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?
Comments 102
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!!!
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.
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.
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 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!
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!
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
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.
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...
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 :D
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!
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?
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 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.
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!!
regards....veron.
thanx
take care....
It is a well-known fact & I see T-shirts announcing that left-handers are the only ones in their right minds!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 .
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 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!
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!
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.
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
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.
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.
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 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.
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!
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!
Leave a Comment