7 Random Things About Me - Meme
Lillie Ammann at A Writer’s Words An Editor’s Eye and Mary Emma Allen at Home Biz Notes have asked me to share 7 random things about myself.
1. Words? Yes. Equations? No! I’m no good at Maths. I’m one of those people they’re referring to when they say there are three types of people in the world… those who can count and those who can’t.
2. Not sure how creative or weird it is but I can read upside without any problem at all… from years of teaching I suppose…
The only real use I’ve ever had for this particular “talent” is when a real estate guy was trying to scam us and I could read his notes upside down… hence no deal… maybe it will come in useful with agents and contracts ??
3. Teaching and marking hand written assignments also gave me the dubious ability to decipher almost anyone’s handwriting no matter how bad… even doctors’ prescriptions…
4. I remember almost every face I’ve ever seen on televison and where I’ve seen them before… strange… as I don’t watch a lot of television…maybe that’s why I remember…
5. I am Aussie and have lived in New Zealand too. I love!! to travel with my husband, and am very keen to do a home exchange almost anywhere in the world.
6. I am a native English speaker, but would really like to relearn Dutch, a language I grew up with. I have also taught basic Indonesian. I later became an English language consultant.
7. My favorite chocolate is Turkish Delight - Feel free to make a note of that 
As most bloggers I know have already been tagged for this meme or a variation of it, I’m not tagging anyone. Feel free to run with it on your blog, if you haven’t participated yet.
2. Not sure how creative or weird it is but I can read upside without any problem at all…
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Would love to have above feature for myself and you know Indonesians eh? That’s one of the funniest language I have ever heard of (thanks to differences in meaning between Malay Malaysian language and Indonesian language)
One of it is:
(Indonesian) Pantat = back (e.g back of the car)
(Malaysia Malay) Pantat = asshole (need example?
LOL. :p
Hi John - My Indonesian is pretty rusty these days and basic at best, but I really like the sound of the language. I have only been to Malaysia briefly and don’t know Malay, but I did notice some similarity. I usually home in on the food words first.
I agree that you can get into trouble with any language. Even in English, there are differences between Australian, UK and American English.
As for being able to read upside down… I still haven’t come up with a good way to use this particular “talent”. LOL.
Hi Yvonne,
Thanks for participating in this meme. It was fun to learn these interesting facts about you.
Interesting list! The ability to read upside down sounds like a most useful talent. I certainly envy you for being bilingual. I’m miles away from that — I had four years of high school French and all I got from it was the ability to read it a little bit.
Mary Emma - Thanks for the tag. It was interesting to do.
Laura - I wouldn’t say I was bilingual. I was when I was very small. I was surprised when I went to Holland a few years ago that I could still understand it and even make myself understood (a bit). It all seemed to come back to me. That’s what gave me the motivation to relearn it. I can still read it reasonably well, but speaking it is harder.
I did five years of French and found it came in handy in France, even though it was only a few words here and there. Of course, a lot of miming and generally making a fool of myself was involved as well.
That’s all part of the experience. If you go to France or a French speaking country, I think you would be surprised at how much you remember when you are actually immersed in the language.
Like you I admire people who can speak more than one language. Often non native English speakers have a better grasp of vocabulary than many native English speakers.
Thanks for participating, Yvonne. I enjoyed reading your seven random things. I admire your ability to speak other languages, even if you don’t consider yourself bilingual. I grew up in south Texas, where Spanish is spoken as frequently as English, and took two years of Spanish in college, and I still can’t communicate in Spanish.
Lillie - Thanks for the tag. I enjoy having a try when I’m traveling and I think the locals appreciate it. I believe Spanish is one of the world’s fastest growing languages. Can you understand Spanish?
What a cool list. I like the reading upside down part a lot.
If you love to travel, when do you plan visiting Germany?
Hi Mig
I was there 2 years ago, so it will have to wait a bit longer unless I win what we call gold lotto in Australia (sweepstakes?)
Great to read that you love to travel and would like to do a home exchange. Well come on over to the UK - lots of Aussies do home swaps here! As my home exchange agency is based in London we have lots of lovely exchange offers throughout the UK and almost everywhere else too! I publish a blog about home exchange and hope you will visit: http://homeexchangetravel.blogs.com
Cheers!
Hello Yvonne,
Talk about a “blast from the past”. And as part of the blast I’ll remind you and reveal to the world where your skill in reading upside down came from … do you remember high school maths classes during which you would practise writing upside down? Which then raises the chicken or the egg question with regard to your ability with maths? Did you practise writing upside down because you didn’t like/understand maths? Or are you not good at maths because you practised writing upside down? I look forward to hearing from you again if you’d like to contact me. Best wishes, Toni
Hi Toni
Wow! What a wonderful surprise to see you here. Isn’t the internet wonderful!
Yes, I’d definitely like to catch up. I’ll be in touch.
Jul 25th, 2007 at 10:05 am
[…] excuse for more than ten is that I was enjoying the walk down memory lane. Besides if you read my 7 Random Things About Me post, you’ll see that #1 is I can’t […]