I can't believe people don't know that?

I'm not a snob, but sometimes I am shocked at some peoples lack of knowledge. I wouldn't laughingly point it out though.

One younger girl I worked with arrived late because there was a traffic jam and 'they were all driving so slow?' They all turned off at the cemetery road. I had to explain to her what a procession was, and that she couldn't pass the slow cars out of respect, and also that they wouldn't stop at normal stop signs. She just hadn't experienced it before, so didn't know.

This is the same young woman who has a handbag with the Playboy logo all over it. I wonder if she knows what it signifies, or just thing they are cute bunnies? I haven't, and won't ask.

I'm Canadian, and have had the difference between Great Britain and the United Kingdom explained to me a few times, but I'm not sure I've got it right.

But I have used different currencies in places. I’ve used sterling (cash) in India.

Thank you. I have genuinely learnt something. We are so use to seeing images in books with all the planets in a neat row, you forget they are all circling the sun at different rates.

And buffalo’s don’t have wings!

I don’t say this to people, but doesn’t mean I don’t think it. No I don’t think I’m superior, I’m of very average intelligence, but sometimes it’s basic, basic stuff that you wonder how someone has gone their whole lives not knowing.

Im talking about things like prunes being dried plums, raisins being dried grapes, that crab sticks are not made from real crab, that fajita is pronounced faa-hee-tah, not vag-it-taa, and many more! Some non-food related things too! Like how to pronounce pot pourri, that Sherlock Holmes was not a real flesh and blood man. Can anyone think of any more?

Anyway I have my duh moments too. Just as a disclaimer.

I agree. We’ve all got different knowledge about different things

I don’t get involved in conversations about films at work any more because I got sick of people saying “Whaaaaaat? What do you mean you’ve never heard of <insert name>? You haaaaaaave! You must haaaaaave!” No I bloody haven’t and I’m not having you try to make me feel as if I’m thick!

I don’t say this to people, but doesn’t mean I don’t think it. No I don’t think I’m superior, I’m of very average intelligence, but sometimes it’s basic, basic stuff that you wonder how someone has gone their whole lives not knowing.

Im talking about things like prunes being dried plums, raisins being dried grapes, that crab sticks are not made from real crab, that fajita is pronounced faa-hee-tah, not vag-it-taa, and many more! Some non-food related things too! Like how to pronounce pot pourri, that Sherlock Holmes was not a real flesh and blood man. Can anyone think of any more?

Anyway I have my duh moments too. Just as a disclaimer.

Grr, I want a Lego Milky Way now (but not at that price).

If anyone says 'You don't even know the nearest planet to earth?' you could always tell them it depends on the date and you don't have time to calculate it right now (it does, it could be Mercury, Venus or Mars, depending on where they are in their orbits).

I often wish there was a "like" button on here.

I often wish there was a "like" button on here.

"I hate to tell you this, but fish don't have fingers"

Fish don't have fingers?? Next you are going to tell me that chickens don't have balls.

I have to admit I’m guilty of saying “How can you not know this?!” In genuine astonishment to my 41 year old best friend. Sometimes I can’t get my head round things she says she doesn’t know or hasn’t heard of. Some examples:

After watching the film threads she didn’t know what nuclear weapons and radiation poisoning were. She also claimed she had never heard of the Cold War. When I was gobsmacked she called up her 39 year old sister to see if she’d heard of it - her sister said she hadn’t either.

She knew absolutely nothing about WW2, not just the reasons it started but she also hadn’t heard of pearl harbour, the atomic bombs being dropped, the D - day landings or that children were evacuated. She had heard of Anne Frank and said “she was someone who wrote a book in the war” and had heard of Winston Churchill but had no idea he was prime minister or his role in the war.

She also had no idea that humans were relatively modern and that we had evolved from ancestors of a different species and had never heard the word Neanderthal. She thought dinosaurs were around at the same time as humans and dragons were a type of dinosaur and is clueless about basically any kind of natural history or basic knowledge of astronomy.

Foods she’d never heard of include: paella, star fruit, guacamole, clams, guinea fowl, foie gras and sea bass.. the list is endless. She is a very picky eater who can only cook basic meals and will only eat out at a fast food place or have a basic pub meal but I still expected her to at least know what things are and recognise them. On her last holiday she argued that she’d been served the wrong thing when her cod came without being battered and deep fried, she kept saying she hadn’t ordered the weird looking fish and it wasn’t cod 😂.

Other basic things she claimed she’d never been taught or learned are that insects have 6 legs, wine is made from grapes, what halal meat is, that the sun is a star, the difference between oceans and seas and she thought the North Pole was made up and just a fictional place Father Christmas was from.

I feel like we have at least one conversation every time we meet up with her looking at me blankly and not knowing what I’m talking about, last week she had never heard of asbestos. I don’t know how she gets through life but she said if something doesn’t interest her then she just forgets it or doesn’t listen, she will never google anything because she hasn’t got the patience to look it up, she usually phones me and asks me to give a very brief explanation. On our last phone call she wanted to know the difference between a best before date and a sell by date and if the bread 2 days past the best before date was safe to eat.

Apart from her shocking lack of basic knowledge she is intelligent and has no issues understanding what she’s told, she’s fantastic at maths but with other topics she just says if it doesn’t directly affect her then she’s not interested. Can anyone seriously blame me for finding it frustrating and asking how she didn’t know any of my examples?!

You have a knowledge gap (as do a lot of people on this thread) around the concept of educational inequalities/disparities, the contributing factors to that and the lasting impact it has, so maybe start learning about that.

I have to admit I’m guilty of saying “How can you not know this?!” In genuine astonishment to my 41 year old best friend. Sometimes I can’t get my head round things she says she doesn’t know or hasn’t heard of. Some examples:

After watching the film threads she didn’t know what nuclear weapons and radiation poisoning were. She also claimed she had never heard of the Cold War. When I was gobsmacked she called up her 39 year old sister to see if she’d heard of it - her sister said she hadn’t either.

She knew absolutely nothing about WW2, not just the reasons it started but she also hadn’t heard of pearl harbour, the atomic bombs being dropped, the D - day landings or that children were evacuated. She had heard of Anne Frank and said “she was someone who wrote a book in the war” and had heard of Winston Churchill but had no idea he was prime minister or his role in the war.

She also had no idea that humans were relatively modern and that we had evolved from ancestors of a different species and had never heard the word Neanderthal. She thought dinosaurs were around at the same time as humans and dragons were a type of dinosaur and is clueless about basically any kind of natural history or basic knowledge of astronomy.

Foods she’d never heard of include: paella, star fruit, guacamole, clams, guinea fowl, foie gras and sea bass.. the list is endless. She is a very picky eater who can only cook basic meals and will only eat out at a fast food place or have a basic pub meal but I still expected her to at least know what things are and recognise them. On her last holiday she argued that she’d been served the wrong thing when her cod came without being battered and deep fried, she kept saying she hadn’t ordered the weird looking fish and it wasn’t cod 😂.

Other basic things she claimed she’d never been taught or learned are that insects have 6 legs, wine is made from grapes, what halal meat is, that the sun is a star, the difference between oceans and seas and she thought the North Pole was made up and just a fictional place Father Christmas was from.

I feel like we have at least one conversation every time we meet up with her looking at me blankly and not knowing what I’m talking about, last week she had never heard of asbestos. I don’t know how she gets through life but she said if something doesn’t interest her then she just forgets it or doesn’t listen, she will never google anything because she hasn’t got the patience to look it up, she usually phones me and asks me to give a very brief explanation. On our last phone call she wanted to know the difference between a best before date and a sell by date and if the bread 2 days past the best before date was safe to eat.

Apart from her shocking lack of basic knowledge she is intelligent and has no issues understanding what she’s told, she’s fantastic at maths but with other topics she just says if it doesn’t directly affect her then she’s not interested. Can anyone seriously blame me for finding it frustrating and asking how she didn’t know any of my examples?!