Do you ever wonder how you ended up with such massive gaps in your general knowledge?

[whippet]

I do.
Especially if I visit a museum or gallery with the kids, and they ask me a historical question...

I seem to have somehow missed whole centuries of history, and find it really difficult to match up social, political and cultural periods.

Do you bluff and quickly read the guide, or go home and look things up?

TBF, there's an awful lot of it

I'm just generally interested, and the more you pick up, the more which just sort of fits in.

However, I'm woefully ignorant about most matters scientific. I can't even explain some basic things to DS

er....don't know how to answer that

i am pretty good at most things but I do get muddled in latterday history (much better at the Tudors and before) and my basic geography of Europe and the world leaves a lot to be desired...

dp is a full on scientist

i love the arts

opposites attract,the world is a wonderful and diverse place
don't beat yourself up
embrace what you know and dont feel bad about what you dont

What gets me is when it is clear I don't know something that everybody knows!!!

It is difficult mid museum visit, cos the best thing to say might be "I don't know but let's go and find out". So you find a board with loads of information and you need to read it and digest it and then translate it into 7yearoldboy and he's busy going "what does it say???"

I think it's good to be aware of what you don't know, iyswim. No-one can no everything, and it's nice to be constantly learning.

I think History subject at school must be a common one for missing loads out. I learned about:

Tudors
Romans
Victorians

err

Can't think of anything else!

They never did history in order, it was haphazard, so I never grasped who did what where when!

So, whippet, was there something prompted this? which bit of history are you after?

Not that I'll be able to help, but I'm just being nosey.

Mary - not really, but a visit to Madrid left me wondering how I knew so little about the Spanish Civil War.

Having said this, it's no wonder, 'cos I dropped history at 14.

Now, ask me about Economics, or 20th century social history, and I'll probably be OK....

Squonk - yes, I know what you mean, some of my friends just seem to remember all this stuff - it's as if they absorb historical facts by osmosis.....

Hmm. Now I know I did a whole topic for A level on the spanish civil war....

ERmmmmm......

Nope. Gone!

whippet - then they look at you like this: and say "I can't believe you don't know that" and you're all "yeah, well...."

aaach!

my gaps in knowledge are a direct result of being sat next to the boy i fancied in certain subjects at school

for instance german, did it for a whole school year. do i remember even ONE german word??? do i bollocks.

When ds asks me a question in a museum, I always wonder whether someone overhearing us is thinking 'no, you've got that ALL wrong...'

Wilkos -

But I bet you learnt what "Ich bin heiss" meant.....

err no. what does it mean? do tell

I know "ein bier bitte"

(actually I know the same phrase in several languages...)

Well, IIRC (and now I probably won't) it's a literal translation of "I feel hot" but really means "I'm feeling hot (i.e. sexy)"

A common embarrassing error for German language students apparently .

Sorry, meant "I am hot" for the first bit (Ich bin = I am)

whippet - ich bin = I am, therefore ich bin heiss = I am hot (as in a hot chick)

another dodgy one, apparently, is in French to say "je suis plein" - ostensibly meaning "I am full", apparently is a way of saying "I am pregnant". My dad tells a good story of when my uncle used that phrase in France...

hur hur!!

i remember i felt "hot" enough to write his name on my upper leg in biro

dear god above how naive we were [wistful] emoticon

sorry whippet, cross-posted with you there! [slow typing]

I'm fine on history and art and politics, morals and ethics but a disaster on matters scientific - I pass those questions over to dh. He gets the theology ones too!