What I’ve learnt from world map writing, and comparing the differences and similarities of our way of thinking towards the world map by Kohei

About the differences:

First, the class presented many types of world map. The one I drew was very sketchy, without North and South Pole, just small islands, and almost only peninsulas.

One of the maps I realised concentrated mostly on South East Asia, with names of the countries. In contrast, the other map was drawn centralised on Far East Asia, with the island Takeshima, which is also named Dokto island in Korean. Furthermore I found out that a map was drawn in Lambert projection, another alternative way to draw a map. I mean, what we thought is important when we draw maps can be very different from others. That makes the differences in our map drawing. E.g. those who drew crude world maps just wanted finish drawing the maps with all the continents in time. There are also some people who drew maps which focused on a particular area, with small islands and specific shapes of the continent or area. I think that they wanted to draw a more detailed map. As for me, it was interesting to look at others’ maps because I could find some individual features in our map drawings.

About the similarities:

There were the two primary similarities that I found out. First, the very common similarity that I realised was that we all drew our maps with North Pole on top and South Pole below. Secondly, almost all of us drew maps which centred our home country. I wondered why we drew the map that way. The answer is: Because it’s our individual idea. The maps we drew are the maps we are really used to. Since childhood, we’ve seen the maps on TV shows, newspapers, textbooks, and we were taught that the way of map drawing is the correct way. Therefore, when we were told to draw a map, we drew it in a way in which our home country being centre, north side facing up. Another similarity was that all of us drew our maps in Mercator projection during the first draft of map drawing. I thought that this may be the most popular way of map drawing and we’ve also learnt maps that are drawn in Mercator projection.

First try of map drawing and second try showed some differences. We reconsidered our maps and consulted others’ ideas to make better maps. During my second try I added North Pole and South Pole, Japan and New Zealand in my map. I drew both North Pole and South pole in references to my classmates’ idea. Others also drew better maps in references to each other’s idea. Then I thought, “having a discussion and sharing ideas are very important at university”. When I was in high school, students were just told to follow what the teachers say, without any discussion. So the experience of map drawing impressed me very well. I felt that I’m really becoming to be like a university student. I wish I could speak better in English, so much so that I can join in to discussions. I’ll study harder to have discussions in English.

Kohei