Los continentes

Here's a simple question...

How many continents are there? DUH, seven.

I can hear you now...where are you going with this Rodney, and what does it have to do with Spanish? And why you are asking such a silly question?

Well, in the good old US of A we count 7 continents - Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. Apparently not everybody in the world shares this theory, including our Spanish speaking friends.

There's the 5 continent theory- África, Antártida, América, Eurasia, and Oceanía.

And then there's the 6 continent theory - Asia, África, Europa, América, Oceanía y la Antártida.

So what's different? América includes both North and South America, and depending on whether you subscribe to the 5 or 6 continent theory, Europe and Asia are counted as one continent, or two.

When I heard this, I think my jaw, pants and socks dropped all at the same time.

If you want to read more about this, check out this wikipedia link (it's in Spanish) , or click here for the English version of the page.

You can also go here for a nice color map of the 6 continents theory.

Amazing huh? Not only am I learning a new language, I'm learning geography all over again too! I'm beginning to get the picture that my adventures in Spanish are far from over.