How to differentiate between similar flags

Best thing ever of the day: Vexillology is the term for the scientific study of flags and for an interest in flags in general. THERE'S A NAME FOR HOW I SPEND MY TIME!!

As an amateur vexillologist and professional nerd, I have noticed flags that are similar in appearance and have conquered them. Now I will help you do the same. Here is my working guide of similar looking flags and how to tell them apart.

Let's start with an easy one: Belgium and Germany

As you can see, they are the same three colors. Belgium has vertical stripes while Germany has horizontal stripes. I don't usually make up cutesy little rhymes to learn these things. Just learn it.

Laos and Niger

Similar design, different colors. Laos seems more Asiany to me with red, white and blue, and Niger seems more Africany with orange white and green.

United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, Sudan and Palestine

UAE's flag is different because of the straight red vertical line. Kuwait has a black wedge-like thing on the left side, which reminds me of the way Kuwait is shaped. Jordan has the star on it. The problem comes with Sudan and Palestine, but Palestine's status as a nation is questionable, so it's not a huge issue. But Sudan has the green triangle and Palestine has the red triangle. 

Ireland and Ivory Coast

Mirror images are tricky, but I have a trick of my own. Superimpose the flag of Ireland over the country of Ireland (in your head... Step one, get a nice map in your head, it's useful). The orange part should be facing east, toward the island of Great Britain. That's how you tell these two apart. So I guess I lied. I have a few cutesy tricks.

Australia and New Zealand

This one's super easy. Australia has the large star underneath the Union Jack because Australia's the larger country. Not to mention, New Zealand has red, five-pointed stars instead of white, seven-pointed stars.

Fun fact about flags of Oceanic countries: Like these two flags, many others feature this constellation - the Southern Cross. It can only be seen from the southern hemisphere. Other countries that incorporate this design in their flag include Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Micronesia. 

Netherlands, Luxembourg and Russia

Here are three horizontal-striped, red white and blue European flags. Netherlands and Luxembourg are the same except Luxembourg has a much lighter shade of blue. And for Russia, white's on top because it's cold there. Pretty simple.

Marshall Islands and Nauru

Sort of the same idea for these two Oceanic flags. The way I see it is that Marshall Island's flag has two stripes for two words and Nauru: one stripe, one word. 

Bulgaria and Hungary

 

Here are two European flags with three red, white and green vertical stripes. I guess Bulgaria is closer to... er... I don't know where I was going with that. Just remember it. I don't have any tricks for this one.

Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Croatia

With Serbia we see the return of my favorite Eastern European crazy, two-headed, badass bird thing. Slovenia, ignoring that Slovakia also has a V in it, has stars on the crest that make a V and mountains that look like Vs. Let's pretend that the double cross thing on Slovakia's crest looks more like a K. And Croatia is easy and doubles as a checkers board. 

Fun fact about the flags of these four countries and Russia: The red, white and blue signifies common Slavic heritage and use of similar Slavonic languages. 

Moldova and Andorra

These are two small European countries that are wedged between two larger European countries and, although they're about as far apart as they can be from one another and still be on the same continent, their flags are frustratingly similar. Look closely at the crests. Andorra's has cows on it. Wait, but... Moldova's has a cow on it, too. OMG STAHP, Moldova... Okay, well, Moldova has a bird on it. And not a crazy, two-headed badass bird. Just a normal, boring bird wearing a shirt with a picture of a cow head on it.

Poland, Monaco and Indonesia

 

 

That is a lot of red and white. Okay, so Poland's got white on top because it's cold and the white is like snow. Yay. Monaco has slightly boxier dimensions than Indonesia because... it's smaller. Yeah, let's go with that. And then Indonesia has red on top because it's hot there.

Japan, Palau and Bangladesh

These countries are all more or less in the same part of the world and they all have a dual-colored flag with a large, centrally located dot. Obviously, learn the colors and you've got it down. In Japan the sun is considered to be red when depicted in art (and on its flag) like it's thought to be yellow in western culture. (Who's the say what color the sun is, anyway?) Palau is an Oceanic island nation and I guess the yellow and light blue sort of go with that - pleasant, warm. And Bangladesh has the green and red flag because... it's not Palau or Japan.

And finally, two flags that are actually identical: Chad and Romania

For these two, context is key. Context is your only hope, actually. Luckily, there are few situations where these countries would be grouped together because they're pretty much the most random countries in the world.

Guess what, I tricked you. The first flag is actually Romania's flag and the second is Chad's - I went out of order to throw you off and prove that you would never know which flag was which unless I told you. Muahahaha. Ha.

Well, good luck in your own studies in vexillology! I can't think of any situation where you'd have to distinguish these flags, but this is something that's important to me for some reason. It's kind of a fun quirk and could potentially be used to impress people in some scenarios. And impressing people is a vital part of looking smart, which is far more important than actually being smart. So, I hope this post helps you look smart someday!