Job Discussion Forums

[ouyang]

I sometimes give a geographic place name lesson that I begin by asking the meaning of the olympic logo. The five rings stand for five continents. Americans recognize seven continents. The combination of north and south america as the americas is easy for me to explain, and the fact that antarctica is not habitable is the reason I tell my students that europeans don't consider it a continent. It's unlikely that there will ever be athletes representing antarctica.

But what do europeans consider antarctica to be, an island, a tectonic plate, are just a special type of continent? Also, where do they consider the border of europe and asia to be. I tell my students it's the ural mtns. in the north and Istanbul in the south, but I say the areas around the black and caspian seas are a little vague.

Do the caucus mtns constitute a europe / asia border? I'm mostly wondering what the european consensus would be about these questions. I once met a Syrian who insisted there wasn't a western or an eastern hemisphere, only northern and southern hemispheres. I'm not interested in the american point of view because I'm one myself, but if you're an american who has first hand experience with the european point of view, please share.

[PAULH]

[Guy Courchesne]

In Canada, we are taught that there are seven continents

N. America, S. America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and Antarctica. Couldn't tell you where the dividing line is for Europe/Asia.

Over here in Mexico, many believe that Central America is a continent, putting the dividing line either at the US/Mexico border, or lower, somewhere around Oaxaca, Mexico.

[vre]

In Britain we are taught 7 continents too.

Europe and Asia split here in Istanbul (in part) so it is a bit incontinent hehehe!

[Tamara]

This very question has caused some very heated discussions between teachers and students here. Thanks for bringing it up. The sorest point is that there aren't two American continents (as you mentioned already), as the Panema Canal is man-made. It really riles them up to hear us talking about two continents. In fact, just to see a map in the classroom that shows the two continents marked with separate titles can start a whole tirade.

[moonraven]

It is also one of the reasons folks here in Latin America take umbrage at the use of the term "American" for a person from the US.

[dmb]

[Cardinal Synn]

[Guy Courchesne]

Forgive me if I'm wrong here, but isn't the scientific division of the continents related more to tectonic plates rather than political boundaries or shapes on the globe?

Then again, that might be wrong. I guess we would have to think of California as its own continent. Hey wait, maybe that works poltically too.

[Phil_b]

[Spinoza]

[ouyang]

[Spinoza]

[dajiang]

Well.
In holland we're taught Antarctica is a continent. Actually, I think in most places people agree it's a continent.

And yeah, North and South America are two different continents according to our textbooks.

The dividing line between Europe and Asia, now that's a tricky one.
For me personally, I'd say Asia starts with Moscow. And Turkey is Asian too. Opinions vary on this subject though.

Cool picture of those moving plates btw.

Regards,
Dajiang

[ouyang]

Spinoza, I think we just come from cultures that make different use of the word "hemisphere". In the United States, those areas that have a western longitude are considered inside the western hemisphere.

For us, the boundaries are as straightforward as the northern and southern hemispheres. As you are well aware, the prime meridian and the 180th meridian do not have either west or east designations, all other meridians do. The earth to the west of the prime meridian up to the 180th meridian is the western hemisphere.

It's a useful concept when referring to maps. We would refer to the left half of the maps above as the western hemisphere. Since the western hemisphere is also often placed on the right hand side of world maps this is the simplest way for us to indicate a world map's orientation. And there are many other occasions when we want to quickly indicate whether an area's longitude is eastern or western.

Our most authoritative geographic publisher in the states is National Geographic. They regularly use the term and we naturally follow their lead. See http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/04/g35/foods.html

I really don't disagree with any of your reasoning. As an american, I just use different words and some words a little differently.