How to learn the countries of Asia

Six regions

• East Asia (6). China, Mongolia above it, North and South Korea on their peninsula, Japan, and Taiwan off China's coast.
• Southeast Asia (11). On the mainland from west to east: Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, with Cambodia tucked under Laos. Then Malaysia in two parts, Singapore at the tip of its peninsula, Brunei on the north coast of Borneo, Indonesia, Timor-Leste and the Philippines.
• South Asia (8). India in the middle; Pakistan and Afghanistan to the west; Nepal and Bhutan along the Himalayas, Nepal first; Bangladesh in the east; Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the ocean.
• Central Asia (5). Kazakhstan across the top, Uzbekistan in the middle, Turkmenistan on the Caspian, and the mountain pair Kyrgyzstan (north) and Tajikistan (south).
• The Caucasus (3). Georgia on the Black Sea, Azerbaijan on the Caspian, Armenia between and below them.
• The Middle East (16). Turkey, and Cyprus below it. Down the Mediterranean shore: Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, with Jordan behind. Iraq and Iran. Then the Arabian Peninsula.

The seven -stans

Seven countries end in -stan. Kazakhstan is the giant, so it is the easy one. Uzbekistan touches all four of the other Central Asian ones, which puts it in the middle. Turkmenistan is the one with the Caspian coast. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are the two small mountain countries against China, and they are in alphabetical order from north to south. Afghanistan lies below those five, and Pakistan below Afghanistan, reaching the sea.

The Arabian Peninsula, in order

Saudi Arabia fills most of it. Along the Gulf coast, from the top: Kuwait, then the island of Bahrain, the thumb of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman on the corner. Yemen is the south-west corner, on the Red Sea side.

Iraq and Iran. Iraq is the western one, between Syria and Iran. Iran is much larger and reaches east to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Practise it

Take one group at a time. Play it on Name it until the names come without thinking, then switch to Find it, which asks the harder question: given only the name, where is it? What you miss comes back sooner in Review, and what you know comes back less often, so a few minutes a day is enough.

• Countries of Asia: all 49.
• Countries of the Middle East and Countries of Southeast Asia: the two crowded regions, each on its own, with a guide each: the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
• Capitals of Asia and Flags of Asia afterwards.