How to learn all the countries

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Learn Every Country in Two Hours

Today Annie told me that she has a new project. What is it? To learn where every single country is, what its capital is, its president, and ten current news items from each.

That’s a handful.

I’m not willing to keep up on the presidents or news items, but countries and capitals rarely change. That’s useful information to have. There were a couple times (Qatar and Hong Kong) where I didn’t even know exactly where the country was before we flew in.

So, I’m modifying the project for me. I’m going to learn where all the countries are, their capitals, and MAYBE their flags. This, of course, turned into a friendly competition, which will in turn become a bitter rivalry.

By October 12th we have to both get down South America, Europe, and Asia.

At first that seemed really hard, but I spent a couple hours today and have already learned every single country in the entire world! That includes all those pesky island nations like Wake Island in Oceania and St. Vincent and the Grenadines (sounds like a band, doesn’t it?) in the Caribbean.

That means that if you name any country I can point to it on a map. Or, without a map, I could probably tell you which countries border it on which sides.

You can do this, too. Believe me, I have no natural aptitude for geography. In fact, some of my early mistakes were really bad. Like… I had to think twice before clicking on GERMANY.

Anyway, here’s my method.

There are eight different zones. Central America has a strict one and a normal one. Pick the normal one.

Choose two, say South America and Africa, and alternate taking the two quizzes.

If you have no idea where a country is, make sure you use all three tries to discover what the unknown countries are. So maybe you don’t find Togo, but you notice where Guinea-Bissau, Benin, and San Tome and Principe are.

After each quiz, write down your score. Your score will increase with each time, and eventually you’ll get it all correct. Once you get one all correct, pick another area to rotate in.

By the end you’ll have gotten a perfect score in every single one. Then you can go back to the first ones to double check that you still remember. I found that once I got a perfect score on one, I would never miss one again.

I used a lot of mnemonics to remember them. For example, Grenada is the Southernmost island in it’s chain, so I imagined it being a grenade being dropped. Croatia looks like a C. Tajikistan looks like a tangent to China (weird, but that’s how I remember it). If I couldn’t come up with a mnemonic I would just make a note of which countries were to each cardinal direction. That is harder to remember, but it helps for more than one country at once.

I sometimes thought that a region would take me tons of tries, but even the hardest ones (Caribbean and Africa) only took five tries each.

I don’t know how long it took me to learn this total, but doing nothing but practicing for two hours should knock it out. Learn some countries and post your tips and scores and such to the comments.

Two tips for countries that are hard to find: Guam is south of the Marianas Islands and St. Martin (or St. Maarten if you’re Dutch) is just South of Anguilla.

Making a game to memorize facts about every country

11-6-2021 Carl Riis

Image of game

I recently made a small web app called Geo Memorizer. The purpose was to help me memorize the name, flag, and location of every country in the world.

The game

The game features a big world map, with a little prompt in the corner presenting the facts. There are two modes in the game. Memory mode and recall mode. In memory mode, you are supposed to remember all three facts (name, flag, and location) presented about the country. Later in recall mode, you will be asked to recall one of the facts. If you recall correctly, you get a point. If you don’t, you lose all your points.

Modes in game

There is a 5 country buffer between when you are asked to memorize a country, and when you are asked to remember a fact about it. I found that buffer to be the sweet spot because it forces you to recall right before you forget.

The game turned out to be pretty fun. The risk of losing all your points if you forget one fact is a good motivator.

Motivation

I have always thought of myself as someone with a bad memory but it was never something I tried to confirm or disprove. Remembering a bunch of things just for the sake of remembering them could be a pretty good way to test it. Remembering facts about every single country in the world seemed challenging enough that it would be difficult, but easy enough to be actually possible.

And so I began my search to find a good geography memory game. Many of them were quiz-based. But I was looking to actually learn the facts, not just test myself in them. I was also annoyed by the fact that many of them required me to create an account (or even worse, sign up with Facebook). I wanted a simple web app with no downloading, popups, or ads.

After searching for a bit I decided to create my own game. Although to be honest I didn’t search that long. I thought the idea of creating my own game seemed pretty fun.

Making the game

The game was fairly simple to make. It was mostly just combining already existing libraries and data.

I wrote the game with TypeScript and didn’t use any fancy frameworks for rendering, just plain old DOM manipulation. I used d3.js and d3-geo to render the map, which made adding things like panning and zooming super easy. The map came from naturalearthdata.com which is a collection of map data in the public domain.

Conclusion

I found that using my game was a relatively time efficient way to memorize basic geography facts for many countries. I also often found myself deep in Wikipedia pages when I encountered countries I had never seen before. I haven’t quite reached my goal of learning every country in the world, but it feels within reach.

Although playing the game is fun, it was way more fun to make it. It was really satisfying to create an alternative for myself after being frustrated by similar existing apps. It was fun creating it just for me, without having to consider the requirements of other potential users. I encourage anyone with an idea for an app to start making it. Make an app for yourself. Forget about creating a million dollar success, or creating something just to impress future employers. It’s boring.

Memorize the Capital Cities of 195 Countries
in Less than 4 Hours?!?

How is that possible?

If you’re like the average student, you probably have the sense you’re wasting time when you try to remember new information.

There has to be a faster way to memorize, right?

The typical approach involves endless repetition, either with flashcards, re-reading or talking to yourself over and over.

What’s the most frustrating part of that method? It takes too longnothing sticks in your head straight away, and frankly – it’s just plain boring.

If you want to memorize the capital cities of 195 countries, you’ve got a lot of pain ahead.

Unless…

How Am I Going to Make You Look and Feel Like a Star?

The #1 fact to know is that human memory is predominantly visual.

And … memorization is all about connecting information in your mind.

That’s why repetition alone doesn’t work – it’s the mental equivalent of throwing mud against a wall.

But when you link the names of countries and capital cities using vivid mental imagery – it’s like memory super glue.

“Memorize Countries & Capitals”

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Here’s how it works…

To remember that Kingston is the capital of Jamaica, you need to create a mental link between them.

Because human memory is predominantly visual, if that mental link uses a picture it will stick in your memory.

So here’s the link – Kingston sounds like ‘king stung’ and Jamaica sounds like ‘jam maker’.

Imagine a king making a big pot of jam when he gets stung by a bee – ‘jam maker’ and ‘king stung’.

That’s the link, now we’ll turn it into a picture…

kingston capital of jamaica

What You Get

memory hack videos

16 concise, high-impact video lessons

  • 4 modules covering Africa, Asia, Europe and The Americas & Oceania, and all 195 countries of the world
  • Memory hack videos combining whiteboard animation, full narration and expert memory techniques
  • Graded online quizzes to confirm your recall
  • And MUCH, much more…


It’s All Done For You, So Impressive Results Come Quickly…

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Take a Sneak Peek Yourself…

Countries & Capitals BONUSES!

Purchase the complete course and receive a 30% discount and downloadable PDF worksheets.

Save 30% on the Complete Course

Purchase each of the four sections separately for $17 (total of $68) or purchase the complete course for only $47 and save 30%.

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Downloadable Worksheets

  • Quick and easy PDF visual reference guides including all the custom illustrations
  • 3-Stage-Maps – practice locating and labeling each country; draw the borders of each country; draw the entire map yourself!
  • PDF reference guide of all the flags of the world
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The World’s Most Viewed Memory Coach

Kyle Buchanan is a professional memory coach devoted to teaching students and lifelong learners how to super-boost their memory with video courses like ‘Memorize the Periodic Table’ and ‘How to Memorize’.

Starting in 2012 he made a massive change in the way best-practice memorization techniques are taught, by pioneering the use of whiteboard animation videos in his training. With over 20 million video views on his popular YouTube channel and website, Kyle is the most watched memory coach in the world.

And now he’s going to blow your mind all over again by making you memorize the capital cities of 195 countries in less than 4 hours.

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The Fastest Way to Memorize Countries & Capitals

You Don’t Have to Learn What to Do

This isn’t like a class that teaches you how to cook – the gourmet feast has already been prepared and you’re about to be spoon fed.

Just watch and listen to the videos and you’ll be astonished how easily your amazing memory locks onto the associations and connections between countries and capitals.

The Grand-Daddy of All Shortcuts

Learning 195 capital cities would usually take weeks. These videos use expert memory techniques to hack your brain and slash that time-frame like a razor sharp machete through paper. Seriously.

No Motivation is Required

Whiteboard animation videos are like a magic spell. You can’t stop watching them. If you’ve never experienced your kids begging you to watch an educational video, prepare to enter unexplored territory.

Self-Confidence on a Space Rocket

Exhilaration isn’t a feeling most people associate with study and learning. But when you discover how easily and effectively you can remember 195 capitals and countries, it changes how you see yourself.

Check out the testimonials and you’ll get the idea.

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