I made myself an omelet the other day, and it was, as usual, quite yummy – because I make a pretty good omelet. Which is interesting, because I’m not much of a cook (competent enough, but I don’t enjoy it particularly). Anyway, I started thinking about the fact that obviously someone taught me how to do this, because it’s not something I would have or could have picked up from a book. For the life of me, though, I can’t remember who that person was. As best I can reconstruct, it must have been college years or thereabouts – perhaps Lauri, who was my roommate the year before grad school? I know she taught me how to make (seriously excellent, cheese and sour cream type) mashed potatoes – but can’t remember if she taught me omelets as well.
So anyway, here’s the question – what somewhat higher-level skill do you have that you have zero recollection of who taught it to you?
Aren’t some skills cumulative to some degree. My example would be that when I was young, hammering a nail was tough. I would bend them or hit my thumb with a high frequency. No one taught me how to drive a nail and yet I now almost never bend a nail or hit my thumb. The more carpentry I do and other home & boat repairs, the more competent I am in the future to take on new challenges. I can build furniture & toys now without plans or guidance. The stuff works. No one taught me how to determine a design. I have a little engineering background that I am sure that helps, but translating that to a toy helicopter or working Lighthouse lamp is a large leap.
Skills I have that I did not learn from a person or book are mostly in the area of wood working. However, I can trace the evolution of my skills.
Nah, I’m talking a specific skill with specific steps – like adding a bit of water to the beaten eggs, and lifting up the edges as the egg mixture cooks to let the still-liquid stuff run under. It wouldn’t be impossible to learn to do that from a book, but since I don’t like to cook, I wouldn’t have bothered – someone must have shown me.
I can’t think of one. Even cooking eggs, is something where I learned by trial and error with a little advice along the way.
Maybe Grilling hamburgers. When I was 17 someone taught me how to grill dozen of burgers at once at Wendy’s. I have not use that skill no in over 20 years but I am sure I could still do it. I have no clue who taught me how to. Does that count?
Baking tips and tricks. I noticed last Christmas when some girlfriends and I got together for a cookie-making frenzy. I looked askance at them not knowing basic stuff, like creaming together butter and sugar first, and they were equally mystified at how I’d know to do that if it wasn’t specified in the recipe.
Sure, I spent time around Mom and Grandma absorbing some basics, but I don’t ever remember being taught a lot of things that seem like Things Everyone Knows, but apparently aren’t.
I don’t know who taught me to read. My parents read to me, but I don’t recall them ever trying to get me to do it myself. And yet when first grade came along and we were divided into reading groups, I already knew how, so the teacher didn’t show me either.
I didn’t remember for years who taught me to knit, only that my mother didn’t know how and that I’d known how since I was a kid. Then last year a friend I’ve had since kindergarten mentioned that a particular teacher taught us in grade school; she had a series of knitting lessons during recess one year, and that was where I’d learned it.
The card game Demon. For the life of me, I can’t remember how I learned this, it’s definitely not one of the card games we played in our family when I growing up because I’m the only one of my relatives who knows it now. I remember one summer at camp when Demon was all the rage, and from what I recall, I was one of the instigators so I must have already known how to play. I must have picked it up somewhere else, but I can’t figure it when or where that would have been.
I think there are a lot of things that I’ve learned through osmosis; seeing things on TV or hearing people talk about it, and all of a sudden I have working knowledge of how to do various things.
Cooking is a great example, actually. I remember the first time I made my own soup from scratch. No one taught me how to do it, but I just kinda knew what vegetables to use, that I needed to let it simmer for hours, etc etc. It came out darned tasty, but all my knowledge about it came from seeing a soup-pot on the stove at home a number of times, plus probably watching various TV chefs make soup over the years.
Also reading, but I kind of know who probably taught me, although I don’t really remember it. According to my mom, they used to show episodes of Sesame Street and Electric Company back to back in the morning, and then show the same two episodes in the afternoon. I religiously glued myself to the tube for both shows twice a day every day as soon as I was able to focus my eyes. Probably why I can’t see worth a crap now.
I taught myself the “bunny-ears” method just by trial and error and I clearly remember the day I figured that out.
But the regular adult method, whatever that’s called… I don’t remember who taught me that or how I learned it. I vaguely remember being in a shopping mall and there was a man who was not my father. He put his foot up on a bench to tie his shoe and I must have known him, because I talked to him. And he tied his shoe slowly so that I could see how it was done. However, I don’t think that was when I learned to do it. That was just when I decided I wanted to learn. I have no idea who, if anyone, eventually taught me.
I remember clearly getting it right the first time – in the bathroom of my kindergarten, for crying out loud, real smooth move on my part :smack: – but what I can’t for the life of me recall is who showed me in the first place how to whistle.
I’m quite a good whistler (if I do say so myself) at this point; I’ve mastered the trill, the warble, and can sustain notes indefinitely using the rotation technique. But I’ll be damned if I can remember who taught me how in the first place.
Now that you mention it, I have no earthly notion why I know how to type. I know two things for certain: I could already type by time I took the required Keyboarding course in seventh grade (and I must’ve been doing it for at least a year, since my speed was comparable to the teacher’s), but I did not know how to type in the fourth grade, which was the first time I used a word processor for schoolwork.
My mother is an excellent typist – even today she’s faster than me, and I go anywhere from 80-100 WPM – but I don’t recall her ever teaching me. My grandfather started teaching me DOS and Unix when I was five (comp geeks should start early ), but he types one-handed, so it’s doubtful he showed me. My only clue is that I use my right pinky finger to press ‘.’ instead of my ring finger. If I can figure out who else I know that does that, maybe I’ll have my answer…
), but he types one-handed, so it’s doubtful he showed me. My only clue is that I use my right pinky finger to press ‘.’ instead of my ring finger. If I can figure out who else I know that does that, maybe I’ll have my answer…