Years out of school and I still can't--

gingertop

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 6:17 pm

Here's a lighter, non-Covid thread.

What's something that you still struggle to understand or remember. Something basic that you should have mastered by the time you graduated elementary and certainly high school.

I'll start.

I have a really hard time with Hebrew dates. I just can't translate it in my brain. When was תש"ג- a hundred years ago or 50? (I happen to know that one because of its unfortunate prevalence in Jewish History).
In general though, I just can't translate Hebrew dates into the right era. I'm not bad at math but this is some sort of blockage. I see a date and it means nothing to me. Usually I just google it but on Shabbos, when reading, it really bugs me because it's impossible to properly understand what's going on unless the author has helpfully put in the x-tian year.

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 6:24 pm

gingertop wrote:

I don’t even begin to know that and I don’t even feel bad lol.

applesbananas

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 6:26 pm

Still break my teeth reading hebrew. This one really kills me bec id say so much more tehillin if I was a fast reader! I have a customer whos a big kriah specialist and I asked her if shed teach me and she said theres nothing to teach, I know how to read- now I just need a ton of practice. But with a house full of kids and a more than full time business it never seems to happen..

singleagain

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 6:43 pm

I can't math. (Like simple addition and subtraction) and I work with numbers all day. My coworkers make fun of me bc I ask Google what 2+2 is

gingertop

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 6:46 pm

ibelongtosomebody wrote:

Gingertop, what happened in תש”ג?

First of all, I'm glad I'm not the only one who struggles with Hebrew dates. Misery loves company Smile

It's basically the year of 1942-43 and because much of my family is Eastern European and I've tried to read whatever I could about their demise and I read a lot of Holocaust history, that's a year that has come up unfortunately enough very often, often enough that I know it without google's help.

happy chick

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 6:47 pm

applesbananas wrote:

Please dont feel bad. Your "less" tehillim may be worth a lot more to Hashem than another person's tehillim that they can breeze through in no time.

mamma llama

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 6:50 pm

Ounces, pints, quarts, pounds, tablespoons, teaspoons... I can't do the conversions even though I had to memorize it 5 times throughout elementary and high school.
If we were meant to know it by heart, Hashem would not have created Google! Whew

happy chick

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 6:50 pm

I have hard time with multiplication. I still use my fingers in a trick my father taught me. I thought maybe when my daughter leabrs multiplication, I'll do her hw. But just as she was starting, school got shut. My luck

nycgal

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 7:36 pm

I never figured out Hebrew/Yiddish spelling. The א and the ע seem the same in my head and I can never figure out which to put where. I’m great at English spelling but I never got Hebrew.

naomi2

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 7:56 pm

nycgal wrote:

I never figured out Hebrew/Yiddish spelling. The א and the ע seem the same in my head and I can never figure out which to put where. I’m great at English spelling but I never got Hebrew.

Firstly I'm another another who still can't tell left from right. That said, in Yiddish I think the aleph comes with komatz and pasach and ayin is for tzaire and segol. For Hebrew words there's no trick and I still don't know half the spelling of them.

singleagain

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 7:57 pm

Cheshire cat wrote:

I still cannot tell right from left without resorting to a clumsy trick my third grade teacher taught me... embarrassed

Omg.. Yes.. When ever I give directions I tell people follow my hands not my mouth bc I will say left, and point right. And my hands are giving the correct direction.

thunderstorm

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 8:02 pm

Measurements
Fractions
The difference between right and left . (My mother still has to tell me “the Shema hand” so that I know what the right side is🤦🏻‍♀️.)

my mama

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 8:02 pm

singleagain wrote:

Omg.. Yes.. When ever I give directions I tell people follow my hands not my mouth bc I will say left, and point right. And my hands are giving the correct direction.

My husband is originally from out of town, about 2 weeks after our wedding we were on the way home from a simcha, he was driving and I was giving directions. I wanted to tell him to keep left, but I kept yelling "right, right" and I got mad that he wasn't listening to me. We ended up getting off at a way wrong exit. We didn't have GPS, a 20 minute drive turned into an hour ordeal.
Now whenever we pass by there my husband asks, left or right?

singleagain

Sun, Apr 19 2020, 8:05 pm

my mama wrote:

Oy. That's really hard. I am grateful. One thing I do remember is how to read a map (book) but that wasn't from school. That was from my mom. Not only did she make sure we could read maps, she also pointed out all the landmarks near where we often drove. I remember once in... 10th grade I think, I have directions to a school bus driver of the highway back to school bc no one else knew.

huva

Mon, Apr 20 2020, 7:15 am

Cheshire cat wrote:

I still cannot tell right from left without resorting to a clumsy trick my third grade teacher taught me... embarrassed

If you are righthanded and you wanna know where right is, imagine you are picking up a pen and starting to write something. This always works!
And don't worry. You have nothing to be ashamed of.