Is it just me... or is it a left-handed thing?
As a result of our question on Left Handed Kissing Confusion, we got loads of responses about other things left-handers find awkward but have never really connected with them being left-handed. Apart from the problem of greeting people with a kiss and getting it wrong, we also received comments on other things that made us think....is it just me or is there more to it? Some of the things that were mentioned were:
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It seems that a lot of the quirks that we have are a result of being left-handed in a right-handed world. Listed below are some of the responses we received from our Club Members when we asked . "Is it just me...?" See how many you identify with. The quirk that started it all was social kissing, and you can read a selection of anecdotes about that on our kissing confusion page.
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- It was only recently that I realised why, when I try clothes on in a shop and put them back on the rack, they're always facing the wrong way because, I'm LEFT-HANDED.~ Simone Hurst
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I've noticed that even when loading the dishwasher, I start on the right, but my husband, who is right handed, loads on the left first, and folding sheets together is a nightmare, he folds the opposite to me, and if I don't remember the sheet gets twisted not folded. ~ Carol Wiltshire |
- One really embarrassing thing I do at dinner parties is drink from the person next to me's glass. I just reach out with my left hand and lift and its not until I see that I'm getting strange looks that I realise what I'm doing. I tell myself I won't do it again then I do. Also the cheese board! I just dread someone asking me to cut a piece for them because I just can't do it, it usually ends up on the table and I feel stupid. What should be an enjoyable night out is something I dread. ~ Evelyn Rose
- When first seated at a dinner party or restaurant table, I always have to wait for the person to my left to take a sip of their drink, or eat their bread roll to make sure I don't take the wrong one by mistake! ~ Lauren, UK
- Microscopes!! The fine focus is always on the right!! its probably just me but I use them all day and it drives me mad (boss too mean to buy me a proper one). ~ Debbie, UK
- Am also a glider pilot, and there are an unusual number of left-handed pilots, particularly the really good ones e.g. national & world champions. We tend to be better & more comfortable at turning right, whereas the right-handed pilots are better at turning to the left. ~ Sarah Platt
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I just wonder if anyone out there is like me. When I'm out with friends walking I have to be on the left side of the road when walking and on the left of people when I'm talking otherwise I feel uneasy. ~ Jay |
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- Receiving change from shop assistant - I nearly always find myself struggling to hold it without the coins falling all over the floor. (I'm talking about a combination of notes and coins). I think it's because people naturally hand change as if the person receiving will hold out their right hand - but I hold out my left. ~ Emma Hurley
- I start painting a wall left to right, both the right handers in my family go right to left, and they couldn't figure out why I did it "backwards" as they called it. It wasn't backwards for me. They finally figured it out. It was "left-handed logic" as they call it every time they think I'm doing something the wrong way.
- Just to let you know I have just been decorating and was papering the room from right to left and find it very difficult to work that way around rather than left to right ~ M. Izzard
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We had an email recently from LHC member June in Melbourne, Australia that struck a chord with us. She says she is very good at adding up numbers upside down and likes adding up her bill in a cafe upside down faster than the waitress can! - June also told us that she has another skill...
"Recently, under immense stress, I calmed myself by doing something I have done in the past as a fun exercise, but have no idea when or how I learnt to do it, but everyone thinks it is very strange. I write the figure 1 down, next line I double it-2, then again-4, then again and again on each line. I am up to about 40 figures in my answer at present. What is unusual is that I begin at the left-hand edge and quickly double all the figures across to the right side. I sometimes check the answer by doing it the normal right to left, but I find my way much quicker. Everyone that has seen me do it is amazed."
- I don't know what the odds are, but I'd love to know how many left handed people are also directionally challenged like me - i.e., have trouble with north south east and west and distances, and are constantly having to make u-turns when going somewhere. I've had this problem all my life and have often been asked what it feels like to "be lost" and am I scared when it happens. I just tell them, I don't have a problem with it, I just consider it going on an adventure and I eventually get where I going . It just takes a little bit longer and I consider the new things I see along the way a learning experience.~Dot Sale, Ontario, Canada.
- When going to a cinema or theatre I am always drawn like a magnet to the left hand side to find a seat. If I have to sit on the right hand side I don't feel comfortable all night and just sit there thinking how much better I would enjoy the film etc if I was on the left. Is this common with other people? ~ Maureen Elliott
- I put on a belt backwards, as in using my left hand and inserting it in the right side. Most of the time its hard to notice a difference, but there's belts out there, like ones with buckles that end up being upside down. I know it's not just me because two other left-handers I know do the exact same thing, so I was wondering how many other left-handers do this as well? ~ Scott Farrar, USA
- I just bought this new belt with a designer buckle. I started putting the belt through the straps in my jeans as usual, but when I wanted to close the buckle, I discovered that the buckle logo was upside down. "How weird", I said to myself, and then it dawned on me: this belt was designed for righties! Somehow I, as a lefty, have an innate impulse to thread a buckle through my jeans straps beginning at the opposite side from that of a RH! (My old belt didn't cause me any trouble of this sort, since it didn't matter in what way you turned the buckle). Before the time of the CDs, when one still had LP records, I used to have mine on a shelf beneath my record player. I've always been meticulous about sorting things alphabetically, and I used to do that with my records, too. Somehow, though, my friends would consider my "shelf order" strange, since I put all artists whose name/group name began with an "A", at the right-hand side of the shelf, which was totally natural to me. Couldn't get it what was so strange about that, until recently when I came to think of the fact that it must have been a lefty instinct, to do it "the RIGHT way round"! :-) ~ Helene, Sweden
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Among a million of things I just can't do in this right-handed world, here's one that made me really ask to myself....is it just me? I am just not able to uncork a bottle of wine, simply 'cause I unscrew in the wrong direction. The cork opener never makes it into the cork, no matter how hard I try to push it! My husband makes fun of me, saying that I always use my left-handedness as an excuse just because I'm not able to do stuff....Will they ever understand? ~Sara, Italy |
- When taking "hanging files" (where the papers are laid sideways) out of filing cabinets and opening them up, the papers are always upside down for me when a right-hander has been doing the filing. I know now that I mustn't slip new papers into hanging files without first checking the direction of the other pages - which are always upside down to my way of thinking! Luckily, I have a personal filing cabinet, where only I file the papers, so every file opens with documents the correct way up for me! ~ Laura, UK
- Myself and one of my best friends were trying on clothes and she wanted to try on the shorts I was wearing-with a belt. When she got them on and was trying to use the belt, she was having trouble getting it undone so she could do it. She made the comment "you and your left handedness." I had not realized she was having trouble with doing the belt until she said that and I asked what she meant. Evidently, I had my belt "backwards". I have to wonder how many other "leftisms" there are that we (lefties) are unaware of? ~ Anonymous, USA
- It seems my right-handed husband and four kids have all "learned" from me! My husband learned to change and dress our four children the left-handed way since I had the baby's rooms set up for my convenience. Kitchen activities were also done "my" way. My kids are now in their 20's and my daughter commented that she does many activities like a lefty because she learned from me. She says it's my fault she's all messed up but I just tell her I did her a favour because she's skilled with both hands! Anything we leftie's teach our kids or spouses will be noticed by other right-handed people! ~ Doreen Place
- I have recently realised that one reason I have difficulty with the new chip and pin system is that I put my card in "the wrong way round" - the automatic way for me as a left-handed person but not for the machine - created by and for right-handed people I think?Is this something lots of you have already discovered?! ~ Barbara Robinson
- I just wanted to say I felt so much better after reading all the things we left handers have in common. I constantly have problems with handshakes, belts, crossing someone's path (am I supposed to go to the right of them or to the left?) and of course the kissing! I also appreciated the people who visualize things in the opposite way. I recently graduated from law school and I was once told by a professor that although I reached the right conclusion I came at the problem with "backward thinking logic". I also organized all of my notebooks in school so that they opened backwards; my classmates never wanted to borrow notes! I also have problems with outside water faucets -- I always try to turn it left to turn it off. And when I read magazines I always flip through them back to front. ~Lesley Holloway
- The quirk I had trouble with wouldn't have been noticed if I hadn't been in the military (US Air Force). As a lefty, I'm more comfortable carrying my purse on my right shoulder, leaving my left arm free. In fact, I find it almost impossible to keep a shoulder bag ON my left shoulder when I try. Here's the trouble -- salutes are done with the right hand and thus, the right arm must be free at all times. It's even in the regulations that purses, umbrellas, briefcases, etc., should all be carried on the left. I had trouble with that for the entire time I was in the Air Force. I tended to just carry my purses in my left hand (even the shoulder bags), as they would never stay on the shoulder. Very frustrating! My next comment concerns the preference for sitting on the left side of theaters. I don't feel uncomfortable if I have to sit on the right side, but I do tend to automatically go to the left when entering a theater. This turns out to be an advantage. Studies have shown that the large majority of the population goes to the right when a choice is presented (like going into a theater or choosing from two lines for an amusement park ride) -- probably due to handedness. An authority on Disney World has even put into his book about the Park that you'll spend much less time standing in line if you veer to the left when presented with two lines for the ride! So, go with your quirk and veer to the left -- it will almost assuredly be quicker/shorter/less-crowded over there! ~ Lynn, Denver, CO USA
- Regarding shaking with the left hand, I am both a lefty and in the Guides. Guides and Scouts around the world shake left handed, which is perfectly natural to me. Unfortunately it makes things even harder when I have to shake hands in a non-Guiding situation, I am even less likely to remember to offer my right hand. This has meant that in professional situations, I've found out that quite senior people were Scouts or Guides and/or left handed and ended up leaving my boss totally out of the conversation as we then talk about handedness or Scouting. ~A. Kerr
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Is it just me? Everything at my workstation in my job flows right to left! It drives my co-workers crazy when they come looking for something at my area. They think my workstation set up is "backwards". I just assumed its a "leftie" quirk. Same thing in my kitchen by the way.... ~ Colleen, USA |
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- I always find that if I have to flick through a book I hold it in my right hand and flick the pages with my left starting at the back of the book. It drives me insane when I want to use a dictionary because I think of the alphabet going forwards but then I'm flicking with the letters going backwards. Whenever I fill up my motorbike I have to go to a pump that is on my left other wise it just doesn't feel right. Unfortunately my car has the fuel cap on the right hand side and I frequently get myself tangled up with the pumps. I also us one of those flip open wallets and always find it difficult to put notes and credit cards away without turning it upside down then everything ends up falling out! ~ Pauline Woodhall, UK
- A constant annoyance for me is the placement of receipts when signing credit card transactions. Cashiers almost always angle the receipt towards my right hand, so I inevitably have to re-angle it towards my left hand before signing. This can sometimes be a problem if the cashier keeps a finger on the receipt (usually due to a draft from a fan or doorway). The most amazing incident of this nature was a few months ago in a well known UK DIY store: the cashier placed the receipt angled towards my right hand, I re-angled the receipt towards my left, but before I could put pen to paper the cashier re-angled the receipt towards my right again! ~ Michele Wilkinson, Cambs
- My gripe is with the till desks, usually petrol stations, that secure the pen for the signing of the receipt with a piece of tatty string that is attached to what ever on the right side and too short for the lefthander. The assistant also offers the receipt to me addressing my right hand. I have found that banks are no better they just have posh ball chain that’s too short instead of string ~ Bob Beaney
- I was recently looking into purchasing a new horse. When I lifted his leg to look at his hoof he tried to kick out. This had never happened to me with my other two horses so I thought there was something wrong. The owner informed me that I was picking up his hoof by touching the inside of his leg. He said most people touch the horse on the outside of the leg and this is why he was spooked. I never realized it but being left-handed I naturally reach inside the leg, whereas it is awkward for a right-handed person to reach inside, so therefore would pick up the leg from the outside. Also, when I was a kid, my mom asked me to put up the pencil sharpener (one of those crank kinds). I did as I was told. A few days later my dad complained that he could not sharpen his pencil as the sharpener was upside down!!! ~ Linda Vonhof, Westhampton Beach, NY
- Is it me? i'm the only left hander at college, and if I've been using the computers I get a lot of complaints because the mouse is on the wrong side of the computer for the boring people of this world.~ Bev Syson, Ilkeston
- My ex-husband and I moved to a new home and since he was travelling for work I had to unpack everything. We lived in that house for 3 ½ years and he complained the whole time that nothing was in the right” place. I just kept saying welcome to my world” with a big smile on my face. I hadn’t even realized I had set everything up left-handed - I just put everything where is was supposed to go. ~ Jodi Olson
- When I am drinking especially in a pub or club I feel that if I don't hold the glass in my left hand that I am not getting the full enjoyment of the drink. Sometimes I find that I am drinking with my right hand and realise that something is not going quite right and have to change! ~ David Robinson
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It works the same way when walking past someone but don't know which side to let them pass you on, so you end up doing a little dance and bounce on both feet before one person takes the lead and chooses a side. the difference is, it's with your neck and so you end up looking stupider! Although it can be quite humorous ~ Laura UK |
- Whenever I read a book and the author describes a scene, I always find later, as the plot unfolds that I have visualised it completely the wrong way round, as a mirror image. Is it me? ~ Linda Dainton, UK
- Is it only me? I run my own business from home which does involve sending information by post to prospective clients. When the information I send runs to more than one page I like everyone else staple the pages together. Often, too often the actual staple doesn’t penetrate the paper. Is this a fault that other left handers have encountered and if it is how have they overcome this annoying problem?~ Bob Westecott
- I joined a dance class (Line-Dancing) and had a hard time following everyone...All the steps were lead on the right foot , Of course I instinctively started on my left and I was always a step behind everyone...I was so ashamed, I couldn't keep up. ~ Marty
- Handshakes! I naturally put out my left hand...d'oh! Oh the trials of living in a right handed world... ~ Nancy Hopkins, UK
- I have difficulties with locks and keys is it just me ? ~ Frances Todd, UK
- Walking in the out door. I am always doing this. It drives my son crazy! Or walking on the wrong side of the staircase. ~ Cindy Timo
- I was wondering , growing up was it difficult for you to learn how to tie your shoes properly? Especially learning from a rightie? I ended up making two bunny ears and tying them together rather than the loop around and pull. Also making check marks (ticks). Did people tell you growing up checking each others papers that your checks were "backwards"? ~ Jennifer, The Bronx
- I used to hold all my four children on my right side, leaving my left hand (a working one) free. So I am absolutely sure that all the discussions about women carrying their babies on their left side so that children could hear their mothers' hearts beating are just nonsense! It is just a matter of right- or left-handedness. ~ Irina Radetskaya, Russia
Thank you to everyone who responded to our question so far - it is great to be part of such a helpful worldwide community of left-handers and we look forward to receiving your further comments - please use the form below.
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Oh and when I print a word, its much easier to do it backwards, ie. right to left. Was whoever designed the Arabic script left handed?
Pete
He overcame being a righty and blamed me for years that he learned to solder as a lefty when he didn't have to. In fact, he never did learn how to solder by holding the iron in his right hand.
A win for lefties!!!!
i find myself taking pills upside down, starting from right -bottom ,
another subject is "drawing the bell shaped (normal) curve" from right to left during teaching.
I am so glad someone made a comment about sign language, I have always wondered about that. Thank you Helen :-) I am curious as to whether there are any signs that are only done with the left hand, or whether there is a sign that means something completely different if done with the left hand as opposed to the right?
Main question however that I have wondered about. In countries that write right to left (Japan and Arabic countries come to mind) is there a higher population of left handed people than right? I would imagine it would be a huge benefit to be left handed in cases of writing. OR do those countries also have the negative stigma attached to being left handed as every other country has? I am aware that in certain Arabic countries it is considered grossly inappropriate to use your left hand when eating.
If I was to take them out with my right hand, they need turning round, so it seems logical to me!
Having said that, I always use my computer mouse with my right hand, so I can use any computer at work! I am ambidextrous in a few of things, as I think both of my hands need to be used. This might come from having broken both wrists skiing during the last 15 years!
1. when I cross out something on a paper, my line starts from top right
2. when I look at myself in a picture where everybody keeps their arms folded, mine have an opposite "knot"
I'm always told I make check marks backwards...to me, they look perfectly normal.
My husband was so super nice and asked that the handle of our new refrigerator be moved to the other side because I was left=handed...I loved the look of the lady at the store when he asked that!!
Of course my whole family had to get used to doing things the left-handed way in the kitchen...because, my kitchen was set up to suit me!!
I fired at the enemy, all the empty shells would hit me in the face and that hurts.
First, they sting upon hitting and second, they are hot and leave crescent marks on my face.
All the other guys would say whats wrong with your face??
Another drawback with lefties.
Pete
Austin, Texas
Regardless of all our oddities as the right handed people would call them, I don't change the way I do things just because it is considered 'backwards'. If someone has a problem with how I do anything, they can redo it if it bothers them that much :-)
Also, without thinking, I bought two oven mitts with lovely designs on one side, and silver colored insulation on the other. Silly me! Of course, the design was on the palm side of my left hand, and the insulation on my backhand. I hung them on the wall, so I could enjoy the design.
I am told I set pans handles facing the "wrong" way on the stove. Since taking culinary over at my store I have been told kitchen is backwards. Well when Lefty rules the Righties will have to adapt :)
Making Turkish coffee is difficult the pour spout is on right side
I also could not read clocks until I was 10 years old--in fact I still have difficulty and often read the time backwards. I took me some time before realizing it was because I am profoundly left dominant, thus I work and think in a counter-clockwise fashion.
Now there are left handed knitting instructions but I have trouble working with them.
There is a very low percentage of people who eat left-handed with knife and fork (i.e. with the knife in their left hand and fork in the right). We don't find this surprising as it is consistent to always feed yourself with your dominant hand - 95% of left-handers use a spoon on its own in their left hand and 74% also use a fork in their left hand. We think there has been some historic mistake here - using the fork in your left hand should be called "eating left-handed" and it is the right-handers who have got it all wrong and change their feeding hand depending on whether they are using a spoon or a fork!
In the USA the correct way to eat is with the fork in the right hand, but I use my left hand, and I am constantly criticized for this. Because of my left-handedness, I always sit at the left of anyone at the table, otherwise we bump arms when eating.
Also, does anyone else notice when people are left handed guitar/bass players? I tend to notice it within a few seconds of seeing a picture. Like Paul McCartney and Ally Kerr (two of my favorite lefty guitar/bass players), I notice immediately which way the guitar/bass is facing.
Oh! Does anyone else have problems with direction? I tend to say "go right" and I will be so confident that way is right, and it turns out being left. I've gotten made fun of that my whole life.
My tablet allows me to turn it upside down to work (so that I can see the screen at the angle I have to hold it!), but I find it very hard for it to let me type an h - it's on the right of the screen, but whenever i hit it, it registers a g!
I never really noticed the difference until I was in the "outside world" (even though both of my sisters are right-handed)
If I assume that I copy everything from my parents, left-handedness is quite normal. It's the others who are weird.
I knit and crochet right-handed, because that's how my mum was taught (I never realized it was right-handed, although I find knitting really hard to work out)
Musical instruments have got to be left-handed!
wind instruments (recorders, clarinets etc) have the left hand at the top, which does most of the work.
guitars - you make the shape of the chords with your left hand - surely that's the hardest part?
violin, the same, the difficult shaping of the notes is done in the left hand and the violin is held under the left side of your face - held in place by your dominant side, surely!
Sewing machines are definitely left-handed - Elias Howe, the inventor was left-handed and the free arm is on the left- I was watching The Great British Sewing Bee, I found myself lamenting the poor contestants who were struggling feeding their fabric through with their right hands - having to force their hands into the tiny little gap between the needle and the arm of the machine :D
(maybe that's why many lefties are good sewers)
And I have to sit on the left hand side of a bus - just doesn't feel 'right' if I am on the right.
Someone made a comment about serving food - I can sympathise - I live in a house full of right-handers, and am forever being moaned at for serving food back-to-front - I am glad it is not just me that does this!
My husband is constantly pulling me out of the path of the exit door in stores.
I also have problems at work because I check boxes backwards from right handers. I have learned to x them instead. And thank you for explaining the unscrewing of the broom. Mine is always falling apart.
It's great being a leftie!
One thing is good about my upbringing, my teacher ast school was fascinated by my lefthandedness and decided to try to teach me knitting lefthanded... it works, I go both ways now..
I have learned early in life to mirror what someone is doing, so tying my shoelaces the other way around, knitting, sewing and writing.....
I use the mouse with my right hand (against RSI) and take notice on where the operating buttons on the mixers and irons are before buying them (rather spend a few Euro more than a decade or more of irritation) and pay special care in selecting wallets...
I also turn my notpads upside down for easy writing...
And ladies and gentlemen.... our signatures are harder to falsify ..... good thing.
But I hate the ATMs where the slot for your card is on the right side... It is a drag to try to get it out without stepping to the right...
I have the same with rolls of stickers at work - I work in a shop - i get my pile of books and put them upside down, then pull out the stickers and put them on in the way they come out.
(you don't have to read the stickers - although I am brilliant at reading upside down!)
When my grandfather was in school they tied his left arm behind him! He became ambidextrous. He had beautiful handwriting with either hand.
I am left-handed and I have a left-handed daughter aged 3. She has started drawing faces and prefers to draw landscape pictures. I suggested she turn the paper around to draw a portrait picture (so she would have room for the body too). Her next picture looked a little strange at first until I had figured it out - she had drawn a perfect head, but it was sideways! - just like this typed smiley :-)
I have always been naturally skilled in performing certain visuospatial tasks and I think she might be the same!
(the cut side is facing the right - and I have to turn it round)
I prefer to walk on the right hand side of other people - if I walk on their left, I feel like I'm walking away from them and I end up bumping into them! (It's also good for handholding, as I can hold hands with my left hand)
But let's not mention the time that I discovered I could hold a chain saw in one hand, and wave it around like a loon!
(the safety catches were designed in such a way that a right-handed person had to hold onto the saw with both hands in order for the saw to operate. It meant that a leftie could easily engage the catch and hold the saw with just a left hand)
As for brooms, and anything that screws together, he uses "locktite" for security so that nothing comes undone.
My most treasured item in the kitchen is my measuring cup that has the markings in an oval on the inside. No trying to turn the cup around to read the measurements.
I do not throw or catch a ball with my left hand, nor do I kick a ball with my left foot. In fact other than drawing, writing and, it would seem, putting food on a plate I am pretty much right-handed in most of my actions, and also in my head. Life can be confusing for a half-leftie! Or is that a half-rightie?
I can write and catch a ball at the same time, now that is a skill surely everyone needs!
I suspect that you are cross lateral.
Left dominant but you are right eyed.
I have the same situation.
Golf, Baseball bat etc. is right handed.
Throw with Left, Bowling is left but if my
golf and bowling scores were reversed I would
be very good at both...
from left to right but it doesn't feel comfortable?
So I reported and immediately explained that I was a Supply Rating and not in the Gunnery Branch. The Gunnery Officer told me right away my Action Station was to be a loader on the 4 inch twin mounted gun. He further explained as the gun was a twin mount. The right side gun was a mirror image of the left side gun. So that made the right gun totally left handed. I was easy for me to grab the support handle with my right hand and ram the 70 pound shell into the breech with my left hand and totally avoid getting hit by a empty shell discharging from the left hand gun.
whenever you see a picture of a twin mounted gun, like on an old WW2 Destroyer you can be pretty sure there's a left handed gun behind the casing
So there you are that's proof that Lefties are without doubt one of the most adaptal people in the world.
When I play cards, I fan the hand out upside down, then turn the whole hand around.
My first wife was left handed, and we had lots of left handed implements, my new wife is also gifted, so I don't need to buy new gear.
Yes, I have absolutely no sense of direction either, I once made a 200 mile journey last 500 miles because I got lost.
I try to buy saucepans with handles welded not screwed, because self unscrewing pans can be a nightmare, not to mention dangerous.
I was over the moon when my bank supplied me with a left handed cheque book. All I need now to make my life a happy one is a left handed sewing machine and a keyboard for my computer where the numbers on the number pad are the opposite way round.
Oh yes... there is sooooo much more.
I wonder if other people do this... I notice when other people are writing with their right hands, it always looks strange to me, even though I've been surrounded by it all my life.
What about the weird shaped butter knife. Definitely a right tool that you have to use upside down and backwards.
I also hate it when the butter dish or loaf of bread comes around and I have to rotate the plate to cut off the same end as everyone else.
I've got a really old batter whisk (it's a sloted spatula, basically) that says "curved to fit the bowl"
I have never, ever been able to hold it in the correct hand and make it fit any bowl I own!
(I'm assuming it's not my bowls in error...)
I am a childminder, and now have 3 lefties in my care including 2 grandsons. I really enjoy, and am fascinated by, their learning processes and 'take' on life. One of my grandsons, whilst playing a language recognition game where the object was to find card matches,
didn't find a single 'snap' style match (as all the others did) but paired a firefighter and fire engine, a knife and a fork, nurse and doctor, teacher and pencil - all of which were 'wrong' but very right! The children's parents often ask, and are relieved to understand, the creativity and intellect their children possess and are able to enjoy the discovery of an alternative way of doing life.
I, too, wear my belt left-handed, though I am sorry to say that I was middle-aged before it occurred to me that it was okay to do that! It certainly makes buckling the belt so much easier! I never did learn to tie shoes correctly, because my teachers were all right-handed and I must not have reversed everything they did (it was extremely confusing). To this day, my shoelaces always come untied. (A properly tied knot works with the twist of the lace to keep from unknotting.) No wonder I have always preferred loafers!
Likewise, I wear my watch on my right wrist--too many broken crystals, otherwise! It's a lot easier these days, now that almost all watches are battery-powered, but you still have to take it off to set the time.
I also had a terrible time trying to teach a right handed child how to tie their shoe laces.
I was thrilled when velcro hit the market.
It has been an interesting life/adapting : ) I'm now 62 yrs. of age
So glad the "topic" is discussed now
When I run across someone today that will make the "ignorant" lefty type comments... I just smile
and mostly ignore them : ) I've had my moments where I "educate" them : )
Thankfully I did not have parents/teachers that tryed to "change" me...
I did deal with you are doing it "backwards" ...
It would be a boring world if we were all alike !
I think that left handed people are put in the same lot as alkies and villagae idiots.
Love that magnet !
However, I always have to take it off to adjust the time since the button is on the "wrong" side.
Also, I eat one thing on my plate at a time. Not sure if this is a lefty thing or not. My grandmother referred to me as a "specialist." It drives my family crazy. And don't even think about mixing peas with mashed potatoes. That goes against the laws of nature.
KEEP CALM
LEFT HANDERS ROCK.
That said I use a chopping knife in my left hand - and recently noticed that when I chop an apple I swap hands and peel it with the peeler in my right hand!
Something I didn't see in the comments, and I hope someone responds : Is there anyone else out there who has difficulty giving directions?? The first thing that comes out of my mouth is always the opposite of what I am thinking. I say left when I mean right, and I say right when I mean left! Why is that? It's very consistent. Once I was in the car with my dad, giving him directions to a restaurant, and I kept yelling 'left' , wondering why he wasn't listening to me, and turning the wrong way.. Turns out I had been saying 'left' when I actually meant 'right'. So when I am in the car, and I have to give directions, my friends and family find it easier to let me drive. My sister (who isn't a lefty) is the only person in the world who knows when I actually mean 'left' or 'right'.
very frustrating.
The other issue I have is puuting things in envelopes when the person comes to open them and take the cards out they are always upsdie down.
I'm CONSTANTLY annoyed by my desks in class!
That and the fact I always seemed to be paired with a righty in my classes, so our arms tend to push against eachother, screwing up my writing even more.
As much as I love the advantage in boxing, I always feel so awkward otherwise..
Me too, I have to sit on the outside of the table on the left hand side.
I tap dance, and we use our right leg most often to dance. It's always the first one to lead. But when we dance with our left leg, mine feels like a wooden leg! My friends in my tap dancing class--who are both right-handed--don't have any trouble with it. I know that I should be feeling funny with my right leg, but I don't. I think it's just because I don't use it ENOUGH that it's strange.
And with trying to pass someone who's going the opposite way... Well, it's awkward. I move to my right, he moves to his left; I move to my left, he moves to his right. Finally we figure out where to go, and then we pass. But it takes more than a few tries. It would be easier if one of us moved off the sidewalk.
And then these tiny things bother me, like someone giving me a pencil and putting it on my right side...
Yep, to be a left-hander. :)
With my second wife, we painted a room in our home, she tried to show me how to hold the roller but...she failed to realize when she showed me how to hold it, she was showing me how to hold it from a right handed person's point of view...when I held it I had to do it in reverse being a lefty. I am amazed that right handed people just do not get it, and they do not understand the problems that we lefties have to go through on a daily basis.
Twisty pens are definitely a problem too. I can't use the scissors for lefties. I was given them in school, but because I used standard ones at home I couldn't use the ones in class.
I understand, cursive for me is bad too so like you I always print everything.
Agree with lots of others about opening envelopes, filing the "wrong" way etc - and sitting in theatres and cinemas - can't relax on the right side!
And what about when you imagine "next week"? It's to the left in my mind's eye, and last week and yesterday are to the imaginary right.
I play the violin in what is accepted as the right-handed way: but to my mind, it's the left hand that does the intricate stuff on the strings - no way could I play on the fingerboard with my right hand.
And if you carry left-handed sweeping (right to left) through to golf and cricket, say, then I would also play these sports right to left, with the left hand on top.
I'm one of those left-handers who write "upside down" with the hand hooked above the writing - the source of much amusement and comment all my life. But I did get a left-handed chequebook from Lloyds Bank, with the stub on the right.
Endlessly fascinating subject, isn't it? Sorry for such a long post, but all you other lefties will understand!
Holly, USA
But by design or accident (accident it suspect) the library where I work have installed self service issue machines with the ticket slot in the bottom left of the machine, Hooray for me!
Putting the ticket in the left hand side and the wrong gates opening!
So, I now prepare myself to put my left hand over to the right to put the ticket in the machine.
My right hand just won't to the motion quick enough!
Yes, I make lefty check marks too. I always keep my purse straps on my right shoulder to keep my left hand free and when at a sports event I always check to see which hand should go over my heart. All three kids were placed on the right hip and I've never felt awkard or noticed I was different. When I breast fed, the right breast was the dominate one used.
I always I make sure I sit on the end of the table so I don't bump elbows or hands with the person on my left. - Felicia, California
I'm also an occupational therapist, and I can do a number of things upside down and backwards, such as printing (I'm often across the table from the children with whom I work, so it's essential if I'm not going to be running back and forth all the time). I find my right handed counterparts can't do that, nor can they figure out how I can wrap my mind around doing things that way.
Like it's come to rest nice and comfortably on that side.
And I just realised that the reason as to why the Mac buttons were on the left side was because 2 of the 3 mac designers were left handed! WOO!
Also on/off foot switches on hoovers always seem to be on the wrong side for me. Most right handers can stand behind the hoover to switch it on using their dominant foot whereas I end up wobbling on my weaker leg trying to get it started or else have to use my dominant foot whilst standing to one side. Agree with the comment about getting tangled up in the cable all the time!
I totally agree with so many of the comments above and below concerning crossing other people's paths, trouble locking and unlocking doors, receiving change, cards the wrong way up inside envelopes and upside down filing.
We are just as capable with our left as they are with their right! EXACTLY THE SAME, that's why they call righties RIGHT HANDED and lefties LEFT HANDED. How hard can it be to get it?
My grandma doesn't understand. Whenever I use my left especially when eating around her and others (embarassing with visitors) she puts me under the spotlight always saying (In greek, my attempt at translating haha) "Oh, you lefty! Why don't you use the right? Instead of ATTEMPTING to use your left, so unnormal!""
Of course, she's not abusing and alot of the time she's joking, but again it's really just plain ignorance, you know?
Or when I'm doing tough manual work with my grandpa (Drilling, sawing, etc.) and she notices I'm using my left she's like "Come on, use your right hand and do it properly- work can't be done well with the left""..... WHAT?!?!?!
Gotta love righties sometimes... hilarious you bunch...
http://blog.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/acatalog/waiters-corkscrew
We are 10% of the population, surely we deserve better design!
When I use a trackpad or stick on a laptop, I usually do it left handed - and I've reversed the buttons. I love to see the confusion on a righty's face if they use my laptop.
I think that comes from using a right handed mouse left handed.
And by the way, when the cash emerges it is always upside down when it goes in my wallet.
Like others my desk is arranged at work to process from the right to left.. others just don't understand. Growing up at home was easy being left-handed as only my father was right handed, and now in my family of two girls only my partner is right... so right is wrong!
1. Locks! I always lock when I mean to unlock and unlock when I mean to lock, because I do things back to front!
2. Clocks! It took me years to tell the time and I only have just realised why - I was reading the clock anti-clockwise - I'd get very confused of the concept of quarter to the hour especially and say to my mum "It's 45, 6?", when it would be quarter to seven!
3. Left and right - sometimes I'll say it wrong (left when I mean right) other times I'll say it right, but point it wrong at the same time!
4. Being right sometimes - It's a right handed world! I hold my knife and fork the lefty way, but can only iron clothes, operate a mouse and use scissors the right handed way.
4. Writing - I hold my pen the over way which people say looks painful and they are fascinated as I write back to front! But it took years for my writing to get tidier and years before I could use a biro (it hurt so much to use them!) I used a fountain pen for years and had a permanent ink stained hand!
http://blog.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/acatalog/clocks_watches
ALSO - When computers came onto the scene I was in a creative field using apple computers. I acquired a PC later. I use both now and use the Apple mouse with my left hand while the PC mouse with my right! I know from experience that the Mac programming is more intuitive and the PC is more linear. Since many of us experience ambidextrous tendencies I wonder if others have noticed effects.
I can't believe how many of these things that I do on these postings. Wow.
Martial Arts/Boxing; Make sure your instructor knows you are a left handed.
We are also susceptible to financial discrimination. Left handed items, sometimes, cost more than their right handed counterparts.
Adapt to them(the right handed world) marry them. The when you have left handed kids you can blame them too..
And just to clear something up real quick; Most statistics state that left handed people have a shorter life span than the right handed folks. I think I know why. They poll old folks homes for information. I believe we lefties are too smart to get stuck in one of those places therefore the data is skewed :)
Also, just realized why both of my sister's kitchens feel so counter-intuitive to me! We grew up with a left-handed Mom, so thankfully, our kitchen when I was a child always made sense. The kitchen in my own home now was organized by my fiance, who is ambidextrous. Little wonder that I cannot seem to locate ANYTHING in a right-handers kitchen, I've never had to live with one!
Also, whenever I'm at a church I haven't been to before they tend to be caught off-guard when I reach out my left hand for the bread and wine. But the above applies here as well as God made me left-handed.
I wish more magazines were printed back-to-front like mangas.
One of my brothers and I were in the remedial class at school and as I am left handed, and he is ambidextrous, our mother asked the doctor if all left-handed people were backwards. The doctor smiled and my mother realised that he was writing with his left hand!
I write, draw, paint, and bat in baseball with my left hand.
However, I throw a ball with my right hand. I'm a dancer and my right splits and leaps are far better.
I'm a clarinetist and I've been in the top band in my school for two years, which is impressive at my school. I'm quite musical and I write songs in my free time. I LOVE science and math of all kinds, and I'm quite talented also. I'm in the LEAP program, a program for gifted and creative students, at my school and in all advanced classes. I'm also a writer (in my free time) and I've been told by several of my teachers that I am an amazing writer. Additionally, I type faster than average, but I honestly don't know if that has a connection.
CONFUSED! Help?
P.S.
I think I'm onto a theory about left-handers. Does anybody know if we grow at a different rate than right-handers?
Thanks for listening to me ramble on!!
And right-handers can write without getting pen/pencil smudged on their fingers; lucky haha.
My little brother's somewhat ambidextrous and I asked him about his left-hand nuisances and he immediately mentioned hockey sticks! It's so true! But kudos to whoever made the hockey stick with two flat sides :D
One thing I find a bit of a nuisance is when I go out to eat with friends or family I have to make sure or ask politely to sit on the left side (corner) because it is only then that my arm doesn't bump into the arm of the person on the left of me. After a long time, I discovered that by pushing my chair back a little I can avoid "arm-battling" but I am a little further away from the table so I'm more likely to make a mess :P
I love playing badminton as well and I've learnt that left-handers have a slight advantage because right-handers are more acquainted with other right-hander movements/shots.
Has anyone seen videos/articles on the left and right brain hemispheres? I've heard some deny the idea of the right brain being "creative" and the left brain being "logical" is there really a division? ...I don't know about all other lefties but I am strongly connected with the Arts because I've been singing, dancing and learning languages as an interest ever since I was young. But then again, that could be a right-hander too...I don't know.
The thing that's always bugged me is those desks in auditorium. They come up on the wrong side and I was sitting weird trying to get it so I could write and it be legible, and my friend was looking at me strangely.
Does anyone else have this? I cannot read a computer straight on. I always have to slant it slightly with the right side farther back than the left. Everyone else who are righties always seem to change it to straighten it and it bugs me to no end.
I walk over everyone's paths! My dad always said that I'd never be able to pass a sobriety test sober.
I keep shaking people's hands with my left (or going to) and then I have to trade hands quickly.
I can never unlock doors right on the first try with a key.
My checkmarks are always backwards. I have trouble cutting food with a knife with my right hand. I found left-handed scissors! Unfortunately, about half of the lefty scissors out there only have the handles and not the blades reversed. The pair I have actually reversed the blade too and it made all the difference in the world. My books series are organized from last to first unless someone else organizes my shelf. I have such trouble parking on the right side of the street. Whenever I have a question on tests about how our eyes travel, "studies have indicated that our eyes naturally travel from bottom left to top right" I put false and got the answer wrong. Does anyone else find them going from bottom right to top left or top left to bottom right? I type quicker than my mom does because I mostly use my left hand to type. It took me a while to learn how to write cursive because all the teachers kept telling me I was doing it wrong, even though we had multiple lefties in our class. I started writing in a notebook back to front and didn't even notice until my friend pointed it out.
For the most part, lefties have a larger brain capacity than many righties because we have had to adjust to using both hands and both sides of our brains instead of just one because of all the right handed things.
and also, when painting i use my right hand? whats up with that?!
i a maths genius, and very good at science, music and art, which is wierd as a cross over because maths amd science isnt usually associated with creativity.... would you call me ambidexterous or am i just a freak ? :L
plz reply !
Also the math and art thing, Domo and I discussed this. She is studying Physics and I am studying business. Even though she loves math and science, I only understand math and science but don't love it the way she does. and our guy friend Emil (lefty also) completely hates math and science and anything with numbers. he is strictly in to writing and art. We are all different because we all have different personalities. Don't worry!
Maybe get it checked out?
Also, I'd just like to say that I think living in a right handed world has given me an advantage in life. I've learned to think outside the box, get creative, learn different ways of accomplishing things, etc. What's that old saying about necessity being the mother of invention..
Oh and one more.. I notice which hand is dominant on everyone I see. My daughter swears I'm obsessed because I always point it out when I see lefty. I'm not obsessed, but it is something I'm very aware of...Is it just me??
Does any one else have this thing with the road ?
Is it because i m left handed?
At grade school I had to use one of those desks united with the chairs where the writting surface is on the right. I needed two of them!!
Right handed classmates were happy to sit on my right, that way they could copy from my paper (and I could from theirs) but they couldn't use my notebooks since I was writing in a weird way (even for me) in order to avoid spiral.
It's annoying that the first thing I do when sitting in a restaurant is put the tableware on the left, including the glasses but when the waiter brings me a new fork he puts it on the right.
I play rounders, and bowl with my left (which annoys everyone, they dont know where to stand..) and then bat with my right.
Nobody in my whole family, on either side, for generations even, has EVER been right handed. I think that on my mom's side there MAY have been like a great great grandmother that was partially left handed or something like that.
And then I come along, and I'm left handed. (but they didn't know that for awhile; I would always write Allie with my left hand, switch it to my right hand, and write Beth. Funny!)
Then, to add to my left handedness, my mom had two more kids, and guess what? Haha, they're left handed, of course.
I just find it so weird. It couldn't have been passed on through genetics since nobody in our family was left handed. We just all three ended up lefties.
I'm like, "Well, if this world wasn't made for right handed people, then I wouldn't do that because I wouldn't write left-to-right!!"
I'm not sure if this is common, but I found that aside from writing, I'm very ambidextrous. I didn't notice it for quite some time, but I was painting a loft type thing with my mom one day and she pointed out that I kept switching my paintbrush from hand to hand, I would use whichever one was more conveniently closer to the part of the loft I was painting. I do the same thing when I'm eating. It's like there's some foods that I have to eat with the fork, you know, and I observed that righties just reach across their plate and eat everything with their right hand. I'm not like that....if I want to eat the potato and it's on the right side, then I'll use my right hand. Then I may want to eat my macaroni so I'll switch the fork to my left and and eat the macaroni.
People talk about it being weird and everything, but I think I'm ambidextrous even though I only write with my left hand...and I'm pretty grateful for it. Everything aside from writing is easier for me because I can do it with whichever hand I please! (:
my left hand is filled with cuts while my right hand looks like its on vacation :)
by the way i rely like watching cartoon although am 24 years old is it because am lefty?
Fascinating website - I believe I am ambidextrous but that may be just having to adapt in certain circumstances. Fully agree with handbags made the wrong way, belts, passing someone, climbing over things (seems like brain can't remember!) left handed mother getting my right handed child dressed! I am the only person in my extended family this or ever has been left handed - shame really I could have passed on my knowledge or lack of!
Regards
Veronica
Well, if you see pictures of old 1950 style Navy Cruisers and Destroyers they have twin guns mounted in a single turret. The left gun is right handed and the right gun (a mirror image) is left handed. I would grab a handle with my right hand and ram the shell into the breech with my left hand, my body stays completely away from the other gun so as not to get hit by the empty casing was it ejects from the left side gun.
Now something else, is there such a thing as a left handed paper cutter?
screwdrivers, mops, even my eyeglasses. Apparently how I take them off undoes the little
screw. I explained to the optometrist that I had to have my glasses fixed four times this year alone - solution was a "lock-tight" screw.
As for corkscrews, my husband took pity on me and bought me an electric one - the push button is in the middle.
Also, instructions for a quilted box pattern, were all for right-handed people - not realizing til frustration set in, the teacher finally told me that I had reverse the pictures for my left hand.
I got a wireless mouse to solve the computer problem.
Apparently, people are supposed to go right to see the earlier clothes first. I wasn't thinking about that. I just went left out of instinct. So my instinct is backwards..? I think she could have phrased it a little better.
One thing I have done recently is when I was writing a short story for my Litature class is I had one of the main characters lose his arm as a punishment well without thinking I had him lose his right arm because I still wanted him to be some what efficent at his work only later did I realize that most people are right handed and wouldn't see it that way.
Also in the new book I'm writing, its a fairy novel, anyone with atleast a little fairy blood in them is left handed so almost all my main characters are lefties, partly because it will be a little easier because I won't have to stop and think oh yeah this person is right handed they wouldn't normally use their left hand for that, but its mostly because left handed people are just cooler.
1. Do you believe the way a parent dresses their child at birth i.e. pulls the left hand or right hand through first, has an impact on being left or right handed?
2. Do you think there is any link between a parent’s behaviors towards their child at birth that will impact their handedness?
3.
I would really appreciate your feedback.
Marisa vd Westhuizen - Knights College Gr 9
Reply
1. Do you believe the way a parent dresses their child at birth i.e. pulls the left hand or right hand through first, has an impact on being left or right handed?
2. Do you think there is any link between a parent's behaviour towards their child at birth that will impact their handedness.
I would really appreciate your feedback.
Marisa vd Westhuizen - Knights College Gr 9
It only dawned on me many years later that I was trying to do them left handed.
Another little comment about cash machines, when taking the notes and putting them in my wallet they always go in upside down.
I was pulled up about my writing at grammar school and never forgave the teachers involved. I'm glad there is someone else out there who had the same unpleasant experiences with writing as I had. I really thought I was the only one to have this happen. I have overcome most of the challenges of being a lefty but this one with my writing stays in my memory above all else as being the most unpleasant. (I am now 70 years old.)
This site is so good for me and boosts my morale no end. Keep up the good work.
wrong side for him to open the door for me! It's got to be a left handed thing!
1. Fastener on necklace always on the wrong side
2. When I would greet someone by the shake of their hand, I always naturally gave my left hand.
3. Ornaments always have to be facing from left to right and it just looks odd to me if animals or people in pictures are not facing that way too.
4. On a positive note, my Bank issues left handed cheque books which is fantastic. No right handed person I know appreciated my problem with a right handed cheque book until I hand them my cheque book to look at then they're the ones with the problem, great!
And yes, I have a left handed breadknife and a universal chopping knife - wonderful inventions.
I worked in a supermarket a long time ago in the days when you "touch typed" the prices in. Trouble was the conveyor belt was on the left hand side, and so my speed was a lot slower as I either had to think through what I was doing and effectively look at everything my right hand did, as I couldn't "trust it" to type in the right price or do everything with my left hand.
The last thing relates to my grandmother who was born at the turn of the last century, and who I can remember vividly standing with a loaf of bread firmly clasped to her chest and cutting a slice towards herself. She told of being beaten with a metal ruler if she used her left hand at school.
On a positive note I would like to thank my primary school headteacher and handwriting teacher, who despite it being in the 60's insisted that both my brother and I were taught to write beautifully with our left hands and without any awkward curl of the hand around the pen or paper.
Loving this club as a rightie myself it really helps open my mind to the challenges my leftie child has.
Anyway, I'm a receptionist and I realised today that laminators are right-handed as the buttons are placed strategically for righties dominant hand. The most awkward thing at work, though, is 'phones as the handset is on the left, and the buttons are on the right, so when you pick the phone up with your right hand in order to leave your left hand free to write, you get the wire crossed, especially if you have to then transfer a call and use the buttons!
More and more people are left handed, so why aren't more and more things made for us by default??
Anyway, getting off my soapbox and going home!
P.S. Anyone come across a left handed microwave yet?
My husband has given up on me. The mouse on our computer desk is permanently on the left hand side.
Also when I was learning to drive, my driving instructor said that most people had difficulty turning right whereas I had no problem at all. I didn't realise that this was probably due to my left handedness until reading that pilot statement Sarah made in the post.
I like that I have to open a fridge or a cupboard with my right hand because I can leave it resting on the door and take whatever I need with my left hand and then can close it without having to move my right hand at all (whereas righties would have to use their right hand to take things out etc and to close the fridge/cupboard door).
The Week
May 2011
Surprising facts about left-handed people
Human beings have been predominantly right-handed for more than 500,000 years, according to new research done by anthropologist David Frayer. Yet 10 to 12 percent of people prefer using their left hand — and scientists continue to probe the differences between that group and the right-handed majority, often with surprising results. Here, a look at five ways lefties are different than righties:
They’re more affected by fear
In one recent experiment, lefties who watched an eight-minute clip from the film Silence of the Lambs exhibited more symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder than did their right-handed counterparts. That may be because the right side of the brain, which is dominant in lefties, is more involved in the fear response, according to Dr. Carolyn Choudhary of Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, as quoted in The Telegraph.
They’re angrier
Left-handed and ambidextrous people are more susceptible to negative emotions, including anger. A small study published last year in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease found that the brains of lefties process emotions differently than those of righties, with more communication between the brain’s two halves. As a result, the areas that produce negative emotions experience greater activity, according to the Daily Mail. Then again, maybe lefties are just more angry because the world is designed for the right-handed majority,” says John Cloud in TIME.
They’re more inhibited
That emotional wiring also may explain why righties tend to charge ahead, while lefties tend to dither,” according to behavioral psychologist Lynn Wright, as quoted in NewScientist. A study performed by Wright at Abertay University in Scotland found that lefties were more restrained and more worried about making mistakes.
They associate left” with good
Most people tend to have positive associations with the concept of right” and bad associations with left.” Lefties are the opposite. In a recent study, Stanford researcher Daniel Casasanto asked participants to draw a zebra in a box that best represented good things, while depicting a panda in a box that would befit the bad. Right-handed people tended to position the zebra on the right side of a box, while lefties put it on the left. That shows that left-handed people implicitly” believe good stuff is on the left and bad stuff is on the right,” Casasanto says, as quoted by the Stanford Report, despite so many signals from language and culture telling them the exact opposite.”
They may have an advantage in politics
Casasanto’s conclusions could actually favor left-handed politicians, at least in televised events like debates, says Jocelyn Rousey in Mediaite. Casasanto found that politicians tend to accompany statements they see as positive by gesturing with their dominant hands. When a rightie uses his dominant hand to give a thumbs-up, television viewers — who see the image flipped — see him gesture on the left side of their screen. The left-handed, meanwhile, appear to be putting things in a much more positive light for the 90 percent of viewers who are right-handed.”
In one of my classes at school and more recently at a conference, the room was set up with chairs that have fold-down desks on them. But they were ALL right-handed. The desk swings down from the right and doesn't extend round enough to be comfortably used by a lefty. I ended up just resting my notepad on my knee.
The Rome metro has ticket barriers that you are supposed to feed the ticket through on the right and walk through. When I first moved here I always instinctively fed the ticket in with my left hand and then wondered why the barrier in front of me hadn't opened. Now on approaching the barriers I have to cross my left arm across my body and then sort of walk through sideways (feeding it through with my right hand just doesn't work for me at all!!)
Cash points are often awkward and require crossing my left arm over to put the card in, insert pin etc.
Now I've got thinking about it I'm sure I'm going to start thinking of more and more!!
A few months ago I was at a museum in Barcelona and after wandering round for a while, I realised that the pictures I was looking at were ordered chronologically.. except I was going the wrong way (I only realised because at one point there were three pictures that were supposed to follow on from each other like a story and the one I saw first didn't make sense to me). Having realised this, I then noticed that I was walking against the tide... everyone else was approaching the paintings from the left.. whereas I was walking the room anticlockwise.
how about opening and closing taps???? A Total nightmare!!!!!!
I've always been frustrated by retractable knives, because the thumb press to push out the blade is on the "finger" side of the knife when I use it. Irritating, but I adapt by either turning it over and pushing out the blade then turning it back or using my fingers to move the blade in and out. Last week I found a knife that I could make into a left handed knife and now I don't even have to think about adjusting the blade - it's just there as I need it.
I loaned my knife to my right-handed boss today and he couldn't figure out how to use it for a good 30 seconds. I had to take it back from him and retract the blade for him once he was done. Ahahahaha, that was fun!
I bought a left handed can opener from anything left-handed last year and forgot that it was for left handed use because it's just perfect for me. My sister visited a few months ago, and I heard from the kitchen - "Aurgh! This can opener is useless!" - welcome to my world kiddo.
I think righties have more trouble with the bread/bun plate. The correct position for bread is to the LEFT of your plate. I find if I let the right-handed person to my left choose first, they always go for my food. I do steal their drinks in retaliation though - it should be mine.
Everyone in my family apparently eats backward, all the lefties use the knife in their right hand, because the fork has the more difficult job of stabbing, aiming for the mouth, etc.... and all the righties have to switch their fork and knife around from the place-setting setup because they aim their forks with their right hands. We are about 25% left handed in my extended family.
I remember the first time I cooked in my Aunt's kitchen - it's setup for a leftie. It took me about half an hour to realize something was wrong - everything was where it should be. The drawers with knives are to the left of the cutting board, the dishwasher is to the left of the sink, the fridge opens the 'right' way around - I was so used to having to cross in front of myself to reach for stuff in my mom's kitchen, it was a revelation!
Except it is really on the right side. My brain tends to flip info when it is given two identical left/right choices. As an apt. manager, I must be present when maintenance is begun on an apt., to confirm that is is indeed the correct destination, and that I haven't accidentally sent them to the apt. across the hall.
When I give directions to a well known destination, I will often verbalize the wrong direction, although I know the correct way to go---I resort to pointing when possible. If it is not a well known destination, I will flip the visual info also, especially if I read it on a map!
I gave up trying to dance long ago; am thankful that another writer talked about beginning on the left vs right foot---now I know why "just dance" on the Wii is so hard!
Like so many leftie contributors, I have always found it challenging to live in a rightie- dominated world with the need to adapt to tools, implements, structures and even cultural customs all designed for use in a right-handed society. As I have grown older and more 'inventions' and technologies have appeared, it is still surprising that so little acknowledgement is made to our percentage of the population at the planning stage. Academic success proved that I am not somehow 'challenged' just because it is often difficult to have to do most things 'back-to-front' utilising inappropriate equipment. Indeed, we lefties are obviously very resourceful and we seem to incorporate a sense of humour in our temperament, which comes in useful every time I walk into the plate glass of the revolving door, collide with turnstiles, try to push or pull open doors at the hinge side or insert my underground ticket at the automatic barrier and then try to walk through on the side which has not opened because the ticket reader is always located on the 'right' wrong side!
It has only been through reading some of the observations posted by others that I have realized how many things I have just adapted to without realizing, as you indicated! I used the mouse buttons on my computer mouse for years before I realized it was backwards and they could be set to accomodate lefties! I tried swapping them around, but it was too late, I can happily function with my fingers operating backwards. I now have an ergonomic mouse that operates with my hand oriented sideways and love it. I have found that certain professions seem to attract a high percentage of left-handers - for example, more that 50% of the professional geologists I know (and I am one of them) are left-handed. Several other science and mathematically oriented professions also have a higher than expected percentage of lefties and none of these folks are mentally "challenged", except by having to deal with an often "upside down and backwards" world!
Thank you for sharing all these comments. As an ironic side note, my right handed husband's mother and both children, and several grandchildren are lefties, so he is the one that adapts in our world!
Here's one that has been very conspicuous over the years:
From the outset of our mixed-hand marriage, we have had problems when we share the task of folding a big item ..... sheet, duvet, blanket, tent etc... Right-hander and left-hander naturally work in opposite ways.... This can be sooooooo frustrating..... and soooooooooooo comical!
I have the binded edge of a notebook on the right and its great not battles with the centre anymore.
I recently took some notes in 'my book' at a meeting and due to an achey wrist a 'righty' took over in my book it caused confusion.
I also think I 'made' my daughter left handed by giving everything to her left; she is a very 'awkward' left hander. She writes with her left and thats about it everything else - parts her hair, eats, kicks, bats, gives, takes etc is with her right.
Also, I too have had filing problems. When I was in highschool I would help file other students' work and their papers would always be backwards when I got done. Eventually I stopped filing papers and found other ways to help.
Finally, one of my most embarrassing lefty moments was with a pair of scissors. My basketball team won a tournament and we each got to cut down part of the net. Each girl stepped up and quickly snipped her part. Of course, when I got up there it took me almost 5 minutes just to sever the net! I was SO embarrassed.
And then I revel when my right handed husband picks it up by mistake and struggles and of course then ………………. I have to show him how to cut it 'properley'. lol
Have always wanted to sit on the left in a theater or classroom. Yes, it is very awkward when sitting beside someone in a classroom OR at a table when eating. I always want to sit at the very end on the left so my elbow does not bump anyone's. I get confused when I go in any big shopping mall and want to go out the wrong way from where I came in. When I am going to park in a big parking lot to go shopping, I park just to the left of the exit so that I can remember where I have parked. I actually learned to use the mouse on the right side of the computer because that's where it was but I now have it on my left side. DO YOU KNOW that when the keyboard was made for typewriters, it was made so that the left hand was used more than the right? I read that somewhere. It was done to slow down the typists. I can't remember why.
Not only am I left-handed, but I'm also mildly dyslexic. So I confound people who come into my home "office". My books are arranged right to left on the bookshelf (first book in a series is farthest to the right) and my icons on my computer are all on the right side. (although, for some reason, I can't use a left-handed mouse)
I had a problem with compass directions when I was first learning them, but did finally overcome that. I amuse my right handed friends because, although I don't know my left from my right, I do know port from starboard.
I also carry a shoulder bag on my right shoulder. That makes them zip closed to the back (pickpocket's delight) rather than to the front, or else the part that should be on the outside is against my hip.
I am also fine with Port and Starboard.
Thank you so much, I was beginning to think I had made up that memory!
yes! that's how they should be - and the publishing world agrees - if you take the books and put them into a pile, if they're shelved right to left, then the top book is number 1!
The trunk on my car I always turn the key left which leaves it stuck for moment because it is suppose to be turned right some problem with most locks.
I had to teach myself how to use chop sticks because no one else could but yet I can teach a right handed person how to use them.
Even when I type, my left hand does most of the work when using a keyboard. But I think because of the computer and my smartphone my left had might become weak over time from over use.
I have notices the atm's are right handed too but the door access can be on any side. I tend to swipe my card in stores upside down.
I thought I couldn't keep my bag on my left shoulder because I have scoliosis but it seems it might be a little bit of both.
I have to grab my beer or my drink with my left hand because it just doesn't feel right in my right hand.
Also the same problem with clothes and belts. I don't think they had a problem teaching me how to tie my shoe.
When I use a knife or any sharp object at my dad's he doesn't trust me because I'm left handed or probably because it just looks wrong to him.
It was so easy when I first learned how to drive to park on the left side of the street, the right side took some time.
Whatever I feel I can't do I tend to something different change things around to cater to me.
Hey lets not feel sorry for ourselves because at the end of the day we are very unique and we are shaping the world to be more accepting of use and our uniqueness.
Hubby has to leave the kitchen when I am cutting anything as his head can't cope with me cutting some thing the wrong way ...
I work on a till... in a supermarket and ended up with frozen shoulder because was working left handed .. I now have to juggle the change to give with right hand ... left won't reach some people who are already on their way out the door... LOL
Ticks are done the wrong way to every one else ,but right for me .. been nice seeing other people suffer the same as me .. shaking hands is not some thing I like doing as always the left one ... still makes people laugh so don't mind .. Caz
Recently my new hairdresser asked me whether I was left handed, I answered in the affirmative and asked why, she replied your hair should be parted on the left and it is parted on the right. She asked permission to change it and ever since my hair has been so much easier to manage. I recently found out that my mother used the right parting as she wanted nothing to do with "left things" even though it was the way the hair wanted to go so now after 72 years the parting is where nature intended it to be (my mother was from the age where everything "left " was not "right"
And then I revel when my right handed husband picks it up by mistake and struggles and of course then ................... I have to show him how to cut it properley. lol
I moved my mouse to the left and configured it to click left. As time went on the cafe filled up a guy came and sat to my left and insisted that I had taken his mousepad. I pointed out that I had been there first and so the pad was mine. Management came, but obviously I refused to budge. Infact I stayed longer that I really needed to just to make a point.
Things could have been remedied had they not glued the pads down, to reposistion the other pad.
I had never thought about suspended files, and as I'm the one at home that does all the paper work i get cross with my husband for putting the papers back in the files upside down. I'll be more understanding now. He can't help being right handed. We work great together at DIY We get to work on a room and finish in the middle. Yin yang
This also happens when I take cookie mixture from a bowl and spoon it onto a cookie sheet. I just make allowances for this and put the cookie sheets on the "opposite" side before putting the dough on the sheet.
When using a mixer to mix eggs, flour, sugar, etc., when I use a spatula to keep the mixture off of the side of the mixing bowl, I feel somewhat awkward because this procedure is best done with the right hand. I still accomplish the job even though I do it left-handed.
It means that it's easier to scrape the mix off the bowl, because i can get my left hand into the bowl easily - i wouldn't find it so easy right-handed.
However, I do find that teaching guitar right handed is the ideal way as the left hand does some quite deft work on the neck. In teaching music I stick to the 'right handed' way - I have yet to see a piano devised for left handers - and I don't have the resources to try unfortunately - how revolutionary that would be!
I'm fairly left dominant, but learned the social movements at such an early age I don't automatically reach or move to the left. When passing I always move to the right, can hold a glass and drink properly from it in either hand, and as long as I don't have to take notes I can hold the phone in either hand. So glad we got rid of the dial on phones, though, as I had trouble dialing a number with my right hand, the movement of the dial seemed all wrong with my right hand, and I could only dial with my left. (Righties said the same thing with trying to use their left hand, go figure.)
Punch ladles, though .... thank heavens many now come out with the pour notch on both sides. I wasn't very good at turning it to the left with my left hand, though I seldom spilled.
I, too, tend to put my belt on "upside down". These days I don't wear fancy belt buckles so I forgot about all of that until it was mentioned. My work station always has the phone to the right, since I usually have to take notes, and of course has all my pens and notepads (and other supplies) to the left, which seems to have upset the cleaning people more than my co-workers. Twice a week I would have to re-set up my desk first thing in the morning, so I took to putting all the pens and supplies in drawers at night. (And we did things with the phone cord so it couldn't be moved far from it's location.) I do use the mouse on the right side; my daughter, though, has hers on the left, but doesn't use one with buttons reversed.
I think, being a typist and a keyboard player, I've learned to use both hands fairly equally for physical movement types of tasks, but if I'm carrying something, it's going to be in my right hand and will have to be juggled for me to shake hands with someone. I gather I would have had problems in the military, too, since I carry my purse on my right side as well. Not something I've thought about in decades, I admit .... all the little things that tell people you're a leftie that only a fellow leftie notices. *lol*
I was really relieved to read about the shoulderbag (purse) on the right as well - I'm the same but hadn't realised.
I wish the would make an app or a programme to switch it around.
I live in the US and at my University I can get disability status for being left-handed, which would allow me to use a table in the classroom rather than a right-handed desk. I don't exercise this option, as I can manage.
I learned in Junior High that the only way I could take notes properly was with legal pads, which I only use to this day.
I have to use forms at work which have labels on the left side and spaces on the right, which means I am constantly having to lift my writing hand and go back to find the proper line.
I, as many others have said, naturally prefer to read magazines back to front.
When I was in kindergarten and I learned to write my name for the first time, I was told it was wrong. "But," I protested, "It says Robert just like you asked me to write.", to which she replied "Yes, but you wrote it with the wrong hand." The only answer I could give is the truth: "No I didn't." That stopped as soon as I told my mother that afternoon (as she was one of those who had her left-handedness beaten out of her in a religious grade school).
The more I look into it, the more I feel defined by being left-handed. People may not agree with me (or maybe they can't keep up?), but not everyone can look at the world from a 10% perspective!
On another note, I recently started a job where I work in an office all day; after I rearranged the entire thing to suit my left-handedness, I immediately switched the mouse buttons to make it compatible for me and moved it to the left side. I love how frustrated my non-lefty coworkers get when trying to use my computer.
A couple of years ago the council replaced the windows with double glazed units - all right handed handles!! The new doors are all righthanded as well.It feels difficult opening the locks.
As the other lefties have commented - the payment card machines are given to us in a right handed manner.
I am amazed at how many really brilliant people were left handed.I have bought a left handed block calander for 2 years now and all the famous and indeed clever people there were and indeed are.It just goes to show that we are not dim yeh?
When I played (played - hah!) rounders at school I was frankly hopeless at hitting the ball (why make a bat that narrower than what you're hitting??) but even if I occasionally managed to hit it I was told that I could only run to the first post till the ball was retrieved. So much for scoring! even though I was a fast runner I never had a chance.
But take heart - it does get easier; you get used to dealing with little annoyances like doorknobs that turn the wrong way, pans with pouring lips on the wrong side etc etc. And you'll even find advantages (I use my computer mouse right-handed, take notes and use the 'phone with my left hand).
Good luck!
As far as tieing shoes, my mother said she practiced tieing while looking in a mirror so she could teach me.
I also tried to learn to knit, but that was pretty much a disaster. :)
Right handers just don't seem to get our issues. My DH bought a new door handle for the door to our basement. Oddly enough it only turns one way...the WRONG way if you're trying to use your left hand.
If you see someone coming towards you with one hand free, then you should go to shake the free hand!
P.S this website is awesome!
Help!!!!
Diana
I've seen a couple where it's held on by a velcro loop - you can remove them, so you could easily put it on the opposite "end" of the strap.
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