Australia poll, Uber-triv

[slemslempike]

[Poll #1268597]

I eventually won a game of Uber-triv. In subsequent games we substituted "Silver Screen" (very difficult movie questions) for "Book Lover". The experience has inspired me to buy more sets on ebay - so far I've won Globetrotter, and have my beady little eyes on 1980s.

Comments

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

I was taught Australia was a country and a continent, and Antarctica was as well. But now I believe Australia isn't actually a continent. (It's Australasia, isn't it?)

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Yes, but the question is did you ever learn it. I'm not looking for geographical information, just interested in geography education of the past, or possibly present, in different countries!

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

I was never taught Australia was the only country that was also a continent (because Antarctica is one as well). But I was uaght that Australia was a continent.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I'd say that comes under "something along the lines of". I've never actually heard of anyone saying Antarctica was a country, so it didn't occur to me to include that. Live and learn...

[sangerin.livejournal.com]

Well, Antarctica isn't a country.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's right. I was saying that I had learnt that some people think that it is.

[sangerin.livejournal.com]

*nods*

[chiasmata]

Yes. It has led to much confusion in later life.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I don't think I was ever taught it. Certainly I have been bemused whenever I see a variation on it - I was on a site that had some really good geography quizzes, and they had it as an infobox on the page!

[the_antichris.livejournal.com]

Actually, maybe I wasn't taught it but instead picked it up from some trivia article. Can't remember. I can tell you with certainty that NZ, according to its primary schools, is part of the continent called Oceania.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I was hoping for an NZ answer! I think I was taught Australasia at school - I mostly remember being confused by the notion that the other countries in the continent didn't exist. And then later on I learned about Tasmania, and that just added to it all.

I had vaguely heard Oceania before, but now I mostly associate it with Lost...

[wonderlanded.livejournal.com]

What I was taught is that technically, the Australian mainland and some nearby islands that lie on the same continental shelf make up the continent. As far as I know NZ is not on the same continental shelf so isn't included.

I think Oceania and Australasia are more regional groupings tan land masses -- I was always taught that neither is technically a continent. What's included in Oceania (including whether Aus/NZ/PNG are included) always seems to be up for debate anyway.

[wonderlanded.livejournal.com]

Although there does seem to be dissent over whether said continent is called Australia or Australasia. And the continent of Australasia, if you're going for that, is not the same as the region that goes by the same name that includes NZ. I think.

[metamorphosa.livejournal.com]

I think the distinction between Australia and Australasia is the only thing I brought with me from Geography. I'm talking geography at the age of ten when we got to colour in maps. This is possibly because after age eleven we never studied Geography. No, we had to take Integrated Studies. Suffice to say, I now know nothing of geography, and given the fact I don't really know what the other subjects were it was supposed to be integrated with, it clearly didn't work!

[metamorphosa.livejournal.com]

And I'm in England. And age 31.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if I should have included something about age, or age when learnt! I was quite surprised that people my age or younger had learned it too.

[metamorphosa.livejournal.com]

I wasn't sure what you were gathering the information for, but I figured when the information was learnt might be useful. Also, I have no idea how old you are! So, did you learn something along those lines?

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I am 27. I don't remember ever learning anything like that, though I can't be sure. I remember being confused when I came across it, and now it sometimes crops up as FACT and I get a bit cross.

[irrtum.livejournal.com]

I don't think that I actually learnt it in a geography lesson, but as something which repeatedly came up in those end-of-term quizzes, along with things like 'what's the capital of Iceland?'

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Rekjavik! I know that wasn't a question, and in any case it's hardly specialist knowledge, but I cannot reist a quiz-type scenario.

[irrtum.livejournal.com]

It always came up at end of term quizzes, along with 'what is the name of the only town in the UK to end in an exclamation mark?'

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Westward Ho! I didn't know that as a child though, I learnt it through random trivia somewhere.

One of my triv questions this weekend was "was Einstein ever awarded a Nobel Prize". Another one for the other team boiled down to "have you ever seen a paper clip".

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

Westward Ho!, Devon. Apparently named after the novel.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I'm really surprised that it was taught in Australia! This poll is really upsetting my national prejudices.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

I was definitely taught in primary school that Australia was part of a larger continent. Teachers differed on whether to call it Oceania or Australasia.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I think we were taught Australasia always. Oceania is only vaguely familiar as a term.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

I'm "maybe" because it's familiar as a kind of General Knowledge thing and a quiz answer but I'm not sure if I was actually taught it. I don't think I was taught Australasia either, but then I too did Integrated Studies at age 11 and what Geography I did after that was mostly about oil rigs.

I love your Trivial Pursuit icon.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I do get quite cross if they don't match up properly. And so handy to work out what you still need!

I wonder if it is still taught now. I am quite surprised, as I'd half thought that it was something that would have stopped after people, well, thought about it a bit, but there are people younger than me in the poll who were taught it.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

I do get quite cross if they don't match up properly

So do I. And yet some people find this irritatingly pedantic...

My daughter was taught a song at school that goes

"North America, South America,
Europe, Asia, Africa.
Don't forget Antarctica
Don't forget Australasia
North America, South America,
Europe, Asia, Africa."

but I'm not sure how much is there for Geography and how much for the rhythm of the thing.