Geography

Learning Geographic Words in a Foreign Language by Sound Alone

It is best to start by teaching "Counting," since countries and geography are much harder. Learners must hear and understand new names with very little repetition.

But geography gives an interesting and feasible advanced language lesson, since most people around the world will recognize when they hear at least some of the following words and then can learn the rest by context and by looking at a world map in their own language. The words can be useful for tourism, business and listening to news. More geographic topics are in the "Wordlist."

Learners could repeat the lesson several times to learn it. Even though most names are not in the target language, they will be pronounced in that language, and learners will get a good sense of the sounds and rhythm of the target language.

• Canada is north of the United States
• Canada is north of Mexico
• ...
• Canada is north of Chile
• Canada is north of Antarctica
• ...
• Antarctica is south of Chile
• ...
• Argentina is east of Chile
• Chile is west of Argentina
• Brazil is east of Peru
• Peru is west of Brazil
• Venezuela is east of Colombia
• Colombia is west of Venezuela
• Ottawa is the capital of Canada
• Mexico City is the capital of Mexico
• Washington is the capital of the United States
• Washington is on the Potomac River
• The Amazon River is in Brazil
• Canada, the United States and Mexico are in North America
• Similar sentences for all continents
• ...
  
• The Atlantic Ocean is between America and Europe
• The Andes Mountains are in Colombia, Peru and Chile
• The Himalayan Mountains are in China and India
• The Sahara Desert is in Egypt and Algeria
• ...
• Most people in India are Hindu
• Most people in Thailand are Buddhist
  
• ...
  

Many more geographic words are in the "Wordlist."