How to learn the countries of Southeast Asia

The mainland five

From west to east:

• Myanmar, the western one, against India and Bangladesh.
• Thailand, in the centre, with a long tail running down the peninsula.
• Laos, the only one of the eleven with no coast.
• Vietnam, the long S down the eastern coast.
• Cambodia, tucked under Laos, between Thailand and Vietnam.

The islands, and who shares them

• Malaysia is in two parts: the end of the peninsula below Thailand, and the north of the island of Borneo.
• Singapore is the island city at the very tip of the peninsula.
• Brunei is a small country on the north coast of Borneo, surrounded by Malaysia.
• Indonesia is the long arc of islands along the south, from Sumatra to the western half of New Guinea, including most of Borneo.
• Timor-Leste is the eastern half of one island in that arc, the one nearest Australia.
• The Philippines are the islands to the north-east, across the sea from Vietnam.

What gets mixed up

• Laos and Cambodia. Laos is on top and has no sea. Cambodia is below it and has a coast.
• Malaysia and Indonesia. Malaysia is the northern one, in its two parts. Indonesia is everything along the south.
• Borneo. One island, three countries: Malaysia and Brunei in the north, Indonesia in the south.

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 Southeast Asia: all 11.
• Capitals of Asia and Flags of Asia.
• The rest of the continent: how to learn the countries of Asia.