Thursday, May 01, 2008

How many countries can you name in five minutes?

How many countries can you name in five minutes? I've tried this a few times, and this is as high as I can get:

105


The time pressure makes you blank out and miss really obvious countries. I might be thinking my way around a continent, trying to remember how to spell Liechtenstein, and then realize afterward that I forgot something like France or Japan. Go figure. And it's a little annoying because you don't know if it's looking for "England" or "Great Britain" or "United Kingdom" and you have to retype things a few times to figure out which one is acceptable. Strategy tip - knock off the short-named countries first, like Iraq or Cuba, since they're faster to type, and that will give you more time when you're trying to spell Kazakhstan.

It's a humbling exercise, to be reminded of how little we as American Christians actually know about the world. At any rate, if you've not yet taken this quiz, give it a try, and then let this be a prayer trigger to help you pray for the global church and the world at large.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I only got 44 (but it was at the end of a long day).

You are twice the christian I am.

Unknown said...

I tried two or three times (roomie Kate made fun of the intensity with which I pursued a high score), only to get 84 or so. But I tried again a few hours later and got 107. Would love to make it to 150, but I don't know if I could ever type that fast!

It's sad, though, that after memorizing all the countries of all the continents besides Africa (don't know why they skipped it... er, well, I do, but think it's unfortunate) in 11th grade, as well as taking college classes specifically on Europe, Africa, and Latin America, I STILL don't know the world all that well.

Al Hsu said...

107! Wow, that's great. Now you're making me all competitive and I'm going to give it another try to see if I can crack 100.

Woo-hoo - just got 105!

Unknown said...

It's those darn island countries that trip me up! If you can master half of them, you'll have me beat forever.

Pilgrim said...

I got 63. . . but I had to try several times on those British ones, as you mentioned. And forgot Yugoslavia and Albania have disappeared. Showing my age.

Anonymous said...

That's pretty amazing. I don't even want to try because I'd embarass myself quite impressively.

L.L. Barkat said...

Too bad we can't include cities. That would help. :)