Visit our online shop for your left-handed productsLefties around the world
We had a lot of responses to our recent email from lefties all round the world wanting to participate in some way in our newsletters. We thought it would be good to feature a short article each month from a member in a different part of the world telling us about their experiences and how lefties get on in their country. If you would be willing to share your thoughts, please contact us using this form and attach your article as a text file plus send us a picture of yourself and any other relevant images.
Tell us about:
- Words for left-handed and left-handed people and any alternative meanings they have
- Your experiences as a lefty at school and work and whether people have been supportive and helpful to you
- Any interesting experiences you have had that relate to your handedness
- Anything else you think other member may be interested in
We look forward to hearing from you and sharing with other members.
We have produced a big page of information about left-handed language and these are some of the most recent comments on it:
- Adolfo says – Here in Venezuela we often use the term “mocho” to refer to a lefty, or “la mocha”, to refer to the left hand. “Mocho” would roughly translate as “maimed”, or “awkward, clumsy” or stuff like that, and “la mocha” would be something like “the maimed (hand)”.
- We have a had a lot of interest in this page and loads of comments from people sent by email so we will keep adding to the content. We ARE still struggling to find positive language references to lefthanders though – can you help?
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My parents are both right-handed, but one of my sisters, my brother and myself are left-handed (at least for writing!), but only 1 of the 4 of us siblings is right-handed!!! I’ve always thought that was ODD, but FANTASTIC!!!!
I also have found that it takes some people a long time, sometimes many YEARS (in some cases!) to realise I’m left-handed.
I can write and read backwards, and read upside down!! useful skills!!
In high school, my left-handed friend and I would swap notes, written backwards; but then one note was half forwards and half backwards, and it took me ages to realise, as I could read it all!
I’ve started noticing in films and on tv, when a character has to write anything that a lot of actors are left-handed; us lefties are so creative!!!
i am 30 and very proud to be left-handed. i grew up in a family with two left-handed sisters, a left-handed aunt, my maternal grandfather was and my mother is ambidextrous.
My boyfriend is left-handed as well. We do have issues with sitting next to eachother while eating though, since i always switch the fork to the right while using a knife and he doesn’t.
In kindergarten my teacher had no idea i was a lefty until four months into the school year. During a parent-teacher conference she told my mom i couldn’t cut staight. My mom asked why they didn’t have the lefty scissors for me, the teacher was embarrassed and finally stopped torturing me in front of the whole class with these horrible scissors that the teacher(s) can use with the student(s). She used to make the class gather around and watch(almost daily) while i put my hand in the scissors with her and she jerked my arm around trying to hurt and embarrass me. At five i knew this was pointless(in my learning) since i couldn’t even see what we were cutting and i wasn’t embarrassed because i told her many times that i needed the green handled scissors that weren’t available in the class(the red handled ones were for righties).
Before i discovered left-handed notebooks, i used to start them from the back. i taught myself to write backwards and backwards & upside-down with ease. My hand writing switches between being hooked to the proper way including when i sign my name.
i have learned over the years to appreciate my right hand, it has some vital duties like holding things so i can use my left hand for more important things like unlocking and opening doors.
In regards to Benten’s problem. If he holds the pen an inch to an inch and a half up from the end of the pen he won’t smudge and he’ll be able to see what he is writing.
I was brought up in the 40′s being left-handed but luckily for me I had a fantastic teacher who taught me to write properly so I wouldn’t smudge my work. When people see my hand writing they cannot believe that I’m left handed as I write so neatly, I even won a hand writing competition in the Daily Telegraph at 15 years old. It’s a shame we can’t have more understanding teachers like mine who take the time to help you.
That is a wonderful tip, Maggie. Thank You for sharing, i’ve never thought about trying to hold my hand a little higher on the writing utensil. i will have to make a conscious effort to try that.
thank you for this site!! i am the only member of my immediate family who is a leftie it was hard i take forever tying my shoes, i have awful writing but i am in my elementary school the top 3 smartest kids in my grade were lefties (i was one) now in high school i am like the only leftie and my Gym teachers gets all annoyed she has to teach me the leftie way for things. i think lefties are the best (surprisingly lol) and we need more credit cause when people realize i am a leftie they just stare they act all gosh you’re weird.
and thanks to this site i no longer think it is just me unable to do certain things like shake hands, write, tie shoes and hug. I am not sure if this applies to others but I still find it IMPOSSIBLE to write and not smudge my hand to deaht ( though by now it is pretty much immune to it)
Hello, you special people. I grew up in Nigeria and I had heard of all those ‘tying of hands to the backs stories’. Thankfully I did not experience that. However I got a lot of flak from some of my relatives and some of my high school teachers. It was considerd disrespectful to give/receive things with the left hand and I was often scolded and I also got into a lot of unnecessary arguments as a result. However because we lefties were few and far between the people that understood us considered us special and unique (smiles). I will see if i can mirror write,read upside down e.t.c. That would be interesting.
Presently I am in d U.K and I can relate with Michelle who says she uses her card with her left hand and ends up letting someone else through d barrier. Now,I know not to feel stupid if that happens to me again(laughs).
I’m 18 and and left handed. I’m also the only person in my family to be a lefty- sometimes they don’t understand. I use a computer right-handed, with the mouse in my right hand, because I was little when computers were first becoming common use and I was taught that way. I also eat with my fork in my left hand and knife in my right, but there is some debate in my family which is the ‘correct’ way. Sometimes my bread or cheese ends up with a wedge but I’m learning how to stop that happening when only right-handed tools are available.
I too get frustrated with handbags that zip the wrong way, and am always delighted when I find ones that are the same on both sides.
I don’t use notebooks with rings because they are incredibly annoying, I always make my wrist ache when writing in them. I write in the ‘hook’ style, but it’s worked for me for this long so I’ll carry on writing that way. In fact, I’m even studying for a degree in Journalism!
At 42, I am the only lefty in my family – neither of my parents nor grandparents were left-handed. I fortunate enought to have my guitar strung left-handed for me. I was excellent at playing Left wing on the hockey field. My dad always shouted at me for cutting the bread scew everytime. There are very few left products available in South Africa. I also do not have a credit card which makes purchases from your website impossible. People at work can’t understand how I have my desk positioned specially for a Lefty. I get frustrated with kettles and their cords, or even cordless ones that only have the glass level for right handed people. I usually write from back to front in my books. I get frustrated with handbags that zip the wrong way (you land up with nice side of the bag facing your body so that you can have the zip to the front of your body for safety… but, I am very proud of being left.
I am 40 and live in the US. My daughter (7) is the 3rd generation of lefty women. My mom taught me to be proud of my lefthandedness, and I learned to spot a lefty in a crowd. I usually say something.
Growing up, I never had any trouble with being left handed. (Other being being marked down for poor handwriting). Until college. Many of our classrooms had the little 1/2 desks that were on the right hand side. I would make sure I got to class early to get a lefty one (most rooms had one or two) or a full size one. If I didn’t get one, I would put my notebook on my left knee and right on the “wrong” side of the paper.
In my Language Arts for teachers, I had to complete an entire primary printing and cursive book. My teacher (a lefty) marked me down for not slanting the correct way—after telling the class that lefties don’t usually slant the same ways as righties.
I wear my watch on my left wrist. I use my mouse on the right (like many other, I can take notes while I mouse). I use right handed scissors. (I’ve never had the opportunity to try any other than the old metal school scissors with “LEFTY” carved in them.) I’m not much of an athlete, but when I bowl or play tennis (or even use my Wii), I’m a switch hitter.
My mom was a nurse for a long time. She used lefty nursing scissors—not because she needed to. (She uses right handed scissor for quilting). She used lefties at work because if anybody borrowed them, they brought them back very quickly! They had no idea how to use them!
Such a joy to read everyone´s input and I relate to many of the things you have been going through.
Scissors always caused a problem for me as a child, my father got me a very expensive but excellent pair from Finland called Fiskas and I had it for many years until someone in the family used it for cutting a wire
I have had other left handed scissors since but right handed people always damage them for me, I would love to see a clear sign printed that would prevent others from using my pair.
Has anyone had problems with knitting or crochet? My mother taught me both by sitting opposite to me so that she could instruct me in a way she knew how to knit or crochet.
At work I use the mouse with right hand because I can take notes with my left when speaking on the phone. This took a while to get used to but I can multitask that way.
I have been thinking of playing golf but am really worried that any instructor will give up on me! Any comments on golf?
Never had any problems in school with teachers or other students and always had my way when requesting to sit on the left side when 2 students would share a desk.
My grandmother had problems in school though, the teacher would actually tie her left hand on her back so she would not use it for writing, always makes me angry when thinking about it.
Greeting to all left handers everywhere
Gurry
Iceland
You mentioned learning golf – it can be hard for lefties to find trainers capable of teaching any new sport, and to find a good choice of equipment (especially to hire until you know what you want to buy). And it’s even worse if you’re not a standard size: try asking for 3/4 sized lefty clubs in the golf shop!
I am in Australia, and being now just over 60 I went to school when it must have been against the law to be left handed! well that on looking back is how it seems to me, not one teacher ever let me be what I was, which was a lefty, I was very good at art if the teacher was not watching as I would use my left hand, if they made me hold the brush or what ever it was in my right hand it became the worst piece of art in the class, I used to enjoy art and would try to sit up the back so I could see the teacher coming and I would always have a lot of work done but be sitting contemplating my work with the implement in my right hand, but never put one mark on the paper while the teacher watched, I would measure or mix colours or do anything to try and save my art from being ruined by my right hand.
My writing was a mess and I was made fun of or called out the front of the class to show everyone how messy I was, if I sneaked the pen into my left hand I smudged the paper any way so I could not win.
I can read and write mirror writing and sometimes write backward on the page and have no trouble reading it back, I can also read very quickly anything that is upside down, I used to read the newspaper someone had in front of me on the bus going to work, or even read their book upside down.
When I found that our 2 eldest children were left handed we made certain that they had scissors and other things to make their life easier, including teachers that fully understood that they were left handed and that they would be staying that way, they had a few problems with sporting equipment but they were inventive enough to work around it.
Did you know that sewing machines are made for right handed people only and it can be dangerous to use if you are left handed.
I am extremely left handed the only thing I can do independently with my right hand is move the mouse on a computer, this means i can make notes with my left hand, very handy when in a hurry.
To do other things I need to move my left hand to guide my right to mirror it. I am a percussionist in a band and my left hand has to move at the same pace as my right to keep it going, and I have to set the drum kit up back to front, so I don’t ever accept a gig where I cant set up my own kit, other players really don’t like you moving theirs around.
In general growing up as a lefty in a righty world had many challenges but both myself and my husband survived, he did but had many bruises from teachers rulers.
My mum found me a pair of left scissors in 1957 they were imported from some where England I think just for me, they were a bit big but great to use and I still have them.
mmmhhh….hope u are all well….
i also have problems with cutting using the scissors actually when i was in secondary school it was one reason i left the sewing class coz i couldnt cut th cloth well….but i thank God i managed through and can use the scissor now days though not very well…
Being an athlete,I always feel like running round the track the other way.Since I am a sprinter I dont have an issue running the 100m because its a straight stretch,but when it comes to the 200m,since this race is half an olympic stadium,i have to cross a curve where I always lose out.I feel like im losing balance.I won gold medals for the 100m sprint but because I couldn’t do the 200m my coach didnt let me compete for it again.
Also,I am an ice skater and I find jumps and spins very difficult to do clockwise.I was taught that way ,but eventually I decided to do them anti-clockwise.It took a lot of practice but I got it and my spins were faster and my jumps higher.When I skate solo I do it anti-clockwise but if I’m with someone else I have to do it the other way to avoid an assymetric programme.
I am half middle eastern and half indian and in both cultures,things would rather be done with the right hand.Thus I’ve had trouble trying to convince my violin master that its pretty much the same thing if I play the other way.But he gets throughly confused watching me play
I had many of the same problems as most of you. My mom is a lefty one of my older brothers is a lefty and the other brother was switched when he was younger. I’ve always hated using knives. To this day (I’m 30) I will ask someone to cut things for me because I can never hold the knife correctly. It’s also funny that when I was in kindergarten, my teachers would try to teach me to tie my shoes (all righties) I never learned until my cousin who is also left-handed showed me how to do it. Also I wanted to learn how to tie a tie. The only person I knew who could do it was my dad who is a rightie. I never could get it. The only thing that helped was one day while he was tieing his tie, I watched him in the mirror. It was like a lightbulb went off. I can now tie a tie.
The last year I was at school I got a job in the post office helping with the Christmas post. I got banned from helping to sort the letters though because the ones I sorted were all upside down compared with everyone else!
I’m the only left-hander in the family (except for my dad, but he was forced to learn everything with his right hand at an early age). The biggest issues I’ve experienced were with elementary school teachers (I went to a private Christian school as a young’un–they were quite strict, and I’d had my wrist smacked several times in first grade–until my dad had a talk with the teacher). Other than that, cameras, scissors, washing dishes (the drainer is on the wrong side because of the kitchen layout), general awkwardness, and most recently the decidedly right-handed setup at my new job (front desk attendant at a motel). The only thing I’ve been able to adapt to is using the mouse on the right side.
Unfortunately things aren’t improving at the rate they should. My eldest son started school just 4 years ago and his teacher told me I should teach him to cut right handed ‘to avoid so many problems in the future’. I replied that I had survived just fine. Thankfully she has now retired and I hope that many with attitudes like hers are also disappearing from education.
I’m very lucky as when I was at school the teachers helped me learn to write with my left hand, but I’m still useless with scissors!
One thing that really annoys me though is the London Underground, I automatically put my ticket in my back left pocket and when I take it out to put it in the machine to get out of the underground I often insert it into the barrier control machine to my left which means I get stuck on the barrier and I’ve let someone else through the barrier next to me, always embarrassing explaining to a guard what I’ve just done!
Dear All,
Being a leftie and my husband too, but none of either family, we are glad to have finally found like-minded people and live happily in our leftie world. We have bought serious amounts of kitchen implements for lefties – knives, scissors, pastry forks etc. We have turned fridge doors around to open correctly for us. We have purchased as many cordless electrical appliances as possible, however this is where manufacturers seriously fall short in choice. Kettles – choice good, drills etc – good, hair irons – not so good, white appliances – improving (can move doors on fridge, not on washing machines, and most recently frustrating irons – choice of 3!! Cords get in the way when ironing lefty style. And what about cameras, and video recorders, all the moulding for hands and eyepieces are for right handed/sighted people, it’s very awkward.
We are 10% of the population where’s our choice?
I had a horrific time in school. The school system had a policy of no tolerance for righthanded students. My first grade teacher broke two of the knuckles on my left hand. My parents ,both righthanded, were livid. They demanded I be allowed to use my left hand, and that caused a great deal of strife in my school years. By the time I reached high school, it wasn’t as bad. I struggled with appliances that were ‘backwards’, lab equipment in class, etc. It’s a testament to all of us that we even survive to adulthood! I worked in the medical field, where the instruments and monitoring equipment were designed for right handers. I haven’t gotten too many negative verbal comments, but lots of complaints came from my grandmothers’, both right handed. They felt I was just ‘lazy’ and could use my right hand , should I apply myself.
As for whether we are more emotional, sensitive, etc. I don’t think so, I think that sometimes we just are so worn out from trying to cope and adapt that we just release a lot of frustration at the world at large.
I live in the western US.
i think it is a bunch of baloney about left hander’s being more moody. i am a taurus and i think i am more to being a taurus. i get moody just like everyone else. i just like everyone else left or right handed have bad and good days. i live in the u.s.a in north carolina.
Dear all,
I am lefty too and when refurbished the kitchen I made all cupboards to open from right to left, drawers on the left hadn side, the wardrobe in the bedroom also opens the left door first, electric appliances are on the left hand side not to mention all the items I have bought from you. And the computer-work desk has also being made so I can use the left hand side of it to write etc
Dear all
I am also lefty and when renewed my kitchen I placed the drawers on the left hand side, the cupboards are open “our side”, my computer-work desk also made with the working space on the left, the doors of the wardrobe open left side first, electrical appliances are on the left hand side, not to mention all the items I have bought from you.
Being a bit sickly and fragile as a child, I guess, helped me to go through school without my teacher worrying about my left-handedness. I am from the country of Belize in Central America. At present I am the Principal of an elementary school. This year will make me ten years as the principal. Before working at this school, I taught Art and English at a high school.
Hei guys its a beautiful day…mhhhh..! for many years lefthandedness has associated with a lot of mystery through out the world…. but let me tell u…there is no need to fell bad coz we are in a certain way unique…and a sophisicated design of God…let me tell u one unique thing with me when using the computer …i cant handle the mouse with my left hand basically coz its designed for the right handed but i do it with ease but if using a laptop…my dominant side is in control…and if it comes to speed when writting if u are right handed u cant compete with me… there fore am thankful to God…for am unique..there fore guys cheer up sit down and think of something unique u can do different from those who think that use their normal hands..and for those f u with left handed children….encourage them coz they have great potential… veron uganda.
I am 46 and spent the first day of school being smacked across the hand with the side of a ruler here in Australia. Thankfully after my parents saw the bruises that night they took the step to make the teacher keep me a lefty. I was the only one in the class and in my family. I grew up, I confess, with low esteem because I was always roused on for being ‘not normal’ or a nuisance. Ball game comps at school was a time when I was bashed up just about or scolded with words because when i got the ball and had to run up or down the row i always ran down the natural side for me, i took off left and our team was disqualified. I dropped bantons a lot running in relay teams so ended up not getting picked because I had trouble taking the batons from others on the right because they ran passed me that way. I bumped elbows all my life just about and the seats at University were desked for right handers.. despite that though, I love being left handed. I love the art and the ability to be such a good problem solver. I think our brains work all the time because they have to continually shift and think and adjust so we can do all we can do in this right handed world. As an adult I have discovered that the eldest child born to each family for four generations on my mum’s side has always been a left hander. My eldest daughter is the first right hander for generations and my nieces have come and they are left handed so the next genetation has the lefties back except for my Mandy. She married a lefty though…
Here in Australia not a lot of focus is given to left handed people. We have one shop in Sydney who sells some products for us but in the town where I live, no one in town sells left handed scissors for children and I have taken myself off in recent years to get a teaching degree so I am on a campaign here to address left handed children’s needs in classrooms. From Anything Lefthanded, I bought rulers and gave them this year to three grade five boys, do you know, they treasure them and one only said to me last week, ‘Miss, this is the best present anyone has ever given to me, I love it!’ So I want to get packs done up for each classroom because the left handed children are not considered, indeed, they are just expected to either do it right handed or do your best. I work with grade one children at the moment to help them with their letter formations as I sit with my niece also because her parents are right handed and do not know how or where to start to help her. I do not blame right handers – I think it just never occurs to them the adjustments we have to make every day, they don’t take any notice of us. The only right handers that take notice of me are those who have lived with me and therefore have some awareness.
I recently saw a left hander cutting lettuce and thought, ‘that’s what I look like!’
Everything is right handed in our part of the world as it is elsewhere, some things I have no choice over but I think we left handers have a better ability to do well with our right hands when we need to than right handers can do with their lefts when they need to. Our brains are great! I am going to make my own mug though, they are all right handed! the little pictures are great inside, if you use your right hand…..I know there are some left handed mugs out there but I don’t like some of the words and I like the creative stuff-like a dragons face on my left side or a little picture/character inside the lip so that i can see it when i use my left hand….i have one that i have had since i was 17 and i don’t use it now because it is crazing and i don’t want to lose it but it does have a great message, “The right hand side of the brain controls the left hand side of our bodies so left handers are the only people in their right minds!” Isn’t that great…..have fun my friends….
Did you know that once a lady told me that if I was to learn how to sign to her deaf son I would have to do it as a right hander because if i lead out ‘speaking’ to him with m left hand first, the words would be back the front for the boy? Gosh, it was such a surprise…
I think we are amazing people, and brilliant…..who loves mirror writing? I had the pleasure of seeing first hand one of Leonardo da Vinci’s booklets when I was in Dublin a couple of years ago and I loved knowing that unlike many people in the room, I could read every word he had written and, I understood it! Aren’t we great!!
hello kerry…., its nice to hear that.. i used to think that those problems are only on this side of the earth …but thank fully these days in our schools they are putting provisions for left handed students… and people are begining to appreciate lefties in other fields like the army and sports .
regards….veron.
hi I’m Mongolian. We should be grateful to our parents we the left handed people r very unique
I am an 11 year old girl and I am a proud left hander. I am extremely grateful to grownup when I did, as I am a writer. During this past summer I’ve been trying to teach myself to write right-handed- just for fun. Although more convenient at times, it’s defintely not half as fun!!
i had a teacher whin i was 8 yrs old who wud rap my knuckles it wrote with my left hand! luckinly for me the following year i went to stay with my maternal grandmother and the torture stopped! but the damage had already been done! it was my selfesteem that had taken the beating!
hi, what’s up everyone, Iam from Sudan,iam the only left hander in my small family, but some of my relatives are left handers, left hander in arabic is (a”sar) which also means something hard to do or something that brings bad luck. I feel very special that iam left hander and when people know that iam a left hander they think that im really special and they look at me with admiration, i do everything with my left hand except eating .
I come from uganda East Africa and am left handed am trying to start an association for the left handers many of the left handers are still looked at as base people and we need the surport of the world to deal with this vise
hei.. man am glad u are there am veron, also left handed i work in kla…mmmhhh…i had awful experiences when growing up coz of being a lefty but now am okay…
thanx
take care….
Hi all,am a lefty since birth n going to school was not such a problem.am the only left handed in our family of six.i do most of the things with my left hand,and i don’t feel am an odd one out at all!hey its the new normal being left-handed,i tell myself.
I have had many of the same experiences as the ohers have mentioned. Also BOTH of my parents are lefthanded. Althogh my mother is ambedextrous because she had to learn how to write right handed when she went to school. I am like my father, a true lefty. I tell my brother nd sister that they are the odd ones because they are righties. I can actually right somewhat with my right hand because of a time when my left arm was injured, something most right handed people cannot due. I have told most right handed people that because of the way the world works(mostly right handed) that lefties are much more adaptable and therefore able to cope than righties. My only regret is that both of my kids are right handed although my son is learning to hit left handed for baseball.
For a positive statement:
It is a well-known fact & I see T-shirts announcing that left-handers are the only ones in their right minds!
Being Leftie a challenge, you bet! When I was in Parochial school, probably the 1st or 2nd grade, I was constantly chastised for writing left-handed. The Nun even went so far as to say, “A right-handed person stands on the right side of God, but a left-handed person stands on the left side of the Devil!” Now that’s one way of scaring thw wits out of a child! Did I change? For maybe a week then went back to the best way of writing for me, Left-Handed!
We should all celebrate being lefties.
Three years ago I was lucky enough to be invited to join the Scotland Corriefisters curling team to play in the World Left Handers Curling Championships, held each April in Oakville, Ontario. My wife, who is also a leftie, joined us last year to become the first non North American to play in the ladies’ championships in its 30 year history. We were back again this year and are certainly planning to go again next year.
Only through being a leftie have we been able to compete in world championships (and come home with a prize last year). How many right handers get that opportunity, especially on the wrong side of 60?
The men’s competition last year had 48 teams and the ladies’ had 12, giving a total of 240 lefties all in one place. To have a passion not only for curling but also having the common bond of all celebratimg being lefties creates a wonderful atmosphere which brings us all together year after year.
Being a left hander at school was a bit of a nightmare for two reasons.. The first one being in the days of pen and ink and blotter. Until i learned how to hold the blotter with my pinky finger to blot as i wrote, i ended up with an inky hand and blurred work. The second reason is the teachers themselves!! I used to plead to sit on the left side of the 2 seater desk…. always to no avail. You sat WHERE you were told. No swapping . You can see it can’t you . Two elbows vying for space.
I guess you all know why hot water taps are on the left side of the sink, bath or basin?? Right! It didn’t matter if little lefties got scalded. (LOL)
We are the smartest people in the world because we have learned to adapt in a world designed for the right handed.
Where necessary i always sit at the end of the table for ease as i hold my knife in my left hand and fork in the right….
I am so pleased this site is up and running again… Regards from the land down under.
where ever i go, i feel priveleged as a left handed person, i see my self very unique and special among my friends, family members, etc, even though the society sees anyone using left hand to do things as been disrespectful, it is not instead it is a privelege. I AM PROUD TO BE LEFT HANDED, I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU.
I too am very proud to be left handed and footed. Right hands are very useful for carrying shopping bags though – it’s one of the few uses I’ve found for them!
I remember back in 1973 when I was in kindergarten my teacher would slap my hand every time I tried to write with my left hand. I am still left handed.
What I find interesting is those of us that didn’t have a choice but to use right handed products cannot now use left handed products. When I was in school they didn’t have left handed scissors so I didn’t have a choice but to use right habded scissors. I cannot use left handed ones now because I am so used to using right handed ones.
I had this problem too at first. With right handed scissors we have to look at the outer edge of the blade (nearest the finger nails. Practice with left handed scissors some more but look at the blade on the other side – it takes practice but I find leftie scissors so much better now. I kept breaking the other ones!
I have had my share of clumsy moments from living in a right handed world, but being left handed, I noticed something: 1. Most things at work are made for right handed people 2. Right handed people generally do not notice left handed people’s use of their left hand 3. Left handed people can generally spot other lefties quickly.
yes, i always notice a lefty, but a right handed person does notl I usually comment to a lefty who is my clerk or waiter, and they say no one ever mentions it except other lefties.
Righties have always noticed I am left handed. They would make comments like I am disabled. Like “OH, how terrible your a leftie”. It got to the point I would say sarcastic comments, but I stopped because I was lowering myself to their level.
In the first grade, our teacher wanted us (two leftys) to switch to the right hand, I refused and would not do it, My friend agreed and in a very short time started to stutter, 2 years later, a visiting education PHD from the US, sat in our class, my former lefty friend was asked a question by the guest and his stuttering got worse because of his nervousness, The visitor inquired if he always stuttered and was told that it happened in the first grade, he further asked if the kid used to be left handed and the teacher proudly said that she had “cured” his left handed problem.
Our guest then told her to make sure to make the boy write with his LEFT HAND
His stuttering was gone in a few weeks.
Since I would not write with my right hand, our teacher found it difficult to show me how to form letters and numbers, and we had to make sure that they were in a strait line, I was left on my own and learnt to write from the bottom up to make sure they all were on the bottom line.
So to this day I write numbers and letters from the bottom up.
One more thing – when you shoot a rifle (m-16) the spent shells hit you in the forehead, with a machine gun they burn your right forearm.
why are you talking about guns?
He mentioned guns because the story he told of his experiences included how a right handed firearm affected him because he fired them from the opposite shoulder. I am fortunate that I have a collection of left handed guns. The plum of my collection is a mirror-image 1911. Roy
Hi Mike,
I too can relate to firearms being for right handed people. I hunt with my husband and sons. My shotgun also expels empty casing on the right, when I unload my gun it’s awkward because I have to catch the shells in my right hand because the button to eject them is also on the wrong side. Apparently you can get a shotgun for lefties but I hear it costs a pretty penny!!
I was surprised by your description of learning how to write. I too am left-handed but seemed to adapt well and I don’t recall having any problems growing up (grew up in the early 60′s). I’ve had many, many people tell me that I have beautiful hand writing for a lefty. My son, who is in his late 20′s is also left-handed. Watching him write, I found it interesting that he also writes from the bottom up as you say.
My maternal grandfather was born left-handed and was forced to switch. He was ambidextrous as he got older. I also have an aunt who attended catholic school and was forced to write right-handed. She insists that her horrible hand writing is as a result of being forced to switch.
I’ve always wondered why righties in America are not called “Northpaws” since they call us “southpaws”.
Regarding eating, my husband, who is right-handed, always makes sure I have a left end at the table so that I don’t bump elbows with anyone else when we eat out with friends.
I guess because we lefties have to mentally reverse things, we’re more mentally flexible when it comes to figuring out visual/spatial things.
That’s a good question. I’m a righty but my husband is left handed. I’m going to start referring to myself as a northpaw. My husband says I’m an honorary lefty as I practice with my left hand. Always wanted to be ambidexious.
My wife and I are both left handed. We eat out with another couple frequently. One time, at the table, the other lady asked us how difficult is it for us to eat side by side as we are both lefties. That was good for a laugh. Roy
All my best friends give me the end chair because they got pocked in the ribs too many times. Any one new that joins us get “NOT THAT CHAIR” when we get ready to sit for a meal. I love it!
I eat lefty, but so does my husband. He was born in Europe, and they do not use the clumsy method of eating that I observe in the ‘States. Here, people switch hands to cut and then eat their food. Much more sensible to eat left handed.
My favorite eating lefty story – I was seated at a banquet at a round table which seated 8. Only one right handed person and she got a lesson in what it is like to be in the minority at the table for a change .
Result!
Getting back to the oginiral topic.. it’s sad to note that if you go back forty or fifty years, that post wouldn’t have been satire. Students were forced by their teachers to learn to write right-handed, because left-handedness was bad or evil . My aunt had to go through that, and her handwriting never really recovered. I’m a lefty, and mine was just about the first generation where they finally dropped the idea.My dad is from the last of the one room schoolhouse generation. He managed to stay left handed even if he’s a boomer. So that meant i had no problem doing so when i showed the inclination. They steamrolled over a very stupid kindergarten teacher when i was about 5 who wanted to hold me back so she could enforce the right hand teaching. It didn’t work, i sailed right into 1st grade without an issue. This was in the early 80s at that. Like 1983, so there were some holdouts even 25 years ago.My cursive is pretty much crap, so i seldom use it. But i can print safely enough so that when i take prescriptions off the phone at work, they’re understood by the other techs.
I don’t know how true this is, but I heard that southpaw came from baseball and leftie batters stood on the south side of home base. Anyone know baseball?
Angela, I know you’re right about baseball and the “southpaw” term, but I’ve heard the story about pitchers instead of batters… The way I heard it was that when the pitcher at Wrigley Field in Chicago (? Not sure if that’s the right stadium) faces the batter from the mound, he is facing west, and so, if he is left-handed, his left arm faces to the south, and therefore he was called a “Southpaw”. The term has stuck to more than just baseball since lefty pitchers were first called Southpaw’s… My two cents anyway…
Been left handed my whole life and it took me until I was 18 years old to get my first pair of left handed scissors….that was 25 yrs ago and I still have them!!!
I had the same problem! Now they have ones with ambidextrous handles. People used to look at me funny for holding the righty ones upside down so the handles didn’t bite into my fingers.
I had that problem with scissors, but I also have another problem with “righty” scissors: The pressure my fingers put on the handle of the scissors when i grip them to cut something separates the blades of the scissors slightly. The blades separating slightly causes the paper to be cut roughly, not smooth as if I had used my right hand. My 1st grade teacher did not understand this and told me I was just stubborn. (We were cutting out paper teapots for mother’s day and mine was a horrid mess.)
I’ve read through everyone’s comments, and have had many of the same experiences… Ink or pencil lead on the back of my hand and using small right-handed school desks in college (which I actually got used to and then I wouldn’t sit in a lefty desk if there was one in the room). And, I never actually realized, but I do type with “the book” on my left side… However, I have something totally different to relate that happened to me in high school (senior year, I think)…
My mother convinced me to take typing because “I might need it some day”… Who knew that computers and therefore typing would become so important in life? One day while I was typing in class, my teacher stopped and watched me for a while. When I stopped typing, she asked me if I always spaced with my left thumb. I had no idea that I was using my left thumb and no idea that you’re supposed to space with your right thumb, and your right thumb alone, but she explained that was the case and I was doing it incorrectly. Thankfully, this teacher was also left-handed, and she simply smiled at me and told me that my left thumb was fine, but that I should only use one of my thumbs and not both. To this day I use my left thumb to space and don’t use my right thumb to type at all… The keyboard I’m typing this on right now has a space-bar that is severely worn on the left side… The right side? Looks as good as the day I bought it!
i was woundering if anyone else had/or has this problem,when i was in school if i was upset or happy,your just bored i would look at some other type of writeing and change my style,this ofcorse was not popular with my teachers,because there would be two or three diffrent types of writeing.
I do that all the time. I also doodle my name on the side of the paper when I’m bored. I looked into some of my old spanish notes from high school and my early college years, and I could tell the year I wrote each one because of the handwriting style I wrote it in. Usually if I see another person’s handwriting, and I like it, some of my letters gradually change and I will write similar to that writing until I find another one I like. It was fun looking through those old notes though because I could tell whose handwriting I tried to copy and when it was.
Ditto. Writing backwards and reading upside down are also two further good “tricks” for some lefties
I thought I was the only person who did that. Even now when I write in my journal I notice that I still do it. I can now tell how I was feeling by the way I wrote at the time.
did it all the time in school. i just assumed it was a “girl” thing, cos my right handed friend did it too. We once ended up copying each others styles and so my work looked like hers and hers like mine! Caused some confusion for the teacher, who assumed we had used the wrong books!
I am left-handed, my mother is left-handed, my mother’s mother was left-handed, one of my mother’s brothers is left-handed, my niece and nephew are left-handed, my stepson is left-handed and now, my granddaughter is left-handed! We rule!
I bowl right-handed, bat and throw right-handed, play tennis left-handed. Write and draw left handed, use the computer mouse right-handed. Just depends how I learned.
NO teacher showed me anything about writing left-handed until college. My calligraphy teacher showed me how to get the proper thick and thins by turning the paper sideways! I write with the hooked left hand, like Barack Obama, because teachers made everyone turn their paper the same direction right or left handed alike.
You’d think teachers would be made to take a class… especially since they might be entrusted with the future president of the United States!
My experience was very much like Suzan’s. Although neither of our parents was left-handed, the majority of my siblings are. My daughter and her son are both left handed.
I have been married to over 40 years to a lady who thinks handedness is ridiculous and who doesn’t want to hear who is left-handed. Not only were the schools indifferent, so is my wife!
I kick with my left foot. I write, bat, and throw with my left hand. I shoot left handed, too, as I am also left eye dominate. My wife and I each learned to use the mouse with our right hand so we can take notes with the left hand. ( very convenient ) Roy
The other day I was talking to a co-worker and we were discussing about left-handed people (as I am) and he said, in a very serious manner by the way, we don’t need you, and then I said: WHAT?
He said: yes, we right-handed people do not need you lefty ; you have nothing to do in a world ruled by “us”, so we do not need you freaks. That hurts you know.
Your co-worker knows NOTHING!
poor you. your co-worker must live in the caves, so inmatured and not open minded. you should tell them many person who are left-handed are great such as Leornardo Da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Neil Amstrong, Alexander the great, ect…
In reply to Jose… I have a similar problem I always notice a lefty and make a comment. It is a great conversation starter and the other lefty always apprecitates being noticed. I have an older sister who doesn’t understand that. My opinion is that right handers are just jealous that they aren’t…. God knew who would best cope and that is why he has chosen us…. His very special people….
In Baseball, first basemen should be left handed.
Your co worker is very wrong. Many of the Presidents of the United States were left handed, including Barack Obama.
When I was at university in 2000-2003 (in the UK) the chairs had integrated writing desks – bad news for me was that they were all on the right hand side which made it very difficult!
In the USA also, in this day and age they are just starting to get full desks.
In the bigger rooms where all the seats were connected, I always made sure the seat to the left of me was empty and used that desktop for writing.
Here in ISRAEL we had some room in the university with chairs like this, and usually they had about 10% of the chairs fitted to lefties. so every time i walked into the room i had to find one of them and sit there. when i couldnt find one i also made sure no one sat to my left and i used the neigbour’s desk…
At my university, all the classrooms I use have chairs with integrated desks. There isn’t a single chair that is fitted for left handers. Sometimes my entire arm hurts after writing for a long time.
I also was made to use my right hand in Kidnergarten and first grade. I found it so messy and hard I just stopped wrighting for the teachers. My mother told them to leave me alone and let me right with my left hand, the teachers were so astonished that I had impoved so much with my hand wrighting and it was so neat. And my grades improved.
When I began school at 5 years old a teacher told my Mom that she would be glad to “switch me”, my Mom faced her and said ” if my daughter wants to write with her feet she more than welcome”. My Mom was switch and now has to write rightie. She still does everything else left.
I echo most of the experiences of those on this list. (i.e. ink as well as pencil lead on the back of the hand; unconfortable scissors, I thought I was just a klutz; doing everything the opposite of everone else, not too many lefites in grade school during the 1960s in Eastern Kentucky). But my be story I dodn’t even know about until years later. My mother told me when I was junior high school that she had asked my first grade teacher, Mrs. Caldwell, to consider switching me to being right handed. God Bless this wonderful educator! Her answer to my mother was, “Don’t even think about it. You’ll mess him up more than you can ever imagine.” What a lady! I’ve always felt she left this world way to early. I guess Heaven just needed her to stand up for all the kids there.
My 6th grade teacher was horrible to me. I was the only left-handed student in her class and one of a very small minority in the whole school! Left-handers are the most discriminated group of people of all. I think it is such a shame that so many left handed leaders we have had and not one of them has thought to stand up and fight this act of discrimination.
My oldest grand-daughter is left handed and in the tenth grade in high school this year.
She has been taking a typing class and I could not believe it when she said her teacher
told her that she would have to put her book on the right side while typing because she would have to ”get used to it that way”. I told her, my grand-daughter to tell her mother to go to school and have a talk with that teacher because she has the right to use her left hand because that is the way she is and she has put her book back on the left side when she types. I say ”good for her”. Can you believe that that attitude still exist today. I just don’t understand why acceptance of differences is such a problem for so many people.
Sandra/USA
Hi Sandra,
I can identify with your niece. When I was in the tenth grade we had a penmanship teacher called Mr. Harrison. He was constantly trying to make me write with my right hand. Finally I got fed up and told my mother. She went to the school and took a strip off of him even to the point where she said “my daughter even brushed her teeth with her left hand”.
I have a very good hand writting and no one could ever guess I’m left handed. I slant to the right, don’t write upside down like my poor son does (never could get him out of that habit) and I can mirror write backwards as fast as I can forward. For some reason I don’t even have to think how to write backwards it seems to come naturally.
Anyway to make a long story short Mr. Harrison failed me, not because of bad penmanship but becaue I’m left handed and my mother told him off.
I am very fortunate in that I was never (at least as far as I can remember) admonished for using my left hand in school. The ink on my hand thing is still a problem, though, and I still tell people where to sit so that I don’t bump their elbow.
In the mid-eighties I taught school in Nigeria. There, as in many countries, the left hand is considered the “toilet hand.” (Some countries do not enjoy the sanitary conditions those of us in North Amarica take for granted.) While the area in Nigeria that I lived did have reasonable sanitary conditions, the concept of the “toilet-hand” remained and this meant a strict division of labor for the hands in certain cases. If you wanted to pass something to some one or you wanted to shake their hand, you used your right hand; if you wanted to flip some one off you used the left. I was able to use this division of labor very effectively as a teacher. If I felt a student had not bothered to study for a test, I would hand their graded test back to them with my left hand. I never needed to scold my students, and they studied for the next test.
I do remember ,first grade I think, using the scissors and having a very difficult time of it; but I don’t remember any of the teachers fussing at me for using my left hand. The biggest influence in accepting being different from everyone else in the family was one day seeing one of my uncles using his left hand to hammer in nails. He was right handed from everything I knew about him. No one in the family ever gave me a hard time or called me ”names” because of which hand I used. Other than my uncle I was the only one, in my family, that was left handed. There was a girl in my class at school that was left handed also but I think she was the only other person I knew that was left handed.
Now there are several younger family members that are left handed including my oldest grand-daughter,my nephew and his son too. It looks like we’re”gaining” on the rest.
Sandra/USA
I am in my 70′s and I guess I am lucky- no one ever asked me to use my rght hand in school I did learn to use sissors with my right hand: there were no left handed sissors then. However, the biggest shock was a few years ago when I broke my right arm. I had no idea how many things I used it for. For one thing, I never had noticed that door handls turn to the right until I had no right hand to use.
I was always confused about what hand to hold my knife and fork with – how can the wrong way feel so comfortable. I have problems signing credit card slips – there’s usually a big wall of perspex where I want to lean my arm. I have to shift my shopping, purse and keys before I can pay.
I have just started a new job – gazing round the staff room I noticed a lot of lefties and am thrilled about it. I was the only one in my last job and always got the impression that people thought me a little odd. I have as yet never come across a positive expression describing left handed people. My students often say “Oh, there’s another person who writes with the wrong hand”.
I can use my right hand for lots of things and can write with it too, as long as my left hand is writing mirror at the same time – both texts look neat and tidy.
I love being left handed.
The lefties I know are tough and skilled at what they do. The only rival that ever got the better of me was a fellow leftie – we get on OK now. Lefties are creative and deep thinking and perhaps a little obtuse. I think we are good communicators too, especially if we have had to learn to adapt to a right handed world, and who knows, a world where others may think differently too.
I am left handed but my children are all right handed. Oddly enough, I use a knife and fork in the “right” hands, and they use them the other way! The only problem this causes is with a steak knife in a restaurant – serration is wrong for them. I think I do it this way because it was natural to use a spoon and then fork as a child in my left had, and 2 implements – ie the knife- came later, so my left hand was already in use.
My mum taught me to use knife & fork righty-style, so that I didn’t always have to draw attention to myself by swapping place settings and, anyway, with a lot of food you can just ditch the knife and manage fine with a fork in the left-hand. However, I uses knives singly and spoons in my left-hand. I am always conscious of trying to sit on the left-hand end of a table so as not to knock elbows, though.
I’m the only lefty in a family of four, although my mum thinks her dad may have been (he left home when she was little and, anyway, came from the generation that was mostly forced to be righty). One of my cousins and now one of my three nieces is also lefty.
Mum also taught me to knit right-handed because we tried mirroring and it just didn’t work, but over the years my style has changed so that my left-hand is much more involved than for most knitters.
I still use righty scissors and am reasonably handy with them because I never had lefty ones when I was young and by the time I came to try them was a bit old to get very adept. Keep meaning to try again. Even so, I utilise my left-hand for feeding the paper/fabric through to keep the cut neat more than I’ve ever noticed righties doing.
Unlike a lot of lefties, I wouldn’t call myself ambidextrous at all. Doing anything with my right hand while the left is unengaged feels completely wrong and can actually disorient me! Sometimes I feel like my right arm isn’t even a proper part of me.
I remember 2 leftie-related incidents from my childhood…
The first was when I was in “year 2″ of Primary School, when I was about 6 – so 1988. I had trouble when learning how to use scissors – the exercise of cutting along the lines would end up with me starting the cut on the line and end up the other side of the paper! We were using scissors that were right-handed, and so it would be uncomfortable to hold… This particular day, my teacher (who was in her mid-sixties 22 years ago…) was very exasperated with me, and really told me off for not being able to cut properly… I didn’t understand the difference between lefties and righties then, and felt “bad”… I believe if left handed scissors were promoted more and made easily available back then, that incident could have been avoided. As for my cutting
techniques… Well, I own left handed scissors now, and my straight lines are more curly!
The second incident was 2 or 3 years later. I was on a family holiday “Up North” and we were visiting the outdoor museum of Beamish near Newcastle. This is a museum that is basically a working history of the area. It was one particular “exhibit” that scarred me… This was the Victorian school room, a working classroom, complete with a teacher and slates on the desk. I went in, and picked up some chalk to write on the slate, and then was promptly yelled at by the “teacher”: in the olden days, being left handed was verboten. I am definitely glad to have grown up when I did – where lefties are free to express themselves and not be forced into things that were unnatural to them!
I’ve just thought about another school situation was when I was about 9. I managed to sprain my left wrist, doing some weird thing, and writing was very painful… I was yelled at (again) by my teacher (different one this time!) because my handwriting was awful – it was too painful to write! I wonder if she didn’t think about me being left-handed and put two and two together… interesting thought!
In secondary school, left handed issues by teachers didn’t happen… My main problems then were choosing the wrong desk – then “knocking elbows” for the rest of the year! And coming home from school with a blue or black side of your hand from it having rested in the ink on that page…
I am starting to find lefties more and more common… My predecessor of my last job and my successor were also left handed, (which was quite useful, as the mouse stayed on the left hand side – which was the tidiest place to keep it!) A lot of my other colleagues are also lefties! Which makes me think: why is the world so Rightie-centric in the 21st century: in banks – the pens tied to the counters – always on the right… Chequebooks – stubs on the right… Those are the main things I can think of – maybe it’s just the financial institutes that need to wake up… on the other side!
You can ask your bank to change you cheque books and paying in books to left-handed ones with the stubs on the right. Both my husband & i are lefties and have this with our bank so now it’s on file all books sent to us are left-handed
Thanks Helen,thats a wonderful suggestion…i always end up using only half of my cheque book because I invariably smudge the cheque..
I’ve got a lefty cheque-book and it’s always particularly funny to take it to a righty teller. They can’t work it out at all and end up all contorted holding the cover down with their elbow and doing weird hook-handed writing. I give them a minute and then point out that’s what it used to be like for me all the time! Petty revenge, but very satisfying!
Here in South Africa I’ve also had a lot of trouble with scissors. I had a pair of left-handed scissors in primary school, but it was only years later that I realised that these scissors actually sent out a very demeaning message – it was shaped like a donkey (with eyes and everything)! Needless to say, today I use my right hand when I cut something with a pair of scissors. But at least I was still able to write with my left hand. When my grandmother was in school, the teacher would bandage her left hand so that she couldn’t write with it. Today my grandma still complains about her handwriting! I think in the end all left-handed people tend to be more ambidextrous, as be are forced by society also use our right hand. What do you think?
As a Chinese student who is left-handed,it’s not easy to keep using left hand to write,eat and do other things all the time.
Because in many old people’s eyes,useing left hand is not a good costom and it’s not convenient in daily life with other people who mostly are right-handed.So many left-handed young guys have to change their costum into use rignt hand ,especially when they are writting. Many lefties who i have acquaintance with have such experience.
Lukily,i still use left hand when i’m writing,drawing,playing balls and doing most things.But i use right hand to eat with chopsticks,because if i use left hand there would be a “chopsticks conflict” with folks who are right-handed especially when it’s crowded with people.Haha!
i’ve alsohad the same experience with eating……im left handed and when i was little my dad used to tell me so many times to eat with my right hand. eventually i started eating with my right hand but i do everything else with my left hand..except for ironing and holding the computer mouse(they are on the right side).