Learn a new language!

Everything Else
#1

Washing the dishes always gives me time to think, a dangerous practice you might suggest.
I’m left handed, and wear a cool titanium wedding ring, with a blue wavy band, signifying the Atlantic that currently separates us.
The downside of titanium is that it leaves black streaks around the inside of the cups where my ring finger, over the scouring pad, keeps hitting it.
Idly changing hands, I realised that no longer would I be endangering the glaze in the cup.

Sudden revelation. :thinking: > :hushed: > :exploding_head:
My wife is currently recovering from surgery on her right rotator cuff, torn some time ago, and, on her own, is having/ has had a lot of simple domestic problems that we all take for granted when we have the use of both hands/arms.

Like most makers/tool users, I have a reasonable ambidexterity, and perhaps she has some as well, but if we had more, doing the ironing, for example, we be much easier. We would have much more strength and control if we practised on simple things.

So my mornings talk finishes with the following admonition.
Teach your body a second language.
Use your other hand, and be prepared for that day when you need it.

:upside_down_face:

25 Likes
#2

I was just thinking that the other day. There are very few things I can do well with my non-dominant hand. I really should practice more. Thanks for the reminder.

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#3

Why do the right handed use their left hand on the fingerboard of stringed instruments play notes and chords (arguably the difficult bit,) which begs the question, why are there no left handed pianos?

1 Like
#4

No left handed piano makers ?
Unlikely, but as they’re not particularly portable, you would be excluding right handed players.
No, I don’t think I’ll start that hare running.
It might be easier to reprogramme an electronic keyboard, so that might be an interesting route.
No it wouldn’t, I realise, the black notes are asymmetric.
:thinking:
:upside_down_face:

…or are they?
No it’s too early, and I need my coffee.
:upside_down_face:

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#5

I suspect because both hands do roughly the same job when playing piano, unlike say a guitar.

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#6

Hmmmm, I didn’t think of that.

I really must learn to engage brain before pressing send!

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#7

I’d give my right arm to be ambidextrous!

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#8

Being ambidextrous I’m always surprised when people can’t do things with either hand. It’s definitely worth training yourself to be able to use both hands if you can’t do it naturally as you’ve suggested. I tend to favor one hand or the other but for different things - a lot of it seems to be how I learned the skill (or what tools I’m using because a lot are simply easier to use right or left handed depending on design).

My problem comes in when I go back to doing something I haven’t done in a long time. I remember the last time I rented golf clubs at a resort - they asked “right or left” and I couldn’t remember which way I was hitting at the time :smile: Embarassing. :blush:

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#9

I just remember being asked by a tailor "which side do you dress " when having my first and only suit made.
:blush:
:upside_down_face:

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#10

I’m ambidextrous that way too :wink:

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#11

:rofl:

#12

ROFL! Reminds me of the first time I heard that, while having a suit made up for my soon-to-be husband as a gift. The tailor had to explain it to me. (And he enjoyed my reaction waaay too much.) :astonished::flushed::smile:

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#13

Few years back I had to have several surgeries on my dominate (right) arm. All told, it was in a cast from fingertip to shoulder for a little over a year. (with a few short breaks in that time) You learn real quick when you have to. To this day I still do some of those things with my left hand.

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#14

The first time I heard that expression I was a young teenager participating as a mock patient in a mass casualty simulation with local EMS. I was asked the question by a very cute young lady as she was packaging me up in a Kendrick Extrication Device (KED) to transport me from the mock disaster scene. Needless to say, I was a very embarassed young teenager.

For those that don’t know what a KED is, I present:

6 Likes
#15

Not the direction I expected the thread to go, but I guess I only have myself to blame !
:upside_down_face:

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#16

:rofl: You ought to know what this crew is like by now! :wink:

#17

It is interesting, take any picture of a face, mirror either half to the other - and you have a different person!
One eye is open a bit more, the facial muscles hold differently on the dominant side.

We have two arms, but use our dominant with much more ease and accuracy. It’s like we are all walking around half paralyzed.
With practice the neural pathways are enhanced. Being a lefty, trying to write with my right looks like a kindergarten attempt, but I can fret a guitar with agility.

I flunked first grade. "How on Earth do you flunked the first grade?"
You refuse to learn how to write with your ‘correct’ hand. :angry:

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#18

i’m oddly, vaguely ambidextrous. there are a handful of things i can do well with both (like kicking a soccer ball or cutting things w/a knife). but some things i am left-dominant (writing, eating, shaving) and others i am right-dominant (throwing, brushing my teeth, using the mouse, playing guitar). and a few others i know of (but will choose not to mention) because i’ve broken each wrist and had them casted for a month or two.

sadly, being a lefty, my writing looks like a kindergarten attempt with either hand (although more so with the right). and i tried a few times as a kid to blame it on left-handedness (cuz, you know, most of us have terrible handwriting). but my aunt writes left-handed and has impeccable penmanship. ::shakefist::

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#19

I never had that issue. My older brother was left handed and got forced to use his right hand. It screwed him up. He had academic challenges after that - spending more time focused on the mechanics of writing than the content of his message. By the time I got to school, I got a few comments when teachers noticed I’d switch hands at random times but no one tried forcing me to use one or the other exclusively. Thankfully educators are more open minded then when my brother was going to school.

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#20

I’m studying classical and Latin guitar, and if I had to choose the hand I had perfect control over, it’d be the picking hand. The other hand makes chords and holds them in place so the picking hand can do all the magic. Watch a classical guitar player on YouTube and see how economical they are with their fingers on the fretboard, and how prolific they are at picking/strumming, etc.

1 Like