We all might have more in common than we think, especially when it comes to getting embarrassed over something we thought we knew (but really didn't). Reddit user LightningCole asked the members of the online community to share some of the things that they learned embarrassingly late. With over 18.6k comments in the thread, we can say for sure that it’s one of those universal secrets that nearly everyone can relate to. What’s obvious to you might not be obvious to us!
Remember to upvote your fave answers as you chuckle your way down this list. After you’re done, let us know in the comments what things you learned embarrassingly late in life, dear Pandas! Did you think that chocolate milk comes from brown cows until you were 30? Maybe you thought that the European Council and the Council of the European Union were one and the same at some point in your life? We can’t wait to read what you have to share.
Bored Panda spoke about embarrassing knowledge blind spots and why they're, well, embarrassing with Vanessa Bohns, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University. Bohns also explained what the healthiest way to react to embarrassment is. Scroll down and have a read.
This post may include affiliate links.
That not every woman who's nice to me is interested in me, they're just being friendly. Wished someone made that clearer when I was younger, would've saved me a lot of embarrassment and stupid moments in high school and early college.
I'm the opposite. Thought girls were never interested in me then years later when I bump into women I used to work with they say "Why didn't you ask me (or a friend) out. I/they made it obvious I/they liked you" etc.
Shouldn't be down to the man to do the asking all the time.
Load More Replies...
There should be relationship education as well as sex education, often parents aren’t the best role models!
"Polite" and "want to have sex with / date you" are NEVER the same thing. (especially when the one being polite / friendly is at work)
This is a common misconception in both genders. Unfortunately tho, there are a lot who just don't seem to understand that people are just nice to be nice.
It could also save you a sexual harassment accusation. For real. You wouldn't believe the things men have said to me.
Bus Lady, on behalf of all men, I apologise. -Rev Dr M, retired teacher (not a bus driver), and still single & looking
Load More Replies...
This reminds me a coworker that I had once. It was his first day and he was clearly lost, so I walked up to him and said, "Hi, I am GirlFriday, can I help you find something?" He said he was looking for coffee. I told him to follow me and I showed him where the kitchen is and where the coffee supplies are kept. Then I said, "Hey, if you need anything let me know. Welcome aboard." He replied, "I will have you know that I am a married man." I told him, "That's nice. I don't find you the least bit attractive, I was trying to welcome you to the company." He was an a*s and didn't last long. He took that same tack with other women in the office.
If you reverse this, it would mean that every man who is "friendly", only wants to date / have sex with whoever they're talking to. ie so all guys are "only after one thing"? ie this entire philosophy of "friendly = wants to date / sleep with you" is entirely ludicrous, because not every friendly person is that sleezy / desperate.
Glad you said that. Although everyone has a right to their own, my opinion of that post was that it sounded a bit vain. Like “Don’t flatter yourself”. Playing devil’s advocate though too; socially, women experience so much bs as described above (that we men have no idea the scope of), that I can also understand her reaction. Women DO go through a lot of s**t men don’t even dream about happening. I wouldn’t want to be a 14 year old girl scared of being abducted etc. I suppose it does reach a boiling point for women.
Load More Replies... How about those of us who just thought they were being nice (Mother taught me rightly), when in actuality, they were more than interested, and we were too clueless to notice? 30 years later, I'm still kicking myself...
It wouldn't only save you embarrassment, but also the time those girls/women wasted, as well as your time. But the most important this is, you eventually realised that and you have the courage to admit it. Many people never learn. So, seriously, be proud of yourself and thank you for sharing this with the world. (Btw, same is true when genders are switched)
Many people (men and women) still believe that being nice to someone is the same as flirting.
I wish more people knew this. I hate when people get the wrong idea, just because I'm not being crappy to them.
"I'm nice to men because they might get mad and kill me" - Every woman in México (:
Honestly, it's a fine and tough line. Can't be too nice, they'll think more is going on than is, but also can't be too aloof, or they'll call you a b***h or worse.
Load More Replies...
I found out that if I use emojis in texts, the guy thinks I'm interested in him. I just wanted to be friendlier because people told me I look mad all the time...
My youngest daughter (20 y/o) says the same thing. She inherited my narrow eyes. She says that she's been told that she has a B****-face, in part for the freckles (her mother's side). I, for one, think that he's absolutely beautiful, like her sister (28 y/o), who has the same eyes, but darker skin like mine and without freckles. But, then again, I'm Dad.
Load More Replies...
I dunno if ya'll read Percy Jackson and the Olympians but Rachel Dare thought Percy liked her and he didn't. He was just being friendly.
I am constantly being mistaken for flirting when I'm just being friendly. I act the same way towards men and women, but only the men seem to think it's a come-on.
Maybe it's cultural, both your side of just being friendly, and their side of thinking that it is more...
Load More Replies... 
And the reverse is true for women. If a guy is being nice, there's a good chance he's hoping for something more.
Or the opposite: some of these women are just being friendly while actually being interested, as I found out when it was "too late"...
"wish someone made that clearer" so you're still not taking any responsibility
Happens in the gay community also. Just cuz you say "hi" to someone and are friendly does not mean you want to hook up with them. Some men can't seem to grasp that idea.
But, it doesn't hurt to have women friends that are not romantic interests. It's a shame more men don't value platonic friendships with women. Their lives would be richer for it.
Maybe this is why so many women and gay men are fast friends: we don't WANT anything from them... and some of us will help fix your look before you go public.
No wonder he thinks like this as there are a lot of men who are only nice to women when they are interested in them. From a 70 year old with experience.
Honestly, that's why I get closed off and almost short with men I don't know. So they don't mistake me for something else.
When I was 20, I was presented with a really wonderful promotion. It required me to fly to a nearby state for a week of training. I was super ecstatic about the whole thing... until I remembered a friend of mine complaining about her struggles with getting a passport. So, I promptly declined the promotion. My superiors were really stumped as to why I turned down the promotion.
Me: Unfortunately, I don’t have a passport.
Manager: Boringberry... you’ve never flown before, have you?
Me: No. I have not.
Manager: You don’t need a passport to fly within the country.
And then it hit me- my friend was going to Mexico. I was just going to a neighboring state. Once the realization hit, my superiors all erupted in laughter.
The story itself followed me when I went to training. My trainer personally greeted me and asked me if I had any difficulties getting a passport before laughing.
When I was little my Dad told me the big cooling towers that are often found beside electricity generating plants were in fact cloud machines and the prime minister of the day had a switch on his desk to turn the big machine on when it got too hot.
This made complete sense to me as they did produce big clouds of white cumulus-like exhaust when operating.
Fast forward to when I was around 11 years ago and the teacher asks if anyone knows why some days are dry and some days it rains, some days have blue sky and some days have clouds.
Of course at the mention of clouds I knew immediately where clouds come from and stuck my hand up to tell everyone about the prime minister and the cloud machines.
Luckily the teacher picked someone else for the answer and I was most confused to hear someone go on about evaporation and rainfall and so on.
"We spend a lot of time and effort presenting an ideal version of ourselves to other people. When something happens that contrasts with the image we’ve been projecting—when we say or do something that shows we actually aren’t as graceful or as smart as we’d like people to believe—we feel embarrassed," Bohns said.
"Discovering you were wrong about something most everyone else around you has long known to be true is one of those moments. In that moment we learn, 'Wait a minute, maybe I haven’t been presenting the image of being smart or worldly that I thought I was presenting all this time,' which is embarrassing."
That Hawaii was a country before the U.S. annexed it. Unsurprisingly they do not teach us that in high school history class...
And California was part of MEXICO until the US government bought it from Mexico. Also, "America" is actually 2 continents (north america and south america), not a country. "America" as "Americans" call it, is a PART of the continent "North America", and is actually called "The United STATES of America" ie it's referring to a group of 'states' that united, rather than try to declare themselves as individual countries, when it was being invaded by the British (& other countries).
That the world owes you nothing.
You can be a good person and that's fine but it won't lead to you being blessed with nice things; people can use you if you're too nice to them
I grew up thinking that my life was special and that I was destined for greatness but I'm now just another fish in the sea
I have a cousin who quotes Yogi Berra on a fairly regular basis, and it wasn't until last Thanksgiving that I realized he's a real person, and that my cousin hasn't been admiring the words of Yogi Bear all this time.
Bohns pointed out to Bored Panda that embarrassment has its positive sides—it’s not all bad like some of us believe.
“One thing that’s interesting about embarrassment is that, for as much as we might experience it as painful in the moment, it’s actually very socially adaptive. Being embarrassed signals to other people that you care about what they think. And that actually draws people in to you,” she said.
“So blushing, burying your head in your hands, laughing, acknowledging how embarrassing something was, are all totally healthy ways to react,” Bohns explained to us that we shouldn’t feel embarrassed about, well, feeling embarrassed.
Rottweilers are not just fat Dobermans.
That truffles are a mushroom as well as a chocolate. When people talked about sending pigs in the forest to hunt for truffles I thought they’d buried chocolates in there to teach pigs how to dig food up
I was 21
I don't like truffles, but chocolate-hunting with dogs? Sign me up! (Making sure the dogs cannot eat it of course)
Riding a bicycle. I learnt it at 18, my parents believed in an astrologer who told them that I would have a terrible accident when I drive or ride. So I had to learn bicycle secretly from a friend.
“The unhealthy way to react is to pretend you’re not embarrassed, that you didn’t make a mistake, or to get angry. Those things undo the positive effect of embarrassment typically has on other people by conveying insincerity and pushing people away rather than drawing them in,” Bohns said.
Knowledge blind spots are something that we’ll always have. To some extent. We’ll never be able to get rid of all of them but we should do our best to improve ourselves constantly.
However, the problem isn’t so easy because you don’t know what you don’t know or what you’re wrong about. It’s not like we spend every single second of every day analyzing every bit of knowledge in our minds. Nobody’s got that kind of time—we’ve got other things to do!
It's hard to explain this one and I can't google it to find pictures. Everyone has bought a tube of "cream" at some point (antiseptic / steroid / eczema) for example. On some of these "creams", have you noticed that the lid is circular but in the centre of the lid it has a sharp pointy end? Typically, these tubes of "cream" have a seal and I used to remove the lid and break the seal by finding anything sharp and pointy nearby (pen maybe). It took my 23 years to realise that the pointy end in the centre of the lid has a purpose...
Thought an orgasm and an organism were the same thing.
Gave an entire speech to my class at 13 years old, first month at a new school, about how I wanted to be a marine biologist and work with marine orgasms. Everyone was laughing and I didn't know why. The teacher didn't say anything just laughed along as well. A girl I'd just made friends with had to fill me in after class.
Turns out, they are definitely not the same thing.
I was laughed at in class for asking to borrow a rubber (eraser) coz it is another name for a condom.
I only recently found out that ponies are not baby horses, but full-sized ponies.
Some blind spots are related to a lack of education and worldliness and can be corrected by actively seeking out new information and perspectives, bit by bit. Reading new books, watching films, going to lectures, meeting new people—all of these things slowly fill in any gaps in knowledge that we might have. It’s a long and involved process but it might just be the easy part.
Other blind spots that we have are related to our assumptions and preconceptions about the world which might not always be right. However, we’re so emotionally invested in holding on to these ideas that we don’t want to let go. Because it feels like we’re losing a part of ourselves.
I thought the phrase 'mix by hand' meant to literally shove your hands in the batter and mix, not use a spoon or a mixer. I didn't learn the truth until my mother found me wrist-deep in brownie batter.
That Washington D.C wasn't in the state of Washington...
You know when the doctor hits your knee to check your reflexes? I honestly thought you were supposed to kick your leg up high. Like you felt it and you kick. It wasn’t until I was 23 and moved to another country and had to do a physical that the doctor was like what are you doing?!
If we’re truly sincere about wanting to get rid of our blind spots, then we have to put our points of view out there and be prepared to learn that we’re wrong. Over and over again. It’s a painful process (it’s bound to bruise our egos) but it’s the quickest way to learn.
So if you’re prepared to take the temporary hits to your self-esteem, even learning new things embarrassingly late doesn’t have to be embarrassing!
Not me but my husband.
He didn't know that meat is the animals muscles. He thought every animal had a bodypart named "meat".
He had a bit of an emotional crisis when I told him. He is actually a very intelligent man, but this fact had eluded him as his mother had not wanted to upset him as a child.
this is what happens when you prioritise "protecting" you child, rather than 'teaching' them... :o :/
That Houston is not the name of the guy astronauts talk to.
Pickles are pickled cucumbers. Took me over 30 years to figure that one out.
What's even more interesting is that Indian pickle is just spiced cooked sour things (like unripe mango and lemon)
When I was in 4th grade i was in love with Chris brown. He was 16. I told my mom when i was 16 we would start dating.... she proceeded to inform me that when I was 16 he would no longer be 16. That’s when I realized everyone was also getting older, not just me
Martha's Vineyard isn't just some land that rich people went to that was owned by Martha Stewart.
That K9 stands for "canine"... Like K9 unit in police is dog unit.
I thought buffalos were birds, and buffalo wings were from said birds.
Glass objects should not be put on the stove. Guess how I learned that.
I learnt that the hard way by accident. Glass exploded and ended up with food and glass everywhere. Worst thing was we had friends over for dinner. It was a disaster.
Thought guerilla warfare was humans in a war against gorilla's
I thought the 'do not pass' road sign literally meant 'do not die here.' I had to ask my grandpa what would happen if someone got into a car accident and died there.
The expression "You can't have your cake and eat it too" I'm like... wat? of course you can eat your cake if you have it wtf are all these people talking about? took me til my 20s to figure out it was actually meaning you cant both have the cake on the counter and have eaten it.
That I do better on my own. Took three divorces before I got a clue.
Pilot and co-pilot actually has the same hierarchy. I thought that co-pilot is some kind of assistant to the pilot
This isn't true, the co-pilot IE the first officer answers to the captain who is in charge of the flight and legally responsible for it
Note: this post originally had 101 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
I'm kinda terrified that people needed till adulthood to figure out some of these...
i am with you on that Leo. Some of these are just too common sense like to not have known for so long.
Load More Replies...
I think it's not the lack of knowledge itself but the lack of willingness to learn that is shameful. These people learned the truth eventually and it's great!
Sometimes, you don't know what you don't know, so you may have no curiosity.
Load More Replies...
In italy you say "a caval donato non si guarda in bocca " ..it means "you don't look in the mouth of a given horse" You can say the age (and value of it) counting the teeth, so you don't judge the value of a horse (or anything else) you receive as a gift. The problem is that in Italy Donato is also a name of a person . My father discovered it by his 50.. "i always wondered why this horse was called Donato and what was the meaning of it.. "
'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth' would be the english translation. Meaning pretty much the same.
Load More Replies...
I used to think that the world was in black in white back in the day when I watched black and white tv shows and movies. Yeah my dad had to correct me on that.
I never knew until a few years ago (I'm currently 77) that black olives and green olives are the same fruit at different stages of ripening.
My father, who besides being an attentive husband is a brilliant man, nevertheless found out from me in his sixties, after over forty years of marriage, that a skirt and a dress are not the same thing. I take part of the blame, as I had spent my whole life wondering why he interchanged the terms and I never said anything.
Soooo it turns out that not all animals have genitalia and separate places for excretion and urination. Many have a single combined orifice for all these functions called a cloaca. I learned this the other day at the age of 36. To be fair, none of my friends knew either.
I have a great oh moment...I'm a girl and I was 16, and I'm at a family event. I'm around my grandmother, my aunt, and my mom when they started mentioning that my 7 year old cousin had wet the bed recently.. And I say, "oh, isn't he a little old for wet dreams?" Totally thought that was a phrase for wetting the bed. Everyone goes really quiet and they stare at me..then kind of start talking again after I have this total look of confusion on my face. I figured out what the term really meant soon after and boy am I embarrassed af...
Some Dutch stores.... I thought V&D and Vroom & Dreesman where two different stores. And only last year I realized about the store C&A - they sell different brands clothing. Canda is one of them. I only realized this year Canda is not Can-da, but C-and-a... Also, Hennes and Mauritz being the same as H&M. I don't trust abbreviations anymore...
Me age 8, singing along with my mum to Meatloafs bat out of hell, "cilla black found on a bike" my mum laughed hysterically, didn't tell me for another 4 years that it was in fact "silver black phantom bike".
Well, both Cilla Black (RIP) and Meatloaf were good performers...so, 2 out of 3 ain't bad...
Load More Replies...
I was 25 when I learned that fleas aren’t just cartoon pests. Had a boyfriend over after moving to Seattle (from NW Montana, where we don’t have as many insect problems due to the winters) and he’s told me the cat had fleas. I didn’t believe him, but was embarrassed he thought my cat was dirty, so have him a bath. White short hair cat fur becomes see through when wet.....and that’s when I realized the thousand of black bugs that suddenly became visible weren’t from a cartoon. Burned all my furniture and shaved all my cats, totally traumatized. Likewise, I was 35 when I was talking with a co-worker, looked at something on the ceiling....and discovered cockroaches are also real and not just a made for TV bug... I’m a doctor.
I love Meatloaf, and always used to listen to and sing along to "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" growing up. I especially liked the Baseball announcer part. I thought the guy was playing baseball and the girl interrupts the game before he reaches home base. Then when I was 45, I was driving to work listening to the song on the radio, and I actually said out loud "He's talking about sex". Lol, I'm embarrassed to say I never clued in before that.
You can't consume fish with dairy products unitl i ate salmon with cream cheese
Religious dietary laws...I still eat it.
Load More Replies...
I'm kinda terrified that people needed till adulthood to figure out some of these...
i am with you on that Leo. Some of these are just too common sense like to not have known for so long.
Load More Replies... I think it's not the lack of knowledge itself but the lack of willingness to learn that is shameful. These people learned the truth eventually and it's great!
Sometimes, you don't know what you don't know, so you may have no curiosity.
Load More Replies... In italy you say "a caval donato non si guarda in bocca " ..it means "you don't look in the mouth of a given horse" You can say the age (and value of it) counting the teeth, so you don't judge the value of a horse (or anything else) you receive as a gift. The problem is that in Italy Donato is also a name of a person . My father discovered it by his 50.. "i always wondered why this horse was called Donato and what was the meaning of it.. "
'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth' would be the english translation. Meaning pretty much the same.
Load More Replies... I used to think that the world was in black in white back in the day when I watched black and white tv shows and movies. Yeah my dad had to correct me on that.
I never knew until a few years ago (I'm currently 77) that black olives and green olives are the same fruit at different stages of ripening.
My father, who besides being an attentive husband is a brilliant man, nevertheless found out from me in his sixties, after over forty years of marriage, that a skirt and a dress are not the same thing. I take part of the blame, as I had spent my whole life wondering why he interchanged the terms and I never said anything.
Soooo it turns out that not all animals have genitalia and separate places for excretion and urination. Many have a single combined orifice for all these functions called a cloaca. I learned this the other day at the age of 36. To be fair, none of my friends knew either.
I have a great oh moment...I'm a girl and I was 16, and I'm at a family event. I'm around my grandmother, my aunt, and my mom when they started mentioning that my 7 year old cousin had wet the bed recently.. And I say, "oh, isn't he a little old for wet dreams?" Totally thought that was a phrase for wetting the bed. Everyone goes really quiet and they stare at me..then kind of start talking again after I have this total look of confusion on my face. I figured out what the term really meant soon after and boy am I embarrassed af...
Some Dutch stores.... I thought V&D and Vroom & Dreesman where two different stores. And only last year I realized about the store C&A - they sell different brands clothing. Canda is one of them. I only realized this year Canda is not Can-da, but C-and-a... Also, Hennes and Mauritz being the same as H&M. I don't trust abbreviations anymore...
Me age 8, singing along with my mum to Meatloafs bat out of hell, "cilla black found on a bike" my mum laughed hysterically, didn't tell me for another 4 years that it was in fact "silver black phantom bike".
Well, both Cilla Black (RIP) and Meatloaf were good performers...so, 2 out of 3 ain't bad...
Load More Replies... I was 25 when I learned that fleas aren’t just cartoon pests. Had a boyfriend over after moving to Seattle (from NW Montana, where we don’t have as many insect problems due to the winters) and he’s told me the cat had fleas. I didn’t believe him, but was embarrassed he thought my cat was dirty, so have him a bath. White short hair cat fur becomes see through when wet.....and that’s when I realized the thousand of black bugs that suddenly became visible weren’t from a cartoon. Burned all my furniture and shaved all my cats, totally traumatized. Likewise, I was 35 when I was talking with a co-worker, looked at something on the ceiling....and discovered cockroaches are also real and not just a made for TV bug... I’m a doctor.
I love Meatloaf, and always used to listen to and sing along to "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" growing up. I especially liked the Baseball announcer part. I thought the guy was playing baseball and the girl interrupts the game before he reaches home base. Then when I was 45, I was driving to work listening to the song on the radio, and I actually said out loud "He's talking about sex". Lol, I'm embarrassed to say I never clued in before that.
You can't consume fish with dairy products unitl i ate salmon with cream cheese
Religious dietary laws...I still eat it.
Load More Replies... 
