1) Go to this website: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html. Select a country on the map.\
2) Look through the information and facts presented on the website. Respond with a comment about something interesting or surprising you discovered. You could also include some type of comparison if you want.
3) Choose a second country and repeat step 2.
Here is an example of what your response could look like:
I looked at two countries: Brasil and Portugal
1) Brasil: I learned a few interesting and surprising things about Brasil that I didn't know before. First, a transnational issue they are facing is a border dispute with Uruguay. Both countries are claiming a small region in the southern part of Brasil. Also, the website stated that Brasil was the second largest consumer of cocaine in the world. The word consumer was what was surprised me the most. It is a stereotype we learn in the US that South American countries produce drugs, not consume them. This could also be due to the fact that Brasil is so large. I wonder what percentage of people in the country actually consume cocaine. My guess is not a lot but I don't know.
2) Portugal: Portugal is one of the smallest countries in the world (111th) and is about the same size as the US state of Indiana. However, it has more coastline the the state of California. While tourism is one of their main industries, it is not one of their top industries. Why is this? Maybe they are trying to keep their beaches pristine and don't feel the need to advertise their beaches.
Hopefully this example helps. I want to see complete sentences and critical thinking!
1) South Korea: There were some informations I wasn't aware of. For example, I didn't know that both South Korea and North Korea's anthems share the same name and have a vaguely similar melody but have different lyrics. I thought North Korea used different melody for the anthem. Also there was a misunderstanding of history of Korea. Tok-do (Liancourt Rocks) was occupied by South Korea since 512 in Silla Dynasty.
ReplyDelete2) North Korea: In South Korea, girls do not have to serve in military (still they have obligations to serve for the country). However in North Korea, boys and girls up to 17 years old have to serve in military. This could be due to North Korea's emphasis on military, but aren't those kids need to goto the school? Also, it was kind of funny for me that North Korea supports South Korea in rejecting Japan's claim to Tok-do(Liancourt Rocks). It is true that North Korea's No.1 enemy is USA and 2nd enemy is Japan.
1) South Korea. As I know, South Korea has strange sides. Even though I am from South Korea, I do not have lots of concerns about my country. Through this homework, I have learned a lot especially statistics. First, 80% of South Korean live in Seoul ( major city), population rate is 25 ( 48,955,203). 9778million people live in Seoul and 3439 million people live in Busan in second. Compared to other countries, South Korean live in a few cities. It even looks unstable. Because of taking a break of Korean War, South Korea spend money on military expenditures a lot (47)
ReplyDelete2) Italy. Many people do not compare Korea to Europe countries so I want to decide to search.
Italy's population is 61482297 and country comparison to the world is 23. It is similar to Korean ranking of population. Italy's capital is Rome. 3357million people live in there. Compare to Seoul, it is a lot less. Busan's people can be similar to population who live in Rome. Both population pyramid shape looks very similar. Italy's military is much lower than South Korea because they should prepare for protecting themselves but not now.
1- Venezuela: Venezuela is a country that is in the north of South America. Venezuela is a country that was part of a big country that was called Gran Colombia. It bases its economy in oil resources. It has a population of almost 29 million citizens, and it has about 200000 refugees from Colombia. Venezuela is also an awesome places to go because of its tropical and warm whether, and its beautiful landscapes. Venezuela has the highest waterfall in the world. Something that was really impressing was that almost 29 million cellphones are being used by Venezuelans. That is almost the total amount of the population.
ReplyDelete2- Guyana: Guyana is a country that is next to Venezuela. It is a country that was a Dutch colony in the 17th century. After it was a british colony, but now it is a independent country. This country is characterized by the diversity between the population. There are people from some parts of Asia and Europe. As Venezuela it has a tropical and nice weather that, I think, it makes a good place to go. It has a population of almost 800000 people and the official language is English. It is the only country that the people speak English un South America. Its economy is based on agriculture and extractive industries, industries that work taking out things of the ground. I have never been there, but I would like to go.
1- Peru: Something interesting about the immigration that Peru had before many years. It was a mingle of new cultures, specifically, from Japan and Africa. These people went to Peru because they were trying to find a good job in a new country. Also, about the new economy that Peru developed from many years because now Peru has a 31% of poor people. I think that is not a "good percent"; however, before it was 60% of poor people, now it is a evidence that something changed in our economy.
ReplyDelete2- Greece: Greece is a country with a lot of history. Something that surprised me was about their kind of products that Greece exports. For example, Greece exports tomatoes, corn, tobacco, potatoes,etc. In addition, these products permit to develop new business relation with other countries. Also, Greece has a 20% of poor people, something that can surprise everyone because in this days the Europe Union do not have a good balance.
June Liu
ReplyDelete1,American Samoa - I never heard about this country. I’m just curious about why it is called American Samoa. What is the relationship between American Samoa and the United States of America? Actually, it is attached to America, but it is unincorporated and unorganized territory of the US; administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, US Department of the Interior. They do not vote in elections for US presidential and vice president. It is slightly larger than Washington, DC. I learned that it economic activity is strongly linked to the US, and tuna fishing and tuna processing plants are the main industry. Except to export tuna, American Samoa also exports a lot of fruits, and the tourism is a promising developing sector. It sounds like American Samoa is a flourish place, but why it’s GDP – per capita only $8,000?
2,Australia - I thought that Australia is the best suitable place for living, but it has a lot of environment issues such as floods, droughts, and bushfires. Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth, making it particularly vulnerable to the challenges of climate change. It is also threatened by increased shipping and its popularity as a tourist site; limited natural freshwater resources. I heard that Australia have a strong and stable economic growth. That is right,the flourishing services sector is the largest part of the Australian economy, accounting for about 70% of GDP and 75% of jobs.It has abundant and diverse natural resources. These are the reason that why Australia has high standard of living.
Guatemala:It's the most populous country in Central America and the highest fertility rate in Latin America. that means that we have too many kids :D. We are a predominantly poor we also have a mayor problem with drugs and money laundering. I find out that armed forces may not vote and I also know who are going to be the political parties leaders. Guatemala is smaller than Tennessee.
ReplyDeletePuerto Rico:They have a chief state that is the president of the United States and a head of Government. The Puertoricans are also U.S. citizens, and are under defense of the U.S. also. Puerto Rico have illegal migrants from Dominican Republic looking for work. They have symbols that are a bird and a frog. They have a anthem called La Borinquena. Puerto Rico is less than three times the size of Rhode Island.
Chile: One things that was interesting was some facts about my flag. two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red; a blue square the same height as the white band at the hoist-side end of the white band; the square bears a white five-pointed star in the center representing a guide to progress and honor; blue symbolizes the sky, white is for the snow-covered Andes, and red represents the blood spilled to achieve independence.
ReplyDeleteSaudi Arabia: I found some interesting info about their economy. Saudi Arabia has an oil-based economy with strong government controls over major economic activities. It possesses about 17% of the world''s proven petroleum reserves, ranks as the largest exporter of petroleum, and plays a leading role in OPEC.
1)Tonga: Something interesting that I found out about Tonga is that is facing deforestation, damage to coral reefs, and overhunting of native sea turtles. I think that this is due to migration of European or North-American hunters and collectors. Also, many cyclones, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions happen there. In fact the volcano Fonualei has shown activity recently. In addition, I found that in tonga no one suffer or die because of HIV/ AIDS.
ReplyDelete2)United States:I found that the dominant religion in the US is Protestant (51.3% of the population). Also, I found that US is the 9th in the ranking of people living with HIV/AIDS. Furtheremore, US is the 3rd consumer and producer of electricity in the world.
Taiwan: I didn't know there are 93% Taoists and Buddhists in Taiwan, since Christian seems to be so prevalent in Taiwan that it should possesses a higher proportionality than 4%. Also, I'm curious about the methods distinguishing people with different beliefs, and why there is no category for atheists and agnostics.
ReplyDeleteMongolia: It is surprising to me that Mongolia has world's fourth GDP growth rate that even exceeds many newly-rising and oil-exporting countries.
Peru: Here shows that their economy is based on the coastal area, their forest, and international business. people over there have a very low inflation in comparison with my other country [Mexico]. looks that the most successful business for them is the private sector on investments. shows that the 60 % of their economy is developed for that reason. GDP 325.4 billion of dollars.
ReplyDeleteMexico: Looks like in Mexico is a mixture of the economy, betewen, industry and agriculture. As the same that Peru dominated by the private sector. As consequence of trades with more than 50 contries, Mexico had a lot of impact with the south american countries on importations as well than exportations. Our last 3 presidents were worried about to increase the amount of employees and to increase the economy of the country as other previous presidents. GDP 1.761 trillion of Dollars.
Nepal is a country in the India. was interesting for me knowing that there were 10 years civil war between insurgente and goverment forces. The war ended on November 2006. Now Nepal is a federal democratic republic. Also they abolished the monarchy. Another thing that I founded interesting was that there are some environmental issues like deforestation, and contaminated water. So, Environmental issues is a big problem in the world that we need to solve.
ReplyDeleteGreeland is an island. There are more Ice than earth. The Danish were the firts people in colonization that place. The predonminant religion in that area is Evangelical Lutheran and tha population is just 57,714 hab.