Here's a place we can admit we don't know something everyone else seems to have mastered as kids.
...
Every time I have the need to know where a letter falls alphabetically, I need to mentally run through the alphabet in my head (in song form) to remember it. Except for obvious ones, like "A" or "Z".
I don't know about using the word "idiot", that seems harsh... (though I assume you mean it as a joke)
But on a somewhat similarly minor note, I have always sometimes messed up right and left. As a kid we had these stickers on our computer monitor to help me remember... :p Since then I've mostly been fine in terms of knowing which is which, but when I'm told 'left' or 'right' with no time to think sometimes I do get it wrong. It's kind of a weird issue, considering that I'm quite good at reading maps...
Quote:I don't know about using the word "idiot", that seems harsh... (though I assume you mean it as a joke)
Don't be an idiot.
1
I'm a total moron at any sort of navigation. Smartphones are a godsend to me in this regard. I think I just tend to space out and not pay close attention to what direction I'm heading in. It doesn't matter if I'm walking or driving, if I don't already know my way around, I get lost in a heart-beat. Whenever I lose my way and am trying to get back on track, and come to a cross-roads... I always choose "right". Couldn't tell you why, it's some kind of weird default in my mind. I've been known to get lost in the woods for hours, even on simple trails with very few branches. Or walk in completely the wrong direction when heading back to my car. It'd be sad if it weren't so funny (or is it the reverse?).
1: a joke
ABF: Do you use the hand trick to figure out Left/Right? Hold out both your hands, curl them into fists, then extend your thumb and forefinger on each one. Whichever one shows you an "L" is left. So, unless you also have trouble with mirror images, that's a pretty handy *cough* way to figure it out. Helped me all the time when I was little.
So you're telling ABF to hold his finger and his thumb in the shape of an L? ABF, don't do it, or you might as well be walking on the sun for all the strange looks you'll be getting.
I never memorized either the addition or multiplication tables. I still have to do basic arithmetic very slowly in my head every time. My proudest moment was realizing I can get any multiple of 9 just by adding to the 10's slot and subtracting from the 1's slot. I do machines, and use another machine to do the math I need for doing machines.
While I'm mostly reasonably good at spelling, for some reason there are some words I just never can spell correctly, such as necessarily, which I almost always misspell as "necessarially" or worse; spellcheck fixes this of course, but it's weird how there are a few words I just almost always get wrong. :p