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Left and Right
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| dandy22 |
Posted on July 05 2010 04:42 AM
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Location: No value
Posts: 82
Joined: 2010-06-04
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I know a lot of dyscalculics have trouble knowing left from right ,I do too. I have to do that L thing you learned when you're little, making the shape of an L with your thumb and index fingers. I have to do it in public all the time and get made fun of. When I'm driving I can't do it as well, so I make a lot of wrong turns, and when I'm with my mom she either yells at me or laughs at me. She doesn't understand why I can't "get it", to her it's simple she knows without thinking. She tries to teach me that the hand I write with is my right, but I can't remember which hand I write with unless there is a pen in my hand.
Sometimes when I'm at school I have to do it in front of teachers and they stare at me.
Is anyone else embarrassed by this?
Equations are the devil's sentences. -Stephen Colbert |
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| Gen |
Posted on July 05 2010 05:05 AM
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Location: No value
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Oh yeah, this is so embarrassing. I'll suddenly be told to "go right" and I'm, like, "What? Whichwaywherewho?" |
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| Mohinga |
Posted on July 05 2010 06:07 AM
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Member
Location: Denmark
Posts: 319
Joined: 2009-03-10
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This one was a favourite joke when I was a child:
Which hand is your right hand?
The one where your thumb is on the left side...
The first time someone asked the question, I was over the moon - finally a guide for left-right confused people. I was pretty disappointed when truth hit me...
I'm a violin so stop trying to make me sound like a piano!!
Dyscalculia doesn't bother me as much as all the nasty accessories that came with it |
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| CheshireKat |
Posted on July 05 2010 02:46 PM
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Member
Location: United States
Posts: 1860
Joined: 2008-11-14
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I definitely have this problem (it is probably one of the most salient characteristics of my dyscalculia) but I am not embarrassed by it. I have been this way my entire life, I don't know any different. My friends and family do make fun of me for it, but I know they're only doing it in fun, they don't mean anything harmful by it. Sometimes when I am driving somewhere in a "caravan" with a friend following me, I will get a phone call from them laughing and saying, "You used the wrong blinker again!" I just tell them that I'm trying to throw them off. 
Probably the biggest directional blunder due to left/right confusion that I've had was when we went on a family vacation to Vermont. My mom made me in charge of the map (stupid move) and told me to tell her where to turn for us to get to a certain town. I cannot read maps, they just look like a bunch of squiggles to me with random dots thrown on top. I always try to orient the map so that it is facing the direction I am, but I always seem to get it wrong. This was one of those times. She asked me if we took the left or right exit off of the highway, and I said right. Oops.
We didn't realize we were lost until we finally found a little town with a Subway in it. We went into the Subway because we were hungry, and we asked the cashier where we were. He gave us the town name, and then we asked him how we get to the town we were aiming for from here. He started with, "Well, you get back on the interstate to get into Vermont..." My mom said, "Wait, into Vermont? Where are we?" He gave us a stupid look and said, "New Hampshire."
At least now I can say that I've been to New Hampshire!
"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." - Eric Hoffer |
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| RottieWoman |
Posted on July 05 2010 04:11 PM
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Location: No value
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here's another "vote" for the Left and Right difficulty- probably one of my biggest - and even though it seems to be a "simple" difficulty- it also seems to be one that people unfamiliar with LD<in my experience> seem to have the most trouble "getting"
'kat, that really is quite a story about the Vermont/New Hampshire!
hope your mom was mad- |
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| Nissa |
Posted on July 05 2010 08:13 PM
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Member
Location: United States
Posts: 171
Joined: 2009-11-29
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My most memorable left/right embaressment came when my uncle took me out horseback riding. "Turn left here" he said. I wasn't sure if he wanted me to go towards the church or the other way, towards the highway. So, I just picked a direction and turned. "That's right go left" my uncle said. This is a pretty confusing thing to say. Did he mean right as in opposite of left, or right as in correct? I didn't know, so I tried again. "That's right go left". My uncle said again, sounding anoyed this time. So, I figgured I had it wrong, but I still wasn't sure which way to go. On top of this, it was the first time I had been horseback riding, so I wasn't sure what I was doing anyway. But eventually, I went in the right (correct) direction.
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| mandee |
Posted on July 05 2010 08:19 PM
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Location: No value
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the making a L with your hand doesnt work for me, because I can't seem to see an L the right or the wrong way, the only way I can do it is to pretend to write in the air, nowadays I just feel which hand my wedding ring is on, if we are going anywhere that I need directions for in the car its always your side my side, I passed my driving test because I put about 20 bangles on my left hand, I was jangling like crazy lol |
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| Mohinga |
Posted on July 05 2010 09:13 PM
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Member
Location: Denmark
Posts: 319
Joined: 2009-03-10
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The "L" thing won't work for me either..
The Danish words for left and right have no L, so to determine left/right, I always pretend I'm holding a knife and fork.
It works everytime.
I'm a violin so stop trying to make me sound like a piano!!
Dyscalculia doesn't bother me as much as all the nasty accessories that came with it |
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| mandee |
Posted on July 05 2010 09:33 PM
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Location: No value
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Joined: 2010-07-05
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I've just tried to do that, and I have just realised I don't know if I hold my knife in my right or left hand just had to connect it with my wedding ring, my husband is killing himself laughing at me, I suppose it is funny its just nice to find people who understand what me and my daughter go through just to find out which is right and which is left |
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| justfoundout |
Posted on July 05 2010 10:28 PM
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Member
Location: Texas USA
Posts: 6101
Joined: 2008-05-25
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7/5/10
Mandee, I was reading recently that in some countries (UK, Australia,... and probably Denmark, too?) people's table manners include holding the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right hand, and not switching them back and forth. However, here in the US, we switch back and forth. That article said that in America the people play 'musical cutlery', which I thought was really funny. In my case, it's 'true'. Guilty as charged. I switch my knife and fork back and forth, between my hands, all through the meal. Anyway, my point is that what works for Mohinga in Denmark would probably not work for you, Mandee, if you are in the US.
BTW, I don't have the 'left/right' problem. - jus'
Edited by justfoundout on July 05 2010 10:30 PM |
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| CheshireKat |
Posted on July 05 2010 11:41 PM
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Member
Location: United States
Posts: 1860
Joined: 2008-11-14
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Jus, I was confused about what they were saying with the knife/fork thing until you clarified, thanks for that. I learned that you're supposed to set a table with the forks on the right and knives on the left (or is it the other way around?) but I've never been told to eat with a certain utensil in a certain hand. I just pick it up with whatever hand is closest and use them as they feel comfortable to me.
My mom always tried to make me wear a ring on my right hand so that I would associate "right" and "ring", but as a child I was petrified of wearing rings because I thought they would get stuck and I'd have to get my finger cut off (I don't know why I was so afraid of this, I just was) so I refused to wear it. I get by now by using the L trick, that the fingers on your left hand make an L shape. I feel bad for people who live in countries where "left" doesn't start with an L!
"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." - Eric Hoffer |
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| Arwen Evenstar |
Posted on July 06 2010 03:49 AM
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Member
Location: NYC
Posts: 221
Joined: 2009-10-16
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I'm fine with knowing that my right hand and left hand are indeed, my right and left, but with directions, sometimes I have to stop for a second and think.
It's even worse with getting my way around in Manhattan. Damn grid layout messes with any measely sense of direction I have. |
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| Mohinga |
Posted on July 06 2010 05:47 AM
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Member
Location: Denmark
Posts: 319
Joined: 2009-03-10
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A very interesting fact about the cutlery - I never realized there was a difference.
I like the term "musical cutlery" a lot..
The cutlery thing works for me because I have been taught to always hold the knife in my right hand since I was very small so it's "engraved" somewhere in my brain.
I always use the trick when I have to set the table - if I didn't, knives and forks would be all over the place.
My brother is left handed and when he started helping to set the table, we always had to switch knives and forks because he put the knife on the left side.
I'm a violin so stop trying to make me sound like a piano!!
Dyscalculia doesn't bother me as much as all the nasty accessories that came with it |
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| justfoundout |
Posted on July 06 2010 05:04 PM
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Member
Location: Texas USA
Posts: 6101
Joined: 2008-05-25
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7/6/10
We (US) do put our fork to the left side of the plate, and our knife and spoon to the right side of the plate (knife goes closest to the plate), but once the meal starts, 'which hand' uses 'what' is a 'free for all'. - jus'
http://www.silver...-table.asp |
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| Nissa |
Posted on July 06 2010 07:51 PM
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Member
Location: United States
Posts: 171
Joined: 2009-11-29
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The "L" thing dosen't work for me either. Whenever I try it, I can't remember what an L is supposed to look like. But a couple of years ago I realized that I could use the small mole on my right hand to tell the difference. Also, when I work out I have a blue shoelace in my right shoe, so that I can just glance at my feet to tell which way is right. |
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