Ever wished you could pay more attention to geography lessons in school?
While most of us are likely to have a good grasp of the geography in our immediate area, which is most relevant anyway, knowing global geography is a dying skill these days.
It gets even more cumbersome when you have to find a country so small that it’s already incredibly difficult to see on a full-blown world map.
When you live in Southeast Asia, it’s easy to imagine a tiny country that is difficult for anyone to spot: The Little Red Dot, also known as the Lion City, or as the world knows it – Singapore.
“Please don’t come to me, our dear Singaporean readers.”
Are you looking to Singapore for a $ 100 share? Challenge accepted.
PICTURE: Wilson Lim Setiawan / YouTube
Singaporean YouTuber Wilson Lim Setiawan, a computer science major at the University of Southern California (USC), hit the streets of Los Angeles asking random strangers and passers-by to find Singapore on a world map. Those who manage to discover the tiny island nation will receive a share of $ 100 in the form of a crisp $ 20 bill.
Hopefully those who fail will walk away with at least some new geography knowledge.
Before we move on, it’s important to note that the Challenge participants come from diverse backgrounds and are made up of people from the LA region itself or other parts of the US, Germany, Vietnam, and the Philippines, to name a few. So this means that it is not a question of “us versus us”. Your scenario still some tactic to make westerners look stupid and uncultivated. But of course they also exist. ¯ _ (ツ) _ / ¯
When asked if they knew anything about Singapore, many of the participants said they had very little knowledge other than being aware of its existence as a country. Interestingly, some of them named Singapore a Formula 1 location – popular as one of the few night races on the racing calendar – as well as the location of the Crazy Rich Asians.
PICTURE: Wilson Lim Setiawan / YouTube
The first participant manages to recognize Singapore straight away and even spends some cool factual tidbits about the country – he names both the Singaporean president and prime minister and his relationship with the country’s first prime minister.
But perhaps the most lovable effort came from a little Filipino boy who also manages to discover Singapore right off the bat, knowing that it is somewhere between Malaysia and Indonesia. Does he get bonuses for already knowing where these two countries are?
Anyway, the little guy is so charming:
PICTURE: Wilson Lim Setiawan / YouTube
What little kid doesn’t like making money? And $ 20 too. PICTURE: Wilson Lim Setiawan / YouTube
Many other participants make very precise guesses and usually get lost only two or three countries from Singapore. Of course, some got lost completely on other continents. It is definitely difficult to see Singapore on the map as, in most cases, the country is too small to even depict unless you are looking for a single, secluded spot.
But once you know where it is, it’s hard to forget!
While this author honestly expected almost everyone to fail, it is encouraging to see more and more people begin to expand their geographic bubbles beyond what is close to them.
Check out the full video below:
Click here to visit Wilson’s YouTube channel.
What is your geography like?
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Cover photo by Wilson Lim Setiawan / YouTube.
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