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If you were asked what continent the UK was in...

44 replies

florenceuk · 23/01/2010 23:04

would you think there was something wrong with the question? I would presume, the UK is in Europe, but it is an island, not a continent?

DS's homework also assumes that "Oceania" is a continent - I always assumed that Australia was the continent, Oceania was the region.

Am I just old-fashioned???

OP posts:
bloomingnora · 25/01/2010 17:45

I just asked DH how many continents he thought there were and he said "Everything apart from a, e, i, o and u". In his defence I do have a heavy cold.....

nooka · 26/01/2010 02:28

According to Wikipedia Latin America follows the single American continent theory. Mexico is a part of North America, with the US and Canada.

WorzselMummage · 26/01/2010 02:36

Oceania!

Sounds like a Disney film.

Europe which we're in
Asia
Africa
Australia
America

I only went to school in the 80's...

CheerfulYank · 26/01/2010 02:48

In the US we're taught 7.

North America (Mexico, Canada, and us)
South America
Asia
Africa
Australia
Antarctica
Europe

At least we were a decade ago when I was in school...

ArcticFox · 26/01/2010 03:57

Mexico is part of the continent of North America, together with Canada and the US. Everything south of that is South America.

The Arctic is not a continent because it is not a land mass.

Austalasia/ Oceania are the same thing and include or exclude Antarctica depending on whether you say there are 5 or 7 continents.

SofaQueen · 26/01/2010 08:00

Wow - schools actually taught that there was a continent called America?

Latin America is Mexico and South America (basically all the spanish (and portugese) speaking countries.

GrimmaTheNome · 26/01/2010 08:28

You can cut the Americas in quite a few different ways - geographical, political, ethnic.

belgo · 26/01/2010 08:32

I thought the UK was not part of the continent of Europe because a continent is one land mass, and the UK is a collection of islands. OF course politically the UK is part of Europe.

This is why we talk about continental Europe as being separate from the UK.

LouIsOnAHighwayToHell · 26/01/2010 09:05

Oceania/Australasia we were taught is a politcal area made up of the countries in the Southern Pacific region. Australia, NZ, Papua New Guinea, etc

I think Australasia has been phased out as it only includes the Australian and Asian communities (could be wrong) and did not include Islanders etc

Also taught as a child 5 continents.
Australia
Europe
Asia
America
Africa
They all start and finish with the same letter.

ToccataAndFudge · 26/01/2010 09:07

I think MathAnxiety has it - it's the continental plates - or something like that.

I was taught

Europe
Asia
North America
South America
Antarctica
Australasia

which is 6? No that can't be right I'm sure it was 7 I learnt at school in the 80's and 90's?

ToccataAndFudge · 26/01/2010 09:07
  • just realised my mistake I missed Africa out
ToccataAndFudge · 26/01/2010 09:09

What the National Geographic has to say about it all.

belgo · 26/01/2010 09:30

'Greenland, for example, is politically part of Europe but belongs geographically to North America,'

is Greenland really part of Europe?

ToccataAndFudge · 26/01/2010 09:31

politically speaking I' sure it is - at least that's what I was taught at school as well

ToccataAndFudge · 26/01/2010 09:33

although looking at Wiki (I know I know I know - but of a jump from NG to Wiki) it's quite loose ties these days here

ToccataAndFudge · 26/01/2010 09:35

and the BBC "country profile" on it (probably a little more reliable than Wiki...........but then I'm not having a good morning missing Africa out of the list of continents )

belgo · 26/01/2010 09:37

I'm learning a lot about Greenland! I knew it had ties with Denmark, I didn't realise how strong.

mumeeee · 26/01/2010 12:37

Uk is in Europe, Don't know about Australia being in Oceania though

mathanxiety · 26/01/2010 14:48

Greenland is politically part of Europe because up to recently or maybe even now it was/ is governed by Denmark.

'Latin America' is a cultural area, while 'South America' is a geological area.

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