Geography - South America
Tips & Tricks for Memorizing Countries in South America
Welcome back to this series on geography!
In the first post on this topic, I showed you some easy ways to remember distances around the world.
The next post gave you some tips on memorization.
Then, we covered countries in North America and Central America.
In this post, we’re going to cover South America.
A Pretest
For a quiz on the names/locations of countries in South America, go here. You can go to this website or this website to take a quiz on country names/locations across the world.
South America
The continent of South America includes the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Feeling Surrounded
Oh, then there’s also French Guiana, which is actually a territory of France. Sheesh…remember that island up near Canada that the French lay claim to? I discussed in the North America post. Don’t worry, I can’t remember the name of that island either.
This made me further wonder what other EU territories and regions are scattered across the globe—quite a few apparently:
There are some other islands around South America, but, like I mentioned in a previous post, we’re going to ignore islands for right now, because I don’t want you to get bogged down.
Except…for fun, I highly recommend reading up on the history of the 1982 Falkland Island War between Argentina and England. All I can say is, don’t mess with Margaret Thatcher.
South(east) America
I mentioned this in a previous post, but it’s worth repeating—the continent of South America is actually southeast of the United States. In fact, the western most capital (Quito, Ecuador) is only 60 miles west of Washington, D.C.), and the entire continent of South America sits almost completely east of Florida and Ohio.
Memorizing the Countries
Ok, with that background, let’s get to the memorization piece.
Once again, I want to start by saying the more outlandish you make the idea or picture, the more memorable it’ll be (you’ll see why I say that in a minute).
Unlike Central America, I don’t have a unifying story to help remember the countries of South America; instead, I remember them by their shapes and locations…and a little bit of history.
Colombia
Colombia sits at the bottom of a column of countries forming Central America. The word “column” closely resembles “Colombia,” which is how I remember its location and name.
Colombia was named after Christopher Columbus. Who, as it turns out, never made it to North America (see map below).
Looking at the picture below, if you squint and use your imagination, you can kind of see how Colombia is shaped like Columbus—who is looking up at the North America he never really discovered (which he doesn’t seem very happy about).
Venezuela
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. Because of this, and because the country is shaped like a “V”, I think of the image of Valvoline brand engine oil being poured into a “V” shaped funnel.
Apparentely, you forgot to check your engine oil, so you take it in to your mechanic, Vinny, who says “c'est la vie”. C'est la vie is pronounced “say la vee,” and means “that’s life” in French.
So, Vinny say la (Venezuela) vee.
Guyana - Suriname - French Guiana
I think of these three countries—excuse me, two countries and a territory—together in a little dialogue. It’s all about that French territory.
Person 1 - “Hey what’s your name?
Person 2 - “Guy” (Guyana)
Person 3 - “Hmm, that’s weird. Are you sure that’s your name? (Suriname)
Person 4 - “Ok, fine, you got me. It’s actually French Guiana.
This is not quite how you pronounce these countries. You can listen to the actual pronunciation of Guyana here, Suriname here, and French Guiana here.
Brazil
Brazil is the first of what I’ll call “body part countries.” Its shape resembles that of a bra, or that which would fill a bra. Thus, Bra-zil.
The other body part countries are Chile, Peru, and Ecuador.
Chile
This one is easy—it looks like a chili pepper. But also looks like a leg.
Peru
If Chile is the leg, then that makes Peru the butt, and generally, butts smell. Dating back to the early 17th century, a common exclamation of contempt for a foul odor was pyoo, which is now pronounced “pee-YOU”…which sounds a lot like “Peru.”
No disrespect to Peru--it’s actually an awesome country, after all, this is where Machu Picchu is located!
But (pun intended), sitting at the top of the leg, you can see how it looks a bit like a butt cheek. And no, I’m not providing an image on this one.
Ecuador
One way to remember Ecuador is that it sits at the Equator. Woah, imagine that! It’s as if they named the country after that fact (they did).
However, not every map has the Equator line on it, so here’s another way to remember the country--if Chile is a leg and Peru is the butt, then Ecuador is the waist, and going around the waist of the earth is the Equator.
Bolivia
The continent of South America has this large indention on the west coast, and directly aligned with this indention is the country, Bolivia. Therefore, I think of Bolivia as a bowling ball that hit South America and caused this dent.
Bolivia = bowling ball
Argentina
Argentina looks like a person who is crying. And this can fit with two different people from Argentina—one that brings tears of sadness, and another that brings tears of joy.
Eva Perón was the first lady of Argentina from 1946 until 1952, when she died at the young age of 33 from cervical cancer. She left an indelible mark in the history of Argentina, so much so, that Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote the play, Evita, about her. It includes the famous song, “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.”
Lionel Messi was born in Argentina, and is considered one of the best soccer (aka football) players of all time. During the 2022 World Cup, he played for the Argentina national team and led them to win the championship. The game was incredible. After Argentina scored two unanswered goals, France came back and scored within two minutes. Then, both teams scored in overtime, leading to a shoot-out. Ultimately, Argentina won, bringing tears of joy to all Argentinians; it had been 36 years since they won the championship.
Uruguay and Paraguay
Combining the first letter of each of these countries, you get the word “UP.”
The movie Up by Pixar was about a man, a boy, and a dog who float to South America. Using this image, you can think of the phrase “up and away”, which sounds like “Uraguay” or “Paraguay.”
And going upward, Uruguay is first, then Paraguay is higher, and larger, like the balloons in the image below.
And that does it for South America. Do you have a way that you remember the countries of South America? If so, leave it in the comments section!
Keep in mind that the more outlandish the image or story, the easier it usually is to remember the items in it.