Things you have never understood!

[femme fatale]

I also have problems with left and right. I know which is which but if I'm put under pressure I can mix them up. Plus I mix them up irregularly so it's not a sure thing to do opposite as I say. I can even point one way and say the other.

This is a thing Mr. Fatale really likes (*sarcasm*) when we're driving. Especially when we're in my hometown, which has quite busy traffic and I'm supposed to give directions since I know the town. He always makes sure to ask me way ahead so I can change my mind and point correctly.

[just1paul]

I never understood a lick of chemistry, and very little of physics. Math was better, until second-semester calculus knocked me sideways Grammar is a mystery that I've never solved--I say and write what "sounds right" to me, but it's only a guess.

Hey newfherder! - That is exactly how I write. I write how I would say something.

[Belfastgirl]

MamaC. I teach my kids the left and right the way the ski instructor said.
Interestingly, in teaching Grammar, I learned and taught parts of speech such as noun, verb, adjective, pronoun, adverb and using common sense to see if sentences look or sound right. I trawl the net and us a lot of US stuff, but some of it goes into Grammar stuff I don't recognize!
AND aplologies to all you US citizens, but when I give my kids US worksheets, they can now spot them because of spellings such as color, mom etc. I just tell them that Americans don't know how to spell!

[geek the girl]

Fun thread!

I've always been horrifically bad at math - so bad, in fact, that when I spent a few months teaching sixth-graders, I had a hard time keeping up with them! Algebra was like torture for me in high school; I think my math teacher gave me a C just because he felt sorry for me. (That, or my pathetic attempt to impress him by taking heady volumes of Proust and Joyce to class actually worked. I just didn't want him to think I was an airhead in all regards.) I suppose I compensated by exceling in languages instead but my, do I suck at math. It's almost like I'm missing a gene or something. Luckily, I get on fine despite being a total airhead when it comes to anything involving maths. Thank God for calcylators!

[fluff]

This isn't really something I don't understand, but something that confuses me is the way people in different countries write the date.

I'm British, we're day/month/year.
If you were to ask a British person the date today, they'd likely say "the second of August".
Americans write month/day/year and would say "August second".
I now live in Canada and there seems to be a mix of both which is very confusing at times.
I was asked to give my date of birth over the phone and was told I was, "wrong, your birthday is April 9th".
No, it isn't

I get to do my own confusing when people ask me the time and I say things like "quarter past four" or "twenty five to six".

[Newfherder]

I write dates both ways. If I spell out the month, I write 2 August 2007, and if I do it numerically, it comes out 8/02/07. I stumbled across a geneology web site a while back, and it had a big chunk of my family tree in it (I have no idea who supplied it; it was not one of my siblings.) It was clear that some of the dates had reversed months and days.

[roseskid]

I had a friend in high school who had trouble with left and right, and would actually begin the Pledge of Allegiance to determine which hand/direction was right (because you put your right hand over your heart). I always thought she was playing around but now you've all got me second-guessing that assumption.

Sort of along these lines, I suck at North, South, East and West. Yes, I know where they are on a compass, and understand that living in California, the ocean is to the West. I also get that the sun rises in the East. BUT, when I'm driving in a new area mid-day (so no sunrise/sunset) how in the hell am I supposed to know where the ocean is, or where the sun rises. Mr. Rose (even my daughter for that matter) seem to instinctively know, but me? Not a chance. Therefore when someone gives me directions such as "we're on the southwest corner," or "turn west at Main St. then head south," what I hear is blah, blah, blah blah, blah. Those dash-mounted GPS units would be a godsend for me, but I refuse to fork out that kind of money.

[Newfherder]

Sort of along these lines, I suck at North, South, East and West

I'd be lost without my sense of direction

when I'm driving in a new area mid-day (so no sunrise/sunset) how in the hell am I supposed to know where the ocean is, or where the sun rises

The sun will be in the south at mid-day, and your shadow will point north. Or you can use the Boy Scout trick and look for moss on the north side of panhandlers.

[schmoo2]

I am terrible with directions, and we have a GPS.
It will mark the end of my marriage yet.
I panic when he tries to work with it while driving, but he never believes me when I tell him what it is saying.
and my left and rights get turned around about 70% of the time.

and he doesn't understand why I 'turn' the thing so I am facing the direction we are moving. he says I should be able to keep it north and figure it out HA!!!
I always have to turn maps to the way I am going or I can't figure out the next move.

I do have the mirror display with the directions, and that is all I need.

the GPS - I spend much time cussing it at and trying to beat it to the punch - not that hubby will listen to ME.

[Duxxy]

I also have some trouble with right and left and I have to turn the map in the direction I'm going to make sure everything is right. Most people are right handed so I teach my kids that their 'crayon hand' is to the right - except my daughter who is left handed then her 'no crayon hand' was to the right

I think it's that 'in the nose' thingy that men have that allows them to be less directionally challenged.
There was a study done that when asking a man for directions he will use North South East West but a woman will use landmarks (down 2 lights and turn at the Dairy Queen) It's something about the hunter/gatherer in us all.
Yes, I watch too much Discovery Channel.