Introduction to Worldguru Academy
196 Sovereign Countries & Capitals
Worldguru Academy's design presents an organized means of learning all the World's sovereign countries and capitals one region at a time using a novel method that is superior to:
- attempting to learn Countries and Capitals in alphabetical order
- This is how I first tackled them, alphabetically.
- attempting to learn by trial & error with online quizzes
- I enjoy online quizzes as much as anyone
- What I really like is Acing them!
- attempting to organize all this material by yourself in a consistently useful method that saves time and allows you to reach your goal quickly.
- And, what about when countries change? Swaziland is now eSwatini.
- Or, how about when new countries come into existence? As of this writing, South Sudan is still the newest country on the world scene.
- Worldguru Academy is designed to easily implement changes with its use of custom SVG maps.
- Whether or not I'll be around to make those changes, I hope to pass the baton before I'm gone.
- and, what about proper pronunciation? Ngerulmud anyone?
- Worldguru Academy has you covered!
The novel method Worldguru Academy uses is a contiguous route that traverses through the whole world visiting each sovereign country in a sequence designed to facilitate memory. The route is divided into 41 memorable regions that provide a manageable allotment of countries to focus on during any given study period. The secret? Learn just one region at a time before moving on to the next one. And, follow the route!
There are 3 regions that only have the minimum of 2 countries, e.g. "Caribbean South America", "Landlocked South America", and "The Heart of Africa". There are 4 regions that have the maximum of 7 countries, e.g. "Southeast Asia Island Nations", "The Stans", the "Arabian Peninsula" countries, and "Central America".
With only 12 countries comprising 4 regions, South America is the easiest continental global area to learn. If you want to simply test the waters without a major commitment and see how Worldguru Academy's route method is designed to work, South America is a good place to explore. Savor the route as it passes through each region and note how the regional grouping is designed to facilitate your memory. The route enters South America at the first of only two South American countries that have Caribbean coast lines. Then the route visits the South American countries with Pacific coastlines. The only two landlocked countries in South America then provide a connection from the Pacific side to the Atlantic side where we finish our travels through South America traversing its largest region consisting of the 5 countries that have coastlines on the Atlantic.
Although Worldguru Academy's route has a beginning country and an ending country, the route is designed so that it allows you to start anywhere in the world that commands your interest. There is nothing that says you have to learn the whole world, however I find great benefits from knowing the whole world. When obscure places are talked about in the news, it is very nice to be able to place in my mind exactly where they are talking about. My personal favorite is when I meet someone who has a strong accent indicating that they are probably not native born. My first question for them is to inquire where their home country is. When they tell me, I respond with their country's capital city. Unless their home country is a place that everyone should know, their face usually lights up with joy and it creates an instant friendship bond. I'm still amazed by how many ask me back if I have been there.
There is a lot more to geography than simply knowing countries and their capitals. However, I can think of no better foundation for building upon than learning the world's sovereign countries and capitals first. Especially, if your interest involves more. Geography is something you can take as far as you want to or need to. But regardless, simply learning countries and capitals will be rewarding.
While passing close to itself a time or two, the route only crosses itself once at the only location where a sovereign country is completely contained within the confines of a capital city of another sovereign country. The crossing would be where the route through Worldguru Academy's Southern Europe region crosses the route through Worldguru Academy's Micro Europe region. The routes closest passing without crossing is where it exits the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar and then reenters the Mediterranean through the strait like two ships passing in the night.
The advantage to Worldguru Academy's route method is that you learn countries in close proximity to each other within a common geographical area as opposed to bouncing all over the World randomly from continent to continent when learned in alphabetical order. Worldguru Academy's route method enhances memory retention when learning the World's sovereign countries and capitals. Plus, you become more intimately familiar with various locations in the world when you learn the World's countries and capitals by this route method.
Worldguru Academy's route through the World is segregated into 41 memorable regions that share some common trait, e.g. the countries that end with the "stan" suffix, Europe's micro countries, Southeast Asia, Equatorial Africa, etc. The largest regions have a maximum of 7 countries while the smallest regions have a minimum of only two regions.
It should be noted that regions can be subjective. Worldguru Academy attempts to mirror existing regions such as Micronesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia. However, the purpose of Worldguru Academy is to facilitate learning and retaining the World's sovereign countries and capitals. And as such, Worldguru Academy makes no claim to perfectly mirror any region constructs you may be familiar with. For instance, take Australia. Australia is both a country and a continent. It is pretty much in a case by itself.Australasia is often used, however it mixes with both Melanesia and Polynesia. So, rather than letting things get convoluted Worldguru Academy simply attached Australia to the tail end of Polynesia. Another case worth noting are the European Micro Nations. Malta is a European Micro Nation and Malta is also an island country. Worldguru Academy chose to include Malta with in its "European Island Nations" region increasing its number to 4 countries while keeping "Micro Europe" to 5 countries.
Worldguru Academy teaches 196 sovereign countries. There is some debate as to what constitutes a sovereign country a.k.a. "sovereign state". Worldguru Academy uses three factors for its criteria for inclusion:
- A country must have defined boundaries.
- A country must have control over the territory it claims as its country.
- A country must be recognized as sovereign by the majority of other sovereign countries.
Worldguru Academy teaches only one capital for each country. A few countries have more than one capital city. South Africa is a classic example with a total of three capital cities:
- Pretoria (executive capital)
- Bloemfontein (judicial capital)
- Cape Town (legislative capital)
It is more than enough work when attempting to learn all 196 countries without having to keep track of which countries have multiple capitals. Once the basic foundation of one capital per country is mastered, it becomes an easier task to add extra information should you consider it necessary. So, relax and have fun!
The primary purpose of Worldguru Academy is to first of all provide a place to learn all the World's sovereign countries and their capitals as well as a place to easily brush the rust off of any location in the world that needs refreshing.
