📕 Part 1: Geography

Do you like geography?

Well, like the subject? To be honest, I wasn't a great fan of it in school, it wasn't very well taught. I did like finding out about the effects of geography on human history, though. There's a brilliant book called "Guns, germs and Steel" on the subject. And I find that quite fun to read.

Do you think geography is useful?

Well, I think a basic grasp of it is important and knowing how to navigate but things like understanding or working out the incline of a hill is the sort of thing that sends most people to sleep, including me. It's just sort of useless, to be honest.

Have you ever studied geography at school?

Yeah. And it was extremely boring and the logic behind it wasn't very clear. I remember the teacher droning on about tectonic plates and convection currents. But I'd already read about that in the book beforehand. So it wasn't exactly new information.

Do you want to be a geographer in the future?

No, I'm quite happy being a teacher. Thank you. I'm not sure I have the patience to learn everything about geography all over again. And I'm not even sure what that job would involve now. We've got satellite mapping to do everything for us, I'm not sure what being a geographer even involves.

So, geography, dear listener. I wasn't a fan of geography in school or at school. So I wasn't a fan of geography. Or maybe I was a fan of geography. I was into geography. I was into geography. I liked geography.

What were you a fan of at school?

Nothing. Just hanging out with my friends after school. I was a fan of the fact when it was over. I was a fan of escaping school. Missing classes, you know. Going just for walks, endless walks. Yeah, but sometimes I did miss classes, it was quite fun. And I lived like two minutes away from school. So when I didn't go to classes, I went home. Two minutes and I'm in my bed. You can say geography wasn't taught well. So passive voice. Geography wasn't taught well or it was taught well, I loved the teacher, and I was a fan of geography. Or it was boring, dull.

It was the dullest thing in the world.

And also, dear listener, remember that we have different kinds of, types of geography. For example, human geography, physical geography, studies of hills, mountains, rivers, and oceans. Earth science, and also just geography. And the geography of the soul. I found this quote on the internet. Okay? So it's very smart.

What's the geography of the soul?

I am gonna tell you. There is an internal landscape, a geography of the soul. We search for its outlines all our lives. Josephine Heart.

Oh, it's nice.

You see? Geography of the soul. Rory, so kind of like you search for the geography of your soul.

Do I?

Do you?

It'd be really bad. After that really nice poem, I'm just like, do I do that? Oh my...

The geography of our soul, dear listener. Kind of the outlines. We do search for the meaning of life, and who we are. Do you see how philosophical we can get here? And, dear listener, you can say that, like do you like geography? Yes, I prefer the geography of the soul. A basic grasp of geography. Rory, what is the basic grasp of geography?

Well, that's just a simple understanding, like being able to know what a hill is or what a mountain is. And being able to identify different things on a map. That's pretty useful. So if you've got a basic grasp of geography, you should be able to do things like understand what you're seeing on a map.

So you can say I reckon, I think that a basic grasp of it is useful. Right? So a basic grasp of geography is important. And how to navigate. So geography is about maps. So how to navigate, and how to find your way around things is useful. What is the incline of a hill?

Well... Oh, great. Wonderful? I said that that was the most boring thing ever and now I'm going to talk about it. So the incline of a hill is just how steep it is. So here we've got a flat incline. And here is quite a steep incline. But you see them showing in percentages or in degrees. And I think that's the most boring thing ever. We had to do it in geography at school. Like just working out what the different levels were in things, and it was dull. I don't really understand why it could have been so like, why it couldn't have been more interesting, but it wasn't. So I don't like it.

So physical geography studies like hills, mountains, the incline of a hill. And here to show off your beautiful band nine vocabulary, specific vocabulary, you can say, well, knowing about the incline of a hill is not important in today's world.

Well, it's not important for most people. It's important for geographers.

You can say that geography sends most people to sleep. So it's boring... It's like... Geography? Yeah. So, oh, it sends me to sleep, or it sends most people to sleep. Another specific word is tectonic plates. So geography, physical geography studies, tectonic plates. One of the subjects of this subject is tectonic plates. What are tectonic plates, Rory?

We've already explained this in a previous video. But tectonic plates are created by fractures in the Earth's crust. So the crust sits on top of the magma and they move around. And the big sections that move around are called plates. And when they overlap with each other and separate suddenly they create earthquakes.

This topic sends me to sleep.

Likewise.

So you can say it's extremely boring, or it was extremely boring at school. And the teacher wasn't great. The teacher was boring. And I was bored to death when I studied things about tectonic plates. So the incline of a hill? Tectonic plates. You see? It's like two phrases for band nine. Also, you can say that at school we had to analyze maps and charts, it was boring. And we studied things about soil and oceans. What else? Like climate landforms. Because physical geography studies landforms. So kind of like the form of the land around us, below us. Rory would not like to be a geographer in the future. Rory like why not? You know, such a prosperous career?

I don't know. Maybe it is. I don't know anything about being a geographer. Like the actual job itself. I don't know what that involves.

Okay. Okay. So...

Do you have an idea?

Oh, yes, I have a very clear idea. Thanks to National Geographic. I did read a very interesting article there. So geographers explore, they research the physical properties, and qualities of Earth's surface, and human societies. So there is also this human geography. Rory, did you know about that?

I knew about human geography, but I didn't know that that was something that geographers research. That sounds like something an anthropologist does.

No, no, no, it's like a human geography. And again, there are different types of geography and different types of geographers. And also they investigate the impact, the geographic impact of human activities, and the role of humans in our environment. You see? It's not just geography. It's GEOGRAPHY. And also geography involves... I told you. Like physical geography. Physical geography also has different disciplines. Like subjects. For example. Geomorphology. Glaciology. Glaciology, I think about glaciers. These ice things. Hydrology. Climatology. Biogeography. Oceanography, dear listener. Rory, what's oceanography?

Well, that's the study of the geography of the ocean. But that's a totally different job from being a geographer. That's like an oceanographer. Sorry.

Right, dear listener, when the examiner asks you, would you like to be a geographer, you go, no, I would like to be an oceanographer and study the ocean. Wow. So I would like to study ice. Beautiful. So the article is amazing. It's quite long. But it gives you a very good idea about human geography. Human geography.

Will we post it in the description?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's in the description, dear listener. So make sure you read it. Thank you very much for listening and for watching! Write in the comments, would you like to be an...

Oceanographer.

Oh, oceanographer. Would you like to be an oceanographer or a geographer? And what kind of geographer? Let us know in the comments.

Yes. Speaking of the comments, today's reflection task is application. So that means you're going to use the language. In the comments on YouTube or if you want to, on our Instagram, use the vocabulary from the episodes to answer one of the questions. Only one. Not all of them, because otherwise you'll be writing paragraphs, and that won't be very effective. And once you've sent them, I'll give you some feedback. Bye! Make sure to subscribe to our social media to see some of the “behind the scenes” stuff: Our Instagram: bit.ly/instagramswi Our Telegram: bit.ly/telegramswi