What Was Your Country?
Do you remember having to do a report on a foreign country in intermediate school?
I remember in Miss Ishida’s 7th grade class we had to pick a country to report on. I picked Argentina while my friend Stanley took Chile.
Paula said her foreign country was Paraguay.
I remember that we were given a certain amount of time to do the project – probably like 4 weeks. Back then, I knew nothing about project management so I waited until the last week to get started. When it came to crunch time, I remember setting up the “A” (for Argentina) volume of World Book Encyclopedia in our handy book holder:
And copying the story word for word.
Sometimes I would actually do research. See, we had 2 sets of encyclopedias: World Book Encyclopedia and Encyclopedia International. I would look up the subject in both and pick the one with the shorter article to copy. That was about the extent of my research.
I did get a good grade on my Argentina report and I actually learned a few things about Argentina – like what their top export product was and it’s climate and geography. And since my friend did neighboring country Chile, we compared notes and I learned some stuff about Chile.
I don’t remember having to give the report in front of the class – which was more stressful than writing the report itself. I think we just had to write it up and put it in those cool colored transparent report covers. The kind that used the long, triangular plastic piece that you slid on the crease of the folder to hold the pages together.
Okay, so I didn’t get an “A” for my report. But I did pass and was never accused of plagiarism.
Do you remember having to pick a foreign country to do a report on in intermediate school? Do you remember what country you picked? How did you “manage” your project? Did you go the the library to borrow books on the subject? Then write it up from scratch? And include an outline or table of contents for extra credit? Or did you “cut and paste” the old fashion way like I did (copy word for word)?
Masako
January 28th, 2013 at 6:15 am #
First!
Masako
January 28th, 2013 at 6:24 am #
Good Morning! The project that stands out for me is having to make a tourist brochure for a chosen Country in Social Studies class. My parner and I got assigned Japan. We went to the library and visited a couple of travel agencies and pieced together our brochure. My partner was a good artist so she drew a picture of the Japan’s four main islands, Kyshuu, Honshu, Shikoku and Hokaido and wrote a brief description of each of them. We also covered the culture and a had pictues of some of the tourist attractions like Mt Fuji. We earned an A!
In high school I did a paper about France. My auntie was a french teacher so I basically called her up and she helped me with that one.
M
January 28th, 2013 at 6:31 am #
Guud morning MLCers!
I don’t remember doing a report on any country maybe because I just didn’t do it.
Masako
January 28th, 2013 at 6:32 am #
This is off topic but thinking back on the project made me think of how easy it would be to do today. I would probably just have to google Japan and all my research would be right there. I guess its like how I used to plan my travels, I used to buy those Fodor travel books and go to the library to research the place we are going to visit. Now I go on the internet and print information. Sometimes I even use the internet at the hotel to figure out last minutes routes and train schedules.
Students these days do not know how to go to the library and look up books….and for them, what the heck is an encyclopedia. Anyone remember taking notes on index cards for our research papers? Now they just print stuff off the net. I wonder if anyone asks Siri for information……
Mark'75
January 28th, 2013 at 8:09 am #
I don’t think we had that kind of assignment in intermediate school.
Mark'75
January 28th, 2013 at 8:18 am #
Dad still uses one of those bookholders!
I used to put magazine photos on my PeeChee portfolio, and cover them with the report cover that I split down the seam and tape around the edges.
Rodney
January 28th, 2013 at 8:54 am #
Do kids today know what a card-catalog is?
Mark'75
January 28th, 2013 at 9:06 am #
Not my daughter. She uses the library’s computer system to locate books. It’s so easy now, it lets her know if the book is on loan, or what other public library has it.
LINDA KATO
January 28th, 2013 at 12:16 pm #
Good afternoon MLCers
Happy Monday 
Have a great day
LINDA KATO
January 28th, 2013 at 12:19 pm #
I chose to report on CANADA. In our class we had to decorate a bulletin board using that country’s trees or flowers. I decorated the bulletin board with maple leaves and wrote articles about Canada and posted them on a huge bulletin board. Received an “A” for my project. I did research from the local Aiea Library using books about CANADA.
4G
January 28th, 2013 at 1:22 pm #
Whoa – a report on a country from the seventh grade? There’s a blast from the past. LOL – I remember Social Studies in the seventh grade. I remember the teacher – Miss Gomes, but I really cannot remember what we studied and certainly not any of the reports we wrote!
I know we had research assignments in school. I remember encyclopedias; I remember being grateful for having a set at home – not all families of my classmates had that.
I believe that it was like my first research assignment when we were expressly told that you weren’t supposed to just “copy” the information you found for your “paper” – you had to use your own words . . . . So, I never (at least, not in good conscience) was able to just “copy” material from a reference in preparing a paper or report.
Here is the first thing that came to my mind on this topic:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=readers%27s+guide+to+periodical+literature&FORM=HDRSC2&view=detail&id=A9B2AB38EE87AC69EB725B37A645E880EC685081#
It’s the “Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature”. At first, I couldn’t
remember its name and was going to ask you all if anyone remembered it. I remember it being a wealth of information. I only remember the paperbound editions, though. Pictures on the web show that it was also published in hardcover. I think we used to just refer to it as the “Readers’ Guide”.
Hey, that pic of the bookstand is missing the vinyl “caps” on the two arms that hold the book pages. Risk of torn pages! LOL.
Rodney
January 28th, 2013 at 3:19 pm #
Yeah! Where the end caps on the front arms!
Rodney
January 28th, 2013 at 3:20 pm #
I think back-in-the-day, people used to go door-to-door selling encyclopedias – like vacuum cleaners – and that’s probably how we ended up with them. Encyclopedias, that is.
kellyk
January 28th, 2013 at 6:40 pm #
don’t remember having to write about a country in 7th grade (was i ever in 7th grade? i don’t remember) but i do remember my christopher columbus report in 4th grade. i put it off so long, it was 10pm the night before it was due and my big sister wrote the whole thing for me, paraphrasing the entire encyclopedia entry, i just had to rewrite it in my own handwriting. the teacher gave me a bad grade because it was too long! supposed to be half a page but ended up being two pages front and back. i told her i got an A.
sally
January 28th, 2013 at 8:44 pm #
Only thing I remember from intermediate school was dissecting earthworms, frogs, and crayfish. Of all things to make me sick, it was the crayfish. The smell got to me, teacher thought I was faking it till I was throwing up in the bathroom. Got sent home.
Cheee yahhh I remember that!
Foreign country? uh, I really don’t remember.
KAN
January 28th, 2013 at 9:06 pm #
I don’t remember doing a report on a country, but I remember doing a report on Komodo dragons when I was in the sixth grade. They’re found in Indonesia. That’s all I remember – don’t remember what grade I got or anything else.
The most overachieving assignment I ever turned in was when I was for social studies in seventh grade. We had to make up some kind of story explaining how something came to be. I made up a story on how Mt. Olomana came to be, sewed a fabric cover, embroidered the front of it, and sewed the pages of the story into the cover.
KAN
January 28th, 2013 at 9:08 pm #
Sweetie says he did a report on Tibet when he was in the ninth grade. He’s had a “very intense interest” in Tibet ever since (he has lots of books on Tibet).
dihudfan
January 28th, 2013 at 10:00 pm #
teachers nevah complained when we wrote stuff word for word from the books… but nevah aced an essay that way… btw… World Book Encyclopedia wuz the best to copy from… winnahs
high school… libraries were the places to be… not only books… girls…
M
January 29th, 2013 at 6:23 am #
Guud morning MLCers!
volleymom2
January 29th, 2013 at 8:54 am #
I don’t ever remember doing a report on a foreign country, but I do remember making a poster on Denmark in the 7th grade.. had something to do with cows and milk. Got a good grade on it.
@Masako- many students do not know what encyclopedias are- I have a 2sets in my classroom. When doing research they must use other resources besides the internet. Many are too lazy to go library to get books.Of course they dont know what a card catalog is cuz now its all digital. Yep, I remember the index cards method but never used it, too lazy. Just put everything on folder paper so I have one big picture of my sources.
volleymom2
January 29th, 2013 at 8:59 am #
@Rod- wow, that bookstand brought back memories even tho I never had one! Yeah, I remember those guys coming around selling encyclopedias, like the fuller brush man… Now I wonder how we got ours, but I dont think from the door to door sales man. I dont remember hearing much of plagarism until I got to high school.. but more so now.. like I can give anyone an ear ful- icky!!
snow
January 29th, 2013 at 12:05 pm #
i think i did a report on el salvador… but i was still in elementary school. you know, had i known that picking a small country would mean that there was barely any information on the place, if given a chance to do-over, i would pick brazil! lol. i had a hard time with that report… i kind of had to make things up by reading about other neighboring countries and making some general assumptions about their similarities. lots of time spent at the library and using the encyclopedia! i think i had to make notecards, do an outline and a bibliography. not my favorite thing to do, by far!
Mark'75
January 29th, 2013 at 12:26 pm #
@sally: I remember dissecting earthworms and a toad. We didn’t do crayfish tho….maybe the teacher learned from the previous year
TwoFish
January 29th, 2013 at 1:18 pm #
I did a report on some South American country. I don’t remember which.
I still own & use those bookstands, and I have the caps so the pages don’t get torn.
Card catalogs ceased to exist, so it’s hard to show someone how to use it when there isn’t anything to “show”. Vaguely remember using those cards as scratch paper in the not-too-distant past when I went to look up some books for information. Me, I prefer to hold something in my hand, and stick my fingers in the pages to flip back & forth. Hard when it’s digital, plus I use public wi-fi. How’s this, go to main State Library & use their wi-fi, and you can plug in. Liliha Library has all their outlets taped over so you are reliant on the battery life of your laptop. I wonder why they’re stingy with that – abuse of the electricity, when they keep their computers on all the time, regardless.
LINDA KATO
January 29th, 2013 at 4:00 pm #
Twofish: Nice to hear from you
LINDA KATO
January 29th, 2013 at 4:04 pm #
@Twofish: Nice to hear from you
LINDA KATO
January 29th, 2013 at 4:06 pm #
Good afternoon MLCers
Happy Tuesday 
Have a great afternoon/evening
Rodney
January 29th, 2013 at 10:15 pm #
Like @snow – I HATED doing reports. More worse when had to do a presentation in front of class. And the teacher makes you bring in some kind of food from that country (because she like eat um) to pass around the class.
Actually, I guess my mom hated it more because she had to whip up the food!
M
January 30th, 2013 at 6:21 am #
Guud morning MLCers!
Happy Wednesday!
Masako
January 30th, 2013 at 6:51 am #
@Rod – I think it was when I did my paper France that we had to do a cooking demo on a food from that country. I made Crepe suzzette and the teacher got pissed at me because I brought in a little bit of rum and lit it up to finish the dish. She ended up giving me an A because it was an impressive demo. There were other times we had to bring in food representing our ethnic back ground. That was easy, I would just make chi chi dango.
During culinary school we used to do tableside Cherry Jubilee’s. Once someone switched the bottle of rum on my cart from the 80 proof to 151 and I swear the flame hit the roof.
I hated doing oral reports. Speech class in college was the worst. I just wanted to pass the darn class so I wouldn’t have to take it again.
Ynaku
January 30th, 2013 at 7:44 am #
Mine was Uraquay. I dunno why. Maybe because my last name start with “U”?
Good thing we had one set encyclopedia in da house. I had one typewriter and plenty typewriter eraser (da pencil kine cause never had the white out) Bang out the report on my trusty Underwood.
I had those book stands. Good stuff that. No can find now. And yeah I put it in that report holder too.
BTW, if you try blow into that plastic holder thingy, you can make music
Ynaku
January 30th, 2013 at 7:50 am #
Elementary school days, we had to request information from some state. We addressed our letters to;
Chamber of Commerce
Capital City, State
We got back some cool stuff. Brochures, maps even stickers
Kage
January 30th, 2013 at 8:52 am #
Good Morning.
I do not remember doing a report on a specific country, but sure we did have to do something like this.
I do remember in elementary school having to do a presentation as a candidate for elected office. It was the time of an elections so we were all assigned a candidate from different races and parties. I got assigned this guy that belonged to a small party. I could not find any information about him except an address. I sent him a letter and did not get a reply. I just had to wing it.
LINDA KATO
January 30th, 2013 at 12:03 pm #
Good afternoon MLCers
Happy Wednesday 
Have a great day everyone
Thanks for sharing all of your memories
kailua girl
January 30th, 2013 at 10:41 pm #
We had Hawaiiana in the 7th grade at Kailua Intermediate – Mrs. HIno.
These days you can’t get by with even half a sentence that comes from the internet OR encyclopedia. Educators now have tools that detect any sort of plagiarism. (Free Plagiarism Detector and Duplicity Checker) (I remember doing a country report on Venezuela in the 5th grade, though.) She was actually my all time favorite teacher; Mrs. Florence Kono at Keolu Elementary.
Rodney
January 30th, 2013 at 11:15 pm #
Plagiarism Detector!?! Whoa. I guess we DID have it good in our day!