Hi LingQ-ers!
I would like to share my newest video with you where I demonstrate my ability of ambidextrous handwriting (= writing with both hands). This video also contains a message about language learning!
Enjoy and have fun!
Here is the link:Fasulye's ambidextrous writing skill (English) - YouTube
Fasulye
Interesting! I thought I would to be able to spot your “main hand” by your choice of difficult/long words, but I couldn’t see a pattern. Which hand do you to prefer to write with?
As a child I was forced by my parents to write with my right hand and to function as a righthander but at the age of 15 I taught myself lefthanded writing and other lefthanded things. For 35 years I wrote lefthanded and two years ago I changed again to righthanded writing because I have a slight handicap with my left hand now and therefore I can’t write long texts anymore with my left hand. But with writing short messages I am still completely ambidextrous. Genetically of course I am lefthander.
Fasulye
As a teenager I was interested in writing with my weak (left) hand. I was at the time wanting to be an actor and I heard Marlon Brando had made a practice of doing things “wrong-handedly” to make him more versatile and more attuned to other peoples’ experience. It caught on with me and I still to this day can write well left handed, although the only time I use it is if I am teaching and want to continue facing the class while I stand to the left of the whiteboard.
Dooo, so you would also be capable of making an ambidextrous handwriting video, I assume. But, if so many people make such videos, it would no longer be so interesting to watch. I am curious to get a feedback from “Anything Lefthanded” (UK) on my ambidextous handwriting video.
Fasulye
Thank you for the demonstration, Fasulye. Yes, in Germany the pressure on children to be right-handed was great until quite recently. I am glad you were able to develop your ability relatively early on. Well done! I only discovered my left-handedness when I was well into my fifties and although I now have a preference for my left side, am not very skilled with the left hand.
Hey, very nice and interesting 
I had a biology teacher at school who was able to write with both hands, too. Same story, he was born left-handed, but his parents forced him to write with his right hand.
I will always remember him standing in front of the blackboard, two pieces of chalk in his hands (mostly of two different colors) and writing at a frightening speed, changing from one hand to the other all the time We all had trouble to keep up with him…
Very interesting stories and experiences, Sanne and Kathi! Yes, I am also one of the generations in Germany (born in 1961) when lefthandedness was discriminated and especially lefthanded writing was not allowed. But in my later school years (ages 15-19) the teachers didn’t bother when I used my school tasks to practise lefthanded writing. So I have been more lucky than Sanne who only could enjoy lefthandedness later in her life. I would like to watch this biology teacher with his ambidextrous writing skills as well. This would make a good You Tube video!
Fasulye
Well done, Fasulye.
In my late teens a broken bone in my right hand required a cast for six weeks. A natural righthander, I was forced by the cast to do a lot of things such as writing and eating lefthanded. I never did get the hang of writing lefthanded, but I was able to learn to eat lefthanded rather easily. In fact, my only claim to fame in the world (pathetic though the claim may be) is that I can eat with chopsticks both righthanded and lefthanded.
Even better, I can use a computer mouse with either hand. Very convenient, allowing my right hand free to write notes, etc.
“I would like to watch this biology teacher with his ambidextrous writing skills as well. This would make a good You Tube video!”
Hehe, I visit my old school one or two times a year, so maybe I can ask him
Don, interesting post of a righthander with some ambidextrous skills! On computers of other people sometimes the mouse-cable is too short for lefthanded usage, so I have to have ambidextrous mouse - skills as a lefthander. Also in some internet cafés lefthanded mouse-usage is not possible, so I have to rely on my ambidextrous skills there as well sometimes. But the ambidextrous usage of chopsticks seems to be quite impressive! I use chopsticks lefthanded but now I have become curious whether I can do this with my right hand as well. My promise: I am going to try it!
Fasulye
I’ve tried it all, scissors, chopsticks, can openers, racket sports, martial arts, computer mouse. The only thing I do particularly bad with my left hand is writing (I’ve tried that too), and playing musical instruments “the opposite way”.
Related thread:
@Fasulye - I am going to try it!
Good luck with the chopsticks.
@Jeff
I have to laugh at myself. As soon as I saw your post, I jumped up, found a pair of scissors and tried cutting a piece of paper lefthanded. The result was slower, but more accurate, and, overall, acceptable. Are there jobs for strictly lefthanded scissor-cutters, I wonder?
And you know, sometimes, sitting at the left end of a crowded table in a restaurant, being able to eat lefthanded can be a definite advantage.
I am very delighted to read that also righthanded people see a real usefulness in ambidextrous manual skills and are proud of being able to use sevaral tools lefthanded. I think that this is a very good development towards a better reputation of lefthandedness / ambidexterity. I have also received such positive feedback on You Tube and I am very happy to read such experiences from others.
Fasulye
While I can do things with both hands, not everything is “equally well”, but just as don’t want to be a monoglot, I see no point in avoiding using the other hand (in my case, the left).
That’s a good attitude towards developing manual skills, Jeff!
Fasulye
Current winter project: throwing snowballs at trees/lampposts with my left hand.