In a world being handled mostly by our right hands, there are some left-handed things that some of us won’t understand. With 10 percent of the world’s population using their left hand more in day-to-day operations, it’s natural for this uniqueness to get pushed to its limit. After all, when 90 percent of people seem generic, left-handed people have the privilege of being somewhat unique.
People with left-hand preferences get unique humor and a lot of boring, generic questions. To some people, left-handedness is such a popular topic that they will automatically ask a billion questions related to this aspect of a person. To prevent your friends from getting their questions out, you might want to declare yourself to be left-handed right off the bat. It’s also a brilliant conversation starter. On the other hand, there is a humorous side to this uniqueness. There are a lot of jokes and hand puns that can be used to highlight this unique characteristic. Although, sometimes, these jokes might get out of hand pretty quickly.
Since the internet is so large, it was only natural for some left-handers to share the things that annoy them. User Toxic4704 asked this question to a group on AskReddit — “Left-handed people of Reddit, what are some everyday struggles that most right-handed people are not aware of?” We have compiled a list of the best answers down below. If you found some of them funny and maybe relatable, be sure to upvote them. Otherwise, share your own left-handed experience in the comments below.
#1
“Getting your hand smudged with graphite or ink when writing.”
Image source: 52ndsurvivor
#2
“As a kid having teachers constantly telling me I’m holding the pencil incorrectly. Also having teachers assume that my difficulty cutting things neatly with right-handed scissors was due to laziness/incompetence.”
Image source: TravisWVoss
#3
“Whenever there is a pen chained to the counter (like at a bank or store) it’s always attached on the right side. So lefties always have the chain draped across the thing you’re writing on.”
Image source: Nadaf1nga
#4
“Doing anything with ringed binders or spiral notebooks.”
Image source: 52ndsurvivor
#5
“Eating in close proximity to someone who is right-handed. Always have to orient me at the table accordingly.”
Image source: pduncpdunc
#6
“Power tools are designed for right-handed people, and they’re dangerous enough already without having to be awkward about using them.”
Image source: MisterDonkey
#7
“Nobody sees the jokes or pictures on my novelty coffee mugs.”
steveofthejungle said:
“The coffee mug thing makes me so sad.”
crspphoto asked:
“Do people look at you like you’re crazy when you sit there in the morning chuckling to yourself while staring at your mug?”
Image source: MisterDonkey
#8
“Having people point out the fact that you’re left-handed as if you’re some special unicorn.”
user replied:
“Technically you are because just about 10 percent of the population is left-handed.”
Image source: 52ndsurvivor
#9
“Having to hear people say, ‘Wait, you’re left-handed??’ after you’ve been writing things in front of them for months.”
Trum-y-Ddysgl said:
“One of my friends at school was born without a right arm. I had known the guy for at least 5 years when one day I randomly said ‘Wait, Sam, I didn’t know that you’re left-handed?’
Don’t know what brought it on, I was genuinely surprised that he was using his left hand to write with.”
Image source: wuakiymn
#10
“Everyone has said the common ones, but at 26 I recently discovered this one.
Going to fill your tank up at the gas station? Watch a lefty when they’re standing at the pump. It took me YEARS to figure out why the stupid hose winds up getting tangled and doesn’t seem to sit right when you put it back on the pump.
Righties grab the nozzle with their right hand and immediately turn to their left. Lefties grab the nozzle with their left hand and turn to the right, meaning the hose is twisting in the opposite direction. When we’re done fueling, turning to the right seems to be the preferred move, as you’re not going to spin back around to your left to put the nozzle back. So now you’ve twisted the hose into a pretzel, you can’t get the nozzle to sit happily in the pump, and everyone’s looking at you funny.”
Nerdican replied:
“Wait, THAT’S why I always have to spin the rotating part on the nozzle when putting it back? I thought they were just poorly designed.”
Image source: Choppin_Broccoli_
#11
“Having to work with any kind of tool, utensil, or handheld device, because 98% of them are right-handed. Especially scissors.”
Image source: 52ndsurvivor
#12
“Putting change in a vending machine. Everything about it just feels unnatural.”
Image source: tatsuedoa
#13
“You sometimes have to reposition your drink when they give it to you at a restaurant.”
Image source: Arisngr
#14
“This.”
Thebaebeekiller replied:
“I say this actually worked an advantage as a left-handed person. I would put my right elbow on the desk, lay my head on my right hand, with a pencil in my left, and either write or sleep.”
Image source: 3yronF1ve, imgur.com
#15
“Whenever I’m baking, if I’m trying to measure something in a measuring cup, I have to hold it in my right hand to see the cup measurements. It’s obviously a very small problem, but nonetheless annoying!”
Image source: kittyracy
#16
“It took me way too long to figure out a can opener. My parents were getting worried.”
Image source: trying4tri
#17
“When writing with a pen (or a pencil), due to your hand following your pen across the page, it is very common to smudge the words you write.”
user replied:
“YES. I write essentially exclusively with pens, and even then I’m SUPER picky about the pens I write with. Precise V5 all the way, baby. Doesn’t smear, doesn’t bleed through. I swear by them. Plus they come in all kinds of fun colors.”
Image source: Lazarus393
#18
“Bizarre side issue:
A lot of left-handed people are quite ambidextrous. This includes being able to read and write mirror writing.
As a result, sometimes you automatically read something in mirror writing without consciously registering that it is reversed. A common problem is pushing at glass doors that appear to say ‘Push’ on them when that writing is actually on the other side of the glass aimed at people coming from the opposite direction. Or going through a door that says (e.g.) ‘to the bar’ when the writing is actually on the other side of the door and you should be going in the opposite direction.”
Image source: prustage
#19
“Learning knitting/crotcheting took me so long because of all of the instructions for right-handers. Ended up having to learn how to do it backward.”
greywaters replied:
“I don’t know if you still knit, or have already adapted to the right-handed directions, but take a look at continental knitting. It is more left-handed than English knitting.”
Image source: beautifuldayoutside
#20
“I’m a left-handed Westerner living in India. Besides what others have already mentioned:
In India, it is considered crude and unsanitary to use your left hand for pretty much anything, especially when handling food or handing something over. That’s because people use their left hand to wash their behind after using the toilet.
For the first few months, it was challenging. I had to retrain myself to handle a spoon with my right hand, to wear my wallet in my left pocket (in order to pull it out of my jacket with my right hand), to place my mouse to the right of the keyboard, etc.”
Image source: sumpuran
#21
“I’ve learned how to eat with my arms tucked in, so I look like a T-rex. Actually, it’s helped with my table manners too, as I don’t look like a slobbering buffoon with my arms taking up so much space.”
Image source: detourne
#22
“Buying instruments. Guitars tend to be more expensive and much harder to come across nice ones. You can’t usually borrow a lefty guitar at a show if an issue arises with yours.”
porkchop_d_clown replied:
“I had a left-handed friend who played right-handed and insisted that it was the righties who were backward because the hand on the neck is the one making precise movements.”
Image source: Sharkbite547
#23
“Smartphones have buttons where only the right handlers can reach them. I hold my iPhone XR in my left hand. Inconvenient.”
Image source: reddit.com
#24
“Butter knives that have the blade offset. Only righties can use them.”
Image source: reddit.com
#25
“Golfing. You can’t share clubs with anyone.”
Image source: TigerLord69
#26
“Playing cards. The way I naturally spread the cards results in all the numbers/faces being hidden behind the adjacent cards. I have to hold from the top and spread the bottoms. (They do make left-handed playing cards, in case anyone doesn’t believe this is a thing).”
Image source: peony_chalk
#27
“Write with my left-hand but do almost everything else with my right hand. Am I weird guys? Or are you guys like that too?”
Image source: theblvckmvmba
#28
“Putting pens in my breast pocket. I wear scrubs as a doctor and the action of putting my pen in my left breast pocket with my left hand is just unnatural and sometimes awkward.
Also, my army uniform has a place for pens on the left forearm, so I have to put the pen in and take it out first with my right hand.
The struggle is real.”
Image source: frumious_b
#29
“The mouse on the computer is in the wrong place. I learned to mouse with my right hand early, even though I use my left for trackpads.”
Image source: porkchop_d_clown
#30
“Sitting at most college desks since almost all (at least where I’m from) are right-handed.”
Image source: 52ndsurvivor
#31
“Guns are usually designed to be fired from the right side.”
Image source: porkchop_d_clown
#32
My father is left-handed. Being born to a very conservative father in the wake of South Korea, right after the war, raised in the 70s, he was forced to learn to write with his right hand (not 100% sure of the reasons but I am told by my mother it was because of social stigma towards left-handed people in my grandfathers time, but was obsolete in my father’s generation) and was beaten if he used his left hand for anything.
To this day he writes (almost illegibly) with his right hand. So yeah, I guess you could call that an everyday struggle for my dad.”
Image source: sexybicboi
#33
“Wearing a watch on my right hand, and then having people tell me it’s wrong.”
Image source: yaboicolbs
#34
“Does shaking hands count as being built by society? Because it gets awkward even after actively reminding myself for 30 years to SHAKE WITH THE RIGHT HAND. And I still mess it up.
Image source: LadyWuu
#35
“Everyone at the skatepark makes fun of me for ‘facing the wrong way.'”
Image source: Schowzy
#36
“Learning guitar chords for a left-handed guitar. Pretty sure I memorized them wrong at one point and had to spend a week re-memorizing the correct ones.”
Image source: beautifuldayoutside
#37
“Smoking in a car. The ashtray is on the right.”
Image source: MisterDonkey
#38
“Molded handles are always right-handed.”
Image source: MisterDonkey
#39
“My aunt had a baby that started to show left-handed dominance and she was whining that he’s ‘handicapped’ meanwhile she’s saying this to me, my sister, and my mom (we’re all lefty). Her main argument was that when he opens doors he will have to reach across to grab the handle. I tried to explain that the handle is on one side as you enter and the opposite side as you exit, but that was too much for her to comprehend.”
Image source: Taco-Queen
#40
“Learning things right-handed people do without a video.”
Image source: Fluffy-Doubt-3547
#41
“I find that I tend to screw lightbulbs in tighter when what I’m really trying to do is unscrew them.”
Image source: bIocked
#42
“Dental chairs. I mean, lefty dental chairs do exist, but we didn’t have any at uni so I had to learn to do my job using my right hand.”
Image source: master_chu0108
#43
“Pouring water into the reservoir on the right side of the coffee pot.”
Image source: KarmaKitten17
#44
“Weed whackers – they spray your legs with dirt because it spins toward you when you hold it in the opposite intended direction.”
Image source: ericl666
#45
“Left-handed keyboards, the number pad is on the left.”
Image source: remmagell
#46
“As a left-handed digital artist, pretty much all drawing tablets are built for right-handed people. I have to flip my display upside down to use my drawing tablet and that means I can’t use my drawing tablet and other monitor at the same time.”
Image source: reddit.com
#47
“Kitchens are often arranged poorly for lefties, with the work area to the right of the cooking surface, making it slightly awkward to move things back and forth between the two spaces, a longer reach to grab utensils, and so on.”
Image source: porkchop_d_clown
#48
“I’ll add a couple more obscure ones I didn’t realize until I started climbing:
1) learning knots is hard since knots are taught by and for righties. To make this worse, some knots, if tied left-handed, will look right but capsize and fail immediately under load.
2) the Gri-Gri belay device, a fantastic tool, is designed for right-handed use.”
Image source: hipsterhank
#49
“Video games suck because all the buttons for action are on the right.”
zakrak4 said:
“Leftie here never had any issues with video games.”
past-the-present comments:
“I’m a lefty too, the whole video game thing is much more apparent when you’re playing something on like a DS. When playing Kid Icarus for example, you move with the circle pad (on the left), but you also have to control the camera by using the touch screen, in which it’s most convenient to use the stylus, which you also have to hold with your left, meaning you can’t both move and control the camera at the same time, making it a lot harder to play. It’s fine on other consoles though, I don’t have nearly as hard a time.”
Image source: 52ndsurvivor
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