They say "There's no such thing as a stupid question." The phrase implies that the quest for knowledge includes failure and the fact that you know less than others must not prevent you from learning. But whether or not you think it's true, I think we can agree that sometimes people present their questions in such a funny way, you don't know if you should just laugh or answer them seriously.
Interested in these situations, Reddit user u/Yurtle_212 submitted the following question to the platform: "What was the stupidest thing someone has asked you 100% seriously?" And everyone immediately started replying with their stories. As of this article, the post has nearly 37K upvotes and 25K comments. Below are some of the best ones.
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The insurance company asked if there was a chance that my dad's amputated leg would grow back.
Of course. It's his secret power because he's half human, half salamander
Waited on a woman who asked me what kind of meat was in our beef taco salad.
Lady: what kind of meat is in your beef taco salad?
Me : Beef
L: what kind of beef?
Me: Beef, ground beef seasoned with taco seasoning.
L: No, I mean is it pork or chicken?
Me: Ma’am, it’s beef, it’s from a cow. It’s beef.
u/Yurtle_212 said they don't remember what exactly inspired them to make this post.
"Some people just don't think before they ask something, but I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing," the Redditor told Bored Panda.
"There definitely are stupid questions. But asking them doesn't make you stupid. [That is if we disregard the ones that are self-explanatory, like] 'What day of the week is Good Friday on?' or "What time is the 3 o'clock parade?'"
My 21 year old sister once asked my entire family at dinner if Nuns don’t have sex where do they get more nuns. That takes the cake for me.
I'm a postpartum nurse. A patient asked me "when will the doctor be here to pierce my nipples so I can breastfeed?"
Because I am a dwarf I get a lot of hilarious ones, but one of my favourites was "do you need to get a smaller engine for your car?"
I really wish I could have seen your internal process that led to that question, lady.
People visiting Alaska on a cruise would walk onto the dock-- a dock portruding into the pacific ocean-- then look up at the mountains and ask what elevation we were at.
1 foot, ma'am. You are standing on a dock which is at sea level.
It was me. I'm white, ended up dating a long time friend of mine, who is black.
We were talking about going to the beach the next day, and I mentioned that I needed to buy some sunscreen. GF tells me she has some, so no worries. I asked her why she had sunscreen.. She was puzzled, for a moment.
She then responded "Yes, black people get sunburned. Just because you haven't seen it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen."
And she was right, I just assumed, in all my whiteness, that black people didn't sunburn. She still makes fun of me for this. I am in my 30's..
Someone was placing an order once at my family’s restaurant, and they had asked me for a side of French fries without the potatoes. I assumed she was joking, so I laughed...she wasn’t joking. She got offended and left the restaurant
Do you think they're a little old to be lesbians?
When a lesbian reaches the age of 28, she lays her clutch of eggs. Her optic gland then starts secreting a hormone which triggers an intense mothering instinct. For the next year, she doesn't do anything except protect her eggs. She doesn't eat or sleep during this period, so her body slowly deteriorates. Finally, after a year, the eggs hatch, and out swim hundreds of baby lesbians. Then the mother lesbian dies.
The Scene: Meeting some new people in a college class.
I introduce myself, "Hi, I'm LoveIsLegallyBlind."
New classmate: "Don't you mean DifferentNameThatSoundsALittleLikeMine?"
Me: "No..."
He thinks it's time to double down. "Are you sure? Why not?"
Me: "Because that's not what my parents named me..."
Like what? Who corrects someone on their own name? I have a somewhat unusual name. People misspell it or mispronounce it all the time, but this was special.
My sister had a teacher constantly changing her name on her test's. He really thougt an 18 year old girl in Uni didn't know how to spell her own name...
My phone autocorrects my name to either Terrible or Teriyaki. Even technology can be ignorant.
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the number of times I get called Chris, Christie, or Christina. My name is legally Tina. My name is not Christina. How do I know? Well, I've been the one living my life for 41 years 🤣
My mother's name is Judy, the priest insisted on baptizing her Judith.
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I had an old boss tell me that I pronounced my last name wrong...she had learned Italian and decided she knew better than my family how to say my name...
I have it here in belgium really often. We spanish pronounce the V as a B. My first surname starts with a V, lets say it would be written Valeria and pronounced Baleria. Many people have corrected me "you mean Valeria". No I dont. I know how to f*****g pronounce my surname in my language thanks.
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My legal name is Nikki. On the 1st day of 9th grade, I got into an argument with my English teacher who insisted that “Everyone who goes by Nikki is legally named Nicole, and in this class we go by proper names, so you will answer to Nicole.” I tried to explain that this was not the case, and offered to show her my birth certificate and social security card to prove that legally, I'm a Nikki. She considered this ‘disruptive and argumentative’ and sent me to the principal’s office. I asked to be transferred to a different class, b/c I was not going to spend a year arguing about something I've known my entire life or getting demerits for not responding to a name that isn’t mine.
My Mum had the same problem from her first day at school. Her name is Rosetta but the teacher kept calling her Rose. NO ONE shortens my Mum's name! She was 4 and the first time said her name was not Rose but Rosetta. The teacher continued to call her Rose. My 4 year old Mum just ignored her and refused to acknowledge her or answer her if she didn't use Rosetta (which she didn't) The awful teacher sent my Mum to the Head. My Gran had to go to the school to sort it out. No teacher (or anyone else at school) ever called her anything but Rosetta from then on. As an adult she just refused to acknowledge anyone who called her anything but Rosetta, they soon learned 😂
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When I read out names of people I don't know I try to say them like they would be pronounced where that name is from. There have been a number of times the local and historical pronunciations are very different. So I have been wrong lots. The person whose name it is gets to pick the pronunciation they want.
For the last sentence alone, you deserve a dozen up votes. I worked for many years with a lady named Carolyn. There was another person who insisted on calling her Caroline and another who went with Carolina. Not a world shaking event, but disrespectful.
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I see this a lot. It's really lazy, like refusing to learn a new word if they already have one close enough. I think this is why so many people say stuff like 'expresso' or 'phantom' instead of 'fathom.'
English isn't even my native language and I can say fathom without it sounding like phantom.
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I get this ALL THE TIME! People automatically think Jennie is short for Jennifer...not for me! Then they ask, 'are you sure?' Like, bloody hell you're right! Thank you, I made it 40+ years without realizing my own bloody name....drives me nuts
Especially with that specific spelling too. Correct me if I'm wrong (and I more than likely am, knowing my luck) but I've never seen a shortened form of Jennifer spelled like that.
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But someone out there always knows it better thank you, donchya know? /s
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In elementary school I had a classmate named "Felina". The teacher always corrected her and said her name was Celina. The teacher thought Feli was lisping. 😂😂😂
I had a substitute teacher who refused to call me by my name. Insisted that it could only be a nickname and in her class she doesn't believe in nicknames. Called me by what she thought was my full name until I brought it up to the principal, when she got reprimanded, she stopped acknowledging me in class. I was in the 2nd grade. Seriously, why would someone ever think it's OK to do this to kid?
Awhile ago my dad and I worked at the same place. He was helping one of the managers input employee names into a new computer system. They got to my name and the manager started telling my dad that he was spelling my name wrong. My dad pointed out that he had named me and that was mostly it. Originally, my name had been spelled incorrectly in our older system and email. It had been semi-corrected at one point where it usually displayed correctly but sometimes it could still show with the old incorrect spelling.
Hey, I've had people randomly question what my ethnicity is...then question my answer repeatedly. As if I'm not sure.
It's like people calling you because they have the wrong number (whatever the reason) and getting mad at you.
That annoys me soo much! They don't get that the most logical possibilities are: they misdialed, they wrote it down wrong, or someone gave them the wrong number. I don't have to tell them my number or my name, goodbye.
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Don't feel alone, my brother is a top scientist and major scientific institutes keep spelling his name wrong dispite his repeatedly correcting them; The aventurous Dr Laurance R. Doyle.
I once had someone who was not a native Portuguese speaker inform me I was pronouncing some of my names wrong. (No, they weren't American, they were English - all y'all had to get your audacity from somewhere! 😉)
people sometimes wont believe me when i tell them my name isnt short for anything
Something similar happened to me once but it was bc the other person had a name from my country which she Americanized so people could say it. I've done the same thing otherwise you have to spend 30 minutes having a convo on how to pronounce your name. It was a bit weird getting corrected by white people on a name from my country
I would’ve been intrigued and curious. Your goal is to judge and hate. Who would do that? A bitter ass woman. See, it doesn’t help the situation.
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All I had to deal with was people either saying my name wrong or calling me my sister's name.
I once argued with a couple of people about how my name should be spelled. I am female and have a name that is typically given to males. However, my name is most definitely NOT a name that should/could logically be spelled differently just because I'm female. The people I was arguing with didn't say that my name SHOULD be altered because of my sex, but that I WAS WRONG when I told them how my name is spelled (They approached and asked me, that's how this argument started). I wanted so badly to prove them wrong by busting out my birth certificate or something, but you can't fix stupid. Like, they didn't think for one second that my own parents, who NAMED ME, would've corrected me if I was spelling my own name wrong?
I always have to spell out my name since there's about 10 different versions of it: with a K or C at the beginning... 'ine', 'iene', 'ien', 'ina', 'iena' at the end... but during high school I had the biggest problem with the fact that most teachers called me by my older sister's name (entirely different name, even by teachers who'd never taught me, weirdest by the teachers who'd never taught my sister!!!)... I ignored them until they spoke my name... my mom got a heck of a lot of complaints about me "being rude", in turn she told them that they were the rude ones by insisting to calling me by my sister's name... (I had the highest respect for one teacher, she taught us both, me first and my sister the hour after my class, and we sat at the same table! never in all those years she used the wrong name for either of us...)
My daughter's teacher marked her friend's name as misspelled on a paper, my daughter wasn't much of a speller but she knew how her friend's name was spelled!
My name is Peta ,pronounced exactly the same way as the male version "Peter".I can't count the number of times someone has told me is "actually pronounced "Pett-Ah"...Well I've been PETA for 54 years so, yeah /nah. I also have people (usually Americans) who assume that I am an animal rights activist and it's an assumed name...Nope, just my name.
I met a girl whose parents named her "Gimel" -- that's the spelling of a Hebrew letter -- and who was upset when I asked her about it, because it was apparently pronounced "Ja-mell"... No. No it isn't, not at first glance.
I thought my name was easy. Yeah, easy to screw up constantly. I, too, have had folx ask me if I'm sure. Man, if I don't know my own name by now, I jumping off a bridge.
Yeah, had this all my childhood. Yes, my parents named me something USUALLY used as a nickname for a longer pretty girls' name. No, I'm sure that I know my own name. I fought with teachers for 13 years (we are counting Kindergarten). People, most 4 year olds, coming up on 5, do know their names. But absolutely, sure as the sun shines, a 17 year old knows. Step down!
I have a name that can literally only be spelled one way. Trust me after this conversation I looked into it. One day I'm on the phone, and they say " Ok what's your name?" "(birth name)" "Ok (repeats name so I know she heard it correctly) how do you spell it?" I was literally flabbergasted into stuttering. "ummm seriously?.... com...mon spelling?"
I've had someone tell me that by name isn't actually just Abby, it's Abigail. They were a perfect stranger, and also completely convinced.
I was so confused... I thought that there name REALLY WAS LoveIsLegallyBlind, like IRL
My name is Jesika. People all the time ask me if I’m sure that’s how it’s spelled.
This happens to my mom all the time. She has credit cards with her name misspelled because they clearly didn't think she knew how to spell her own f*****g name.
I live in France, and my name comes from a local language that is not French. The name has a French spelling version that sound the same but that is spelled differently because the spelling in the original language would sounds like something different if it were read as a French word. From the very first day I started school and still today, people are constantly telling me I don't know how to write (or pronounce) my own name. And even when you spell it to them several times, they still try to correct it to something else, and that's how I ended up with electricity bills that I can't use to prove I live where I live because that's not my name on the bill.
Strangely enough I have dealt with this first hand and heard of it happening quite a bit.
Thankfully, random spelling variations seems to have faded somewhat. To me, it's cool if you want to have a traditional spelling vs. an Anglicized spelling ("Sean" vs. "Shawn"), but I'm sorry, I'm always gonna think your parents are a little lame if you tell me your name is "Dahnna with an 'A H' instead of an 'O'." On the other hand, even my last name is perfectly phonetical, and I ALWAYS have to spell it for people and they STILL get it completely wrong. Apparently, no-one can believe that "Marsh" has no "C" in it. Seriously, is "March" such a common name?
Personally I would have changed my name as soon as I could, Probably in Kindergarten!
8 year olds shouldn't count but I had a bf with an 8 year old sister who loved the Spice Girls. I wasn't a fan and didn't know their names but she kept referring Eema as her favorite. I looked it up online and it turns out she's talking about Baby Spice who's name is Emma. Kid had never heard the name pronounced I guess and so I told her, no it's Emma and even had her listen to a voice recording from the fansite of her saying her name, but the kid insisted she liked Eema better. I don't know if she ever corrected herself.
While ordering online at second hand websites people ask me like 90% if I spelled my name correctly...
Happend to my family, because apparantly our last name is written with an ß instead of ss. That was our name for 3 years.
*when people hear my southern accent they ask where I’m from.. I say VIRGINIA. and it never fails literally everyone will either ask (cause I currently live in Minnesota) if I mean VIRGINIA, MINNESOTA (city of Virginia) or they ask if I mean WEST VIRGINIA (a completely different State) as if I would say Virginia when I meant WEST Virginia.. or a person from the city of Virginia in Minnesota way far up north where there is nary a southern accent and literally everyone sounds Canadian or Nordic? It’s a pretty stupid question but literally everyone always ask it.
I’ve had some experience with spelling problems. I have what I believe is the American spelling of my name so I’ve had all sorts of variations. Abbey. Abbie and Abi were the most common. I also once had someone write down Abigail and looked confused when I said it’s just Abby, not short for anything. My favourite though was my stepmums grandma. She was quite old and once spelt my name Abbee 😂
This is why it's not allowed in my country to name your child just anything that goes through your mind. Like lamp shade or I'msostupidithurts. It's to protect a child from exactly this scenario.
My daughter is 29, people have been mispronouncing her name for 28 years, now they ask her if I named her after the vice president 🙄
I can see people thinking this was a joke. It's more than somewhat unusual.
I have a weird ethical name as well. Only been pronounced properly a couple times by strangers in 40 years. This post is annoying, people get confused. My name is ZhXinWeR, that’s confusing to you? I’m offended.
Wait...now I read my comment and I'm thinking"crappit, did I just inadvertently offend them?" I hope not...
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People always spell my name wrong when they haven't seen it before because mine's spelled differently than usual.
I have a friend who I have had to correct. She has a long French name, and isn't very good at spelling. She's a brilliant person, but she can't always spell her last name.
I was asked how far the luggage plane usually flies behind the passenger plane. The person who asked me went to an Ivy league medical school.
While working as a butcher, I showed a deli clerk how to break down a whole chicken into pieces. I show her, "two breasts, two wings, two legs, two thighs." she looks at me and asks, "which part does the turkey come from?"
If it was possible to even land a plane on Japan because it's so small.
Because, you know, maps are a 1:1 description of the world
"What time is the 3 O'clock parade?"
I worked at Disney World. This is the #1 most common question you'll get asked as a Cast Member in the Magic Kingdom.
First day working a tech support job, I answer a phone call from a woman whose laptop won't turn on. She's at the airport trying to get some work done and is very frustrated because she had been working for several hours during a layover and the laptop suddenly shut off. I asked her if she had the laptop plugged in when it shut off, or if she was just running it on the battery. "It can be plugged in? I thought it was supposed to be wireless."
I honestly thought I was being pranked because I was the new guy. After a lengthy pause to decide if this was a serious call, I advised her to try plugging it in. Laptop turned on, she was amazed that it didn't just recharge itself when she wasn't using it.
Why did she bring a charger if she didn't think it needs charging? Doesn't add up.
“Do we have the ability to open digital files?”
This is the guy who would print PDFs from our server then scan the print to his email so he could save them to his desktop...
In high school, we were warming up before a baseball game one evening and some really ominous ,dark clouds started rolling in. One of my teammates very seriously asked “Is that a storm or is that just night coming?”. I will never forget that.
Not me, but our safari guide in South Africa said he once heard a woman ask her husband, “Honey, is that the same moon we see in Texas?”
For context, I work in a phone shop.
Customer: What is this? (Hands me his bill)
Me: This is your bill.
Customer: But I already paid it.
Me: Well then, don't worry about it.
Customer: No, I mean I paid it last month.
Me: Oh, this is just your second bill then.
Customer: BUT I ALREADY PAID IT!
Me: Last month's bill, yes. This is your next bill.
Customer: YOU MEAN THEY KEEP SENDING THESE EVERY MONTH?
Me: ... yes ... that's what a phone contract is. You signed a contract for 2 years didn't you?
Customer: Yeah.
Me: So you will get a bill each month for 2 years then.
Customer: WHAT A RIP OFF!!!
He legit thought he would only get a single $90 bill for his brand new iPhone over the entire 2 years of his contract...
Might be first time paying own bills, imagine when he finds out electricity and water aren’t free
Was a Mac Genius for 7 years, customer asked if her iPod would get heavier as she puts more music on it.
What day of the week is good Friday on?
Do you mean what date?
No, what day of the week. It was on a Thursday last year.
No
I work in a toll booth and was working on the westbound side. A lady drove up to my booth really mad, which is par for the course but I digress. She told me that every day she takes this route home from work, and every. single. day. the sun is directly in her eyes... Well of course, shes driving westbound at 6 pm. When I mentioned this she brushed it off and asked "well can't you change the direction of the road or at least put a cover over it?! I can't be the only person who is bothered by this!"
I am an identical twin and one time a girl asked me if we get each other confused.
Legitimate question regarding photos. Who knows with baby photos?
My grandpa left my place, immediately called me to ask if he left his cell phone at my place.
"How are you talking to me?"
".........bye."
It’s cute, he gets a pass, like looking for your glasses that’s on your head or face already
I live in a high-altitude town in the mountains. Every week, I hear this question:
"At what elevation do the deer turn into elk?"
WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE THINK THIS!? WHY!?
I was at my cottage looking at the stars at night with a friend and she turned to me and asked: "are there countries in the sky?" I didn't know what she meant so I asked her to explain and then she said: "Well, are there any countries in the world that are just kind of, in the sky?" I was so confused that I just sat there in silence but eventually she says "I mean, is there land on the earth in the sky where people live that are countries?" At that point I just gave up and said "no" and she replied "oh, okay" so reassuringly
I had a classmate from the big city. At a school trip we went outside at night. She was surprised to see stars. She thought it was special effects in movies and ig pictures to make it look less dark.
Work in retail. Guy comes in. He looks pretty average. Has a nice suit, nice glasses, well kept hair. Above average I guess.
He's looking for a particular stock pot that the store carries and I bring him over to where they're kept.
He begins to stare at the box, a deeply troubled look emerges slowly on his face as he places his hand on his chin.
The box art depicts the pot in use, with some photoshopped water and a corn cob bobbing out of it (this is relevant, trust me).
After about 10 seconds of him staring perplexedly at the box I ask, "Anything else I can help you with?"
He replies, sounding confused, "So... this thing can only be used to cook corn?"
I stared blankly at him. Was he fucking with me? His vexed demeanor told me no, he was indeed concerned about the product's potentially limited use.
I honestly have no idea how long I was speechless. It felt like minutes. I couldn't speak. No one is that dumb, right?
He eventually says, "It's ok, I'll figure it out from here", and continued to gaze at the box in hopes of gleaning the answers to the troubles he had encountered.
A girlfriend of a friend of mine asked. “ I wonder what it was like before color”. This chick thought the WORLD WAS BLACK AND WHITE not film.
Working for a rafting company I’m asked far too often at the end of the float if we are back at the start. Rivers don’t flow in god damn circles!
There ARE rafting rides in amusement parks where people are taken around in almost a complete circle, with MASSIVE water pumps to recirculate the water and belts to take the raft back uphill.
My current boss asked me to "make the pages smaller" so she can see all of them" she had excel zoomed in to 200% and thought I was just sending things in font 46. This person has been in her position for 12 years. Ugh.
My old boss got upset with me, as the spreadsheet I sent him didn't have all the data on it that I had assured him it had. I then had to teach him to scroll down. He did the same thing a week later
I worked in a pizza restaurant when I was 16. They had a pizza they called a UFO pizza. It was just another slab of dough on top of a regular pizza, and it made it look like an orb, hence the name.
One day a guy that worked there was writing down a telephone order, turns around and says "hey guys, how do you spell UFO??" The owner looked mortified and just repeated "youuu eefff ohhh!!". He stared back in silence for a few moments before it hit him.
My twenty-something daughter asked why we never see squirrel eggs. Us parent types responded that's because squirrels are mammals and don't lay eggs like birds do. To which she responded, then show me an infant squirrel / "breastfeeding" squirrel.
This led to a conversation that was much longer than needed to be.
A woman asked me if gorilla glue was made from real gorillas. I laughed at first, but she was serious. She told me she was vegan and wouldn't use the product if it was made with real gorillas.
Had a lady insist that "the lights outside that you don't plug in and don't have batteries" were not solar lights. She got furious when she asked two more employees who both said solar lights. She then described the solar panel on top of those decorative garden lights, and demanded a manager. Who also told her solar lights.
Yes- she meant solar lights. She came back later, clearly embarrassed and bought some.
Literally had a guy ask me yesterday “if I hit the cash back button, does the money come out of my account?”
Dude was like 30 and he thought cash back was just...free money I guess?
People waking other people and asking if they were sleeping. Widespread stupidity this.
Coworker woke me up at 8 this morning to tell me to enjoy my day off. >.<
I have a buzz cut. A guy at work recently asked, dead seriously “Do you cut your hair? Or does it only grow that long?”
In 8th grade science class, the girl sitting next to me asked - “How do we get into outer space if we have to break through the Earth’s crust?”
She thought we lived in the mantle.
Note: this post originally had 75 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
Dumbest question I've ever heard in my life: "How can you believe in Covid?".... Well, see, I don't believe in it. I KNOW IT EXISTS. Like rocks. Nobody asks if I believe in rocks.
This reminds me of a pun I saw, something like; 'light travels faster than sound, so some people seem pretty bright until they speak
Not my story but we had a new forklift driver start. The supervisor comes into the office looking struck dumb. Tells me that he was having a conversation with the new guy about how windy it was. New guy says yeh that's weird there are hardly any trees around. Supervisor says why does that matter? New guy says it's the swaying of the leaves that creates wind.
He must have watched "Arthur" growing up. Something I've always remembered is that DW, Arthur's sister, said that's how wind formed. I knew it was dumb when I was a child.
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I once had to explain to my Human Resources manager that the USA and England were at war with each other, twice. She is American, born and raised in Mississippi, and didn't know this. I asked her why she thinks we celebrate the 4th of July and she said "I thought it was a celebration of the USA, with fireworks". Well, technically she wasn't wrong about that part. I would think someone born and raised in the USA, with a college degree, would know this.
Everyone born and raised in USA with a college degree should know this! Sadly there are those who do not.
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Had a classmate in 8th grade tell me that North is always in front of you.
At the beginning of a year in University, on a class trip riding camels through the desert with the Bedouin. Professor is on the lead camel, and asks the Bedouin if they "milk the male camels as well as th females? Because it seems to him that they could get more milk that way". 🤦🤦
There was once a ridiculous headline that a B17 bomber had been found on the moon and a co-worker believed it. I told him that it was ludicrous for so many reasons and they had just pasted a picture of the plane onto the moon. He was incredulous and asked, "How would they get that picture to the moon?"
I once tried to explain the concept of "miles per hour" to a 30yo friend. She was unable to grasp the relationship between velocity, distance, and time no matter how many different ways I tried to explain. I finally gave up.
I was once in the cafe in a large bookstore around the holidays. I ordered a hot chocolate to sit and drink while reading. The barista asked me if I wanted a gift receipt.
Poor barista was probably on autopilot. I've done a fair amount of call center work, and have been known to answer my home phone with my work greeting. There was also the time I was going through McDonald's drive-through, told the nice employee what I wanted and added "this is to go". We both laughed at that one.
Load More Replies... Happened to my bf who went to HS with me. A girl in his history class was shocked to learn that America was a democracy. Her words were "We are not communism?" WUT?
At a previous job, I once asked how long I needed to wait before sending the 'ten day letter'. I felt a complete twit. On the plus side, did have a girl at the same job ask me how they turned trains round at the end of the line if not by a huge crane... bless her! :D
Ngl, I'd have done that first one. Is it ten calendar days or ten business/working days?
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A third year university student who wanted to become a law and policy maker pointed to the moon (it was still daylight, early summer evening in North America for context) and asked if it was the moon or sun. Friend responded that it was the moon. Student replied oh thanks, I am never sure which is which. English is her only language
I used to do remedial teaching at a US high school. I think one of the saddest realizations of the quality of education there was when I was helping a girl learn about circumnavigation and why it was such a risk and an adventure (she didn't understand that we didn't always know where everywhere in the world was). But she was really baffled by having to take barrels and barrels of water onto the ships. "Like, that's so dumb when they're literally surrounded by water." I had to explain that 1/ sea is saltwater and 2/you cannot drink saltwater or you will die pretty quickly. She didn't understand about scurvy. She didn't understand any of it. Fortunately, after two hours with me, she understood all of it, so she was more than capable, but she had had such rubbish teaching, that it meant nothing to her.
Pretty sure nost kids don't know about scurvy.
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My sister when she was around 15-16 thought that if a kid under the age of 2 gets their finger cut off it will grow back. Why the cut off is at 2 years old I just don’t know. This is the same girl who tried to wax her bikini area with hot candlewax being dripped on it then cooled for a few minutes and then ripped off. She still has scars from the burning wax around her crotch. This was in the 90’s.
Your poor sister! That sounds so painful! I wish she'd had someone to talk to about it or help her, but maybe bikini waxing was too taboo.
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I could do one of these lists by myself, having worked in a range of IT positions. The most aggravating was the woman who came into our PC store to ask about video cards for her son. The guy she asked pointed me out. She came up and said "I asked that guy who was the video card expert, but he didn't seem to know, because he pointed at you." I took a moment before saying "I'm the expert". Sexist cow.
Coworker's neutered male cat had chronic urinary tract blockages, and the vet performed a surgery commonly done in such cases. Unfortunately (and not particularly accurately) the vet described this procedure as "turning him into a girl." Coworker asked me, in all seriousness, if she would have to get him spayed. We both taught college.
I knew a girl in probably 7th grade - I was in 8th - who insisted that she’d never learned the months of the year in order. I didn’t believe her and I was quite frankly insulted that she thought I would. She told me she had been sick from school that week or whatever.
Mine. Texas again. I was admitting a patient into Day Surgery. After 10 years in Texas most people couldn't place my accent and so would ask me where I'm from. The patient asked me: Patient: Where are you from? Me: Canada Patient: What part? Me: Toronto. Patient: Well I have a friend in Calgary by the name of "X". Do you know him? Me: Somewhat of a silence. Then....Sir, you know where Montana is right? Patient: Yes. Me: Do you know where Buffalo NY is? Patient: Yes. Me: Calgary is directly north of Montana and Toronto is directly north of Buffalo. Patient: Oh. So I guess you don't know him then. Me: No. I don't. (In my head 🙄)
Got into an argument with a personal trainer once because he said a pond if muscle weighs more than a pound of fat. He never did catch on. GEEZ
My Boss, was asked, (more than once) "If his Boy-Girl twins were Identical?"
Asked a new employee how they spelled their name. After he spelled it I said, “oh it’s phonetic”, he said, “no it’s German”. My eyes darted around the room quickly to see if anyone else had heard this exchange and my eye caught my friend in the sales office smirking and trying not to laugh.
Funny, yes. Sad, yes. It really is difficult to find out how so many people know so little.
I once had a brain fart when I found out a local police officer only has one leg. “But he cycles?” 🤣 for context, there was some sort of protest going on and the people were on a roof or something. I asked my boss if the officer would be going and he said doubtful since he only has one leg.
Dumbest question I've ever heard in my life: "How can you believe in Covid?".... Well, see, I don't believe in it. I KNOW IT EXISTS. Like rocks. Nobody asks if I believe in rocks.
This reminds me of a pun I saw, something like; 'light travels faster than sound, so some people seem pretty bright until they speak
Not my story but we had a new forklift driver start. The supervisor comes into the office looking struck dumb. Tells me that he was having a conversation with the new guy about how windy it was. New guy says yeh that's weird there are hardly any trees around. Supervisor says why does that matter? New guy says it's the swaying of the leaves that creates wind.
He must have watched "Arthur" growing up. Something I've always remembered is that DW, Arthur's sister, said that's how wind formed. I knew it was dumb when I was a child.
Load More Replies... I once had to explain to my Human Resources manager that the USA and England were at war with each other, twice. She is American, born and raised in Mississippi, and didn't know this. I asked her why she thinks we celebrate the 4th of July and she said "I thought it was a celebration of the USA, with fireworks". Well, technically she wasn't wrong about that part. I would think someone born and raised in the USA, with a college degree, would know this.
Everyone born and raised in USA with a college degree should know this! Sadly there are those who do not.
Load More Replies... Had a classmate in 8th grade tell me that North is always in front of you.
At the beginning of a year in University, on a class trip riding camels through the desert with the Bedouin. Professor is on the lead camel, and asks the Bedouin if they "milk the male camels as well as th females? Because it seems to him that they could get more milk that way". 🤦🤦
There was once a ridiculous headline that a B17 bomber had been found on the moon and a co-worker believed it. I told him that it was ludicrous for so many reasons and they had just pasted a picture of the plane onto the moon. He was incredulous and asked, "How would they get that picture to the moon?"
I once tried to explain the concept of "miles per hour" to a 30yo friend. She was unable to grasp the relationship between velocity, distance, and time no matter how many different ways I tried to explain. I finally gave up.
I was once in the cafe in a large bookstore around the holidays. I ordered a hot chocolate to sit and drink while reading. The barista asked me if I wanted a gift receipt.
Poor barista was probably on autopilot. I've done a fair amount of call center work, and have been known to answer my home phone with my work greeting. There was also the time I was going through McDonald's drive-through, told the nice employee what I wanted and added "this is to go". We both laughed at that one.
Load More Replies... Happened to my bf who went to HS with me. A girl in his history class was shocked to learn that America was a democracy. Her words were "We are not communism?" WUT?
At a previous job, I once asked how long I needed to wait before sending the 'ten day letter'. I felt a complete twit. On the plus side, did have a girl at the same job ask me how they turned trains round at the end of the line if not by a huge crane... bless her! :D
Ngl, I'd have done that first one. Is it ten calendar days or ten business/working days?
Load More Replies... A third year university student who wanted to become a law and policy maker pointed to the moon (it was still daylight, early summer evening in North America for context) and asked if it was the moon or sun. Friend responded that it was the moon. Student replied oh thanks, I am never sure which is which. English is her only language
I used to do remedial teaching at a US high school. I think one of the saddest realizations of the quality of education there was when I was helping a girl learn about circumnavigation and why it was such a risk and an adventure (she didn't understand that we didn't always know where everywhere in the world was). But she was really baffled by having to take barrels and barrels of water onto the ships. "Like, that's so dumb when they're literally surrounded by water." I had to explain that 1/ sea is saltwater and 2/you cannot drink saltwater or you will die pretty quickly. She didn't understand about scurvy. She didn't understand any of it. Fortunately, after two hours with me, she understood all of it, so she was more than capable, but she had had such rubbish teaching, that it meant nothing to her.
Pretty sure nost kids don't know about scurvy.
Load More Replies... My sister when she was around 15-16 thought that if a kid under the age of 2 gets their finger cut off it will grow back. Why the cut off is at 2 years old I just don’t know. This is the same girl who tried to wax her bikini area with hot candlewax being dripped on it then cooled for a few minutes and then ripped off. She still has scars from the burning wax around her crotch. This was in the 90’s.
Your poor sister! That sounds so painful! I wish she'd had someone to talk to about it or help her, but maybe bikini waxing was too taboo.
Load More Replies... I could do one of these lists by myself, having worked in a range of IT positions. The most aggravating was the woman who came into our PC store to ask about video cards for her son. The guy she asked pointed me out. She came up and said "I asked that guy who was the video card expert, but he didn't seem to know, because he pointed at you." I took a moment before saying "I'm the expert". Sexist cow.
Coworker's neutered male cat had chronic urinary tract blockages, and the vet performed a surgery commonly done in such cases. Unfortunately (and not particularly accurately) the vet described this procedure as "turning him into a girl." Coworker asked me, in all seriousness, if she would have to get him spayed. We both taught college.
I knew a girl in probably 7th grade - I was in 8th - who insisted that she’d never learned the months of the year in order. I didn’t believe her and I was quite frankly insulted that she thought I would. She told me she had been sick from school that week or whatever.
Mine. Texas again. I was admitting a patient into Day Surgery. After 10 years in Texas most people couldn't place my accent and so would ask me where I'm from. The patient asked me: Patient: Where are you from? Me: Canada Patient: What part? Me: Toronto. Patient: Well I have a friend in Calgary by the name of "X". Do you know him? Me: Somewhat of a silence. Then....Sir, you know where Montana is right? Patient: Yes. Me: Do you know where Buffalo NY is? Patient: Yes. Me: Calgary is directly north of Montana and Toronto is directly north of Buffalo. Patient: Oh. So I guess you don't know him then. Me: No. I don't. (In my head 🙄)
Got into an argument with a personal trainer once because he said a pond if muscle weighs more than a pound of fat. He never did catch on. GEEZ
My Boss, was asked, (more than once) "If his Boy-Girl twins were Identical?"
Asked a new employee how they spelled their name. After he spelled it I said, “oh it’s phonetic”, he said, “no it’s German”. My eyes darted around the room quickly to see if anyone else had heard this exchange and my eye caught my friend in the sales office smirking and trying not to laugh.
Funny, yes. Sad, yes. It really is difficult to find out how so many people know so little.
I once had a brain fart when I found out a local police officer only has one leg. “But he cycles?” 🤣 for context, there was some sort of protest going on and the people were on a roof or something. I asked my boss if the officer would be going and he said doubtful since he only has one leg.
