Berlin or Africa

This interactive quiz lets you test how fast you can identify the numerous Ortsteile (sub-sections of the city that are varyingly translated as districts, subdistricts or localities; no one seems to quite agree) that make up the city of Berlin.

You can do the "easy" (not really that easy) version that gives a random selection of 20, or the "difficult" one where you have to find all 96 Ortsteile, from the obvious ones like Mitte to the "that exists?" ones like Schmöckwitz (seriously, there are very few of Berlin's Ortsteile I haven't at least heard of, but that's one of them).

It's kind of awesome, if you're a Berlin nerd like me.

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But I first came across the Berlin map, actually, via a probably-more-relevant-in-the-wider-scheme-of-things map that does the same thing, but with Africa. (Interestingly, I can do the Africa map faster than the Berlin map. Again, probably a good thing, and more relevant in the wider scheme of things!)

I actually think this is a great way to learn Africa's countries, because you're not left to just guess at random here. The names of the countries show up when you run the mouse over them, so it's more a test of how quickly you can swing your mouse to roughly the right area of the continent to find the country you're looking for. That may sound like the easy way out, but I don't necessarily think so: As you're clicking and searching and racing the clock, you're also absorbing what you see and thus learning a bit of geography as you go. I promise you, I will never again forget where Gabon is, after the humiliation of my first go at the "easy" map!

Check it out here.

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PS: Last night, I spent Thanksgiving with a lovely (vegetarian!!) mixed group of nationalities, and learned that one of the main things that non-Americans associate with the word "Thanksgiving" is "people getting stuck at airports" – thanks to all the American movies that apparently feature this trope as a major plot device!

Ah, the things you learn abroad.