It’s the exact opposite around here. Kids in kindergarden write in print, once you go to a “real” school you’re expected to use “curly” letters.
I was really surpised to learn writing cursive is uncommon in the US.
I’m one of those who do the knuckle-counting things. It is not to figure out that July is the 7th month, but to figure out that July has 31 days.
I’m surprised everyone can’t turn a computer, or computer ran device, off and back on again before calling tech support.
I can’t believe everyone can’t read Roman numerals! So much information is lost to those who can’t. How does one go through life not being able to read the dates on old Looney Tunes and Three Stooges shorts?
As far as I can tell, cursive writing was pretty close to universally taught in U.S. schools when I was a kid, in the 1970s, but seemed to have been dropped by a lot of schools in the decades that followed, especially as kids began learning keyboard skills during grade school, with the apparent supposition among educators that cursive writing was becoming unneeded.
But, a few articles I found suggest that teaching of cursive is starting to come back.
I’m pretty sure this is a genetic thing. Like rolling one’s tongue. Or the hitchhiker’s thumb. Some people can, and some people cannot.
There’s also cultural differences: people who grew up with cardinal-oriented grids and with roads that are labeled with cardinal points (whether actually going in that direction or not) are likely to use cardinal directions (“turn east”); people who didn’t are more likely to use relative directions (“turn left”). Now add laterality problems, and you get “turn towards the red barn”.
We write it ratatatá, it’s mostly /t/s.
We write it ratatatá, it’s mostly /t/s. But from what you say, your wife happens to have a defecto de frenillo (apparently the English for it is frenulum defect or ankyloglossia). I had a teacher who pronounced his own name as Doctod Idudde (his son eventually became Doctod Idudde as well); naming a child Roberto, Ricardo or similar in that family should count as cruelty.
Whenever schools try to get rid of it, a bunch of old curmudgeons stamp their feet and demand that it be retained. There are a bunch of hilariously bogus arguments for why it needs to be taught (like that we’ll forget what the Declaration of Independence says, or business will grind to a halt once nobody knows how to sign their name, if children aren’t forced to learn D’Nealian Cursive), but the reasons aren’t important, because it’s actually just another reactionary backlash to change in education.
Imitating accents of languages not your native one seems to me to be somewhat innate, sort of an auditory permeability that some folks just do not have. I seem to have inherited the ability from my Dad. It’s like that neural pathway closes off for many people but not everyone. Different than actually learning a language.
A person who doesn’t understand the “drilling through the center of the Earth” thing also probably doesn’t have a grasp of hemispheres and basic geography.
This comment confuses me. All the letters look like what would happen if you printed the letters, but didn’t pick up your pen.
That said, North could be anywhere.
The thing that I’m frequently surprised about is IKEA furniture. They’re easy. They’re step-by-step. They don’t even use words, but pictures that very clearly indicate what to do and how and in what order. It doesn’t seem like there should be confusion, but clearly there is.
You must love the fact that some watch/clock makers have resorted to using “IIII” for “IV”.
On “77 Sunset Strip” I can manage to tell if the episode were made in 1958, 1959, or 1960.
That’s normal for clocks.
Recognize obvious scams.
There’s no Nigerian prince who needs help. A banker doesn’t need your help moving 10 million in gold out of the country. And that phone call from the Feds who want your banking info or they’ll press charges against you for drug trafficking? Yeah, that’s a scam, too.
I’m surprised not everyone knows how to check in for a flight online. This is primarily directed at my husband, who is a software architect. He actually builds these systems himself. Yet I still have to walk him through the online check in process anytime he boards a flight.
I’m also surprised by people who reach adulthood without being able to cook a meal. I guess in larger cities that’s not always required, but I’ve met a surprising number of people who have no idea how to cook something so they don’t have to order out, even scrambled eggs.
Similarly I don’t understand how someone could also reach adulthood without learning basic cleaning skills. If you had servants maybe, but even just watching your parents clean should give you enough information you could figure it out. Right?!
My husband is amazed that I can convert fractions to decimals and back with ease. To 32nds. 
I once saw an interview with a guy who said he knew it probably was a scam, but maybe it was real so it was worth a shot. He compared it to buying a lottery ticket–most times you lose, but sometimes you win big.
Ok, ok, #NotAllMen and all that, but I am constantly surprised at the number of men who at this late date are still raised in households where cooking and cleaning and laundry and dishes, etc., is still considered “women’s work” and make it to adulthood without developing not only the skills, but the sense that these are things they can and should do.
In your head? I mean it’s dead easy to work out on paper, but I couldn’t tell you what 3/32 is in decimal, for example.