How Would You Describe Your Country?

"What's Russia like?" you ask me. Or perhaps it is Japan, or India, or even Australia you want to know about. Either way, you wait patiently while I search my vocab for a word to capture an entire culture, country and experience. It hardly seems fair to me, but I don't blame you. I do the same thing.

Actually, it's kind of fun. Words exist for this very reason. To express complex thought. So on a long train ride through Morocco recently, I decided to have a shot at coming up with fitting adjectives for all the countries I have visited. They are, of course, hopelessly inadequate, but they'll give you an idea of the sort of impression each country left on me.

Here goes, in alphabetical order. Non-english words are linked to their definition online.

That's 37 countries in all. I count 11 positive adjectives, 16 neutral ones, and 10 negative ones.

The question you're most likely to ask me next is "Which country is your favourite?" For that, I'm afraid I can't give you a simple answer. That won't stop me trying though. I'll blog about it soon, I promise :)

Until then...

About Roger Keays