The lesson that was all over the map

Last week’s item regarding the wonderful world of maps and atlases sparked memories of how a map played a key cameo role during my early days in Bangkok. It was 1969 and I was teaching at a commercial college. One of the subjects I was assigned was geography. After the first lesson it was clear there was a language problem. None of the Thai class understood a word I was saying. So I invested in a large map of the world, attached it to the blackboard and drew a thick line retracing the route of my recently completed overland journey…