand, only few students could draw maps with perfect boundaries of particular countries and continents such as Africa and Europe. This explicitly tells us my class mates are well- informed about neighboring countries’ circumstances, but they are prone to have ignorance of different continent countries. This indicates that our common ground is also that students are tended to have knowledge and information of neighboring countries.

            In general, when we draw a map, we are prone to centralize our native countries because we have knowledge about our own country and countries which are close to our native country. I do not advocate that students who have same culture and education system write a map completely same, but I guess they will write similarly. These reasons are why I think we studied and drew a map.

Shunya Asano