English

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Yes, repeating a number back to someone is a technique I use as well. It's not an uncommon disorder and most sufferers have found ways of managing it. Every now and then something slips through the diligence net though. It's astonishing the mistakes you find when you review your work the next day. That's sadly not an option you have in an exam.

slightly OT..
I have found the best way is to get the person to write it down for me if they are with me. over the phone, they must read the number to me in nothing more than 2 numbers at a time. So I can manage 12 but not 123.
In maths exams it was different, for me anyhow. My school insisted that we wrote down all of the additional steps in a calculation, which has lead to the often hilarious situation of me starting out with the correct question, transposing 2 or more numbers part way through, carrying on through the additions with the wrong numbers (but calculating the steps correctly for those wrong numbers) and randomly writing down the correct answer to the actual question completely out of the blue because I had done the whole thing in my head with the right numbers... and if that does not confuse you, nothing will!

 

[summerdays]

If someone tells me the number 123456 ... I might write down 123 56 and then go back and put the 4 in space my brain seemed to leave.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Surely, one writes to The Times on every occasion one hears such clear abuse of the Queen's English?

 

[GBC]

Surely, one writes to The Times on every occasion one hears such clear abuse of the Queen's English?

Did you just have that comma lying about and thought you should perhaps drop it in somewhere?

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I suffer from something closely related to dyslexia. The tendency to transpose numbers, words, almost anything. If there is anything that has two options, I will choose the wrong option (no I meant OTHER left). This frequently means I jumble the word order in sentences or the letter order in spelling.
The results are mostly funny but on one occasion it caused me to fail a maths exam.

That's a 'thing'? I thought it was just me! I'm not being flippant!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

So does anyone else find themselves typing the next word in the sentence (instead of the one they are thinking of) before they are even aware they needed that word next? I often do.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

So does anyone else find themselves typing the next word in the sentence (instead of the one they are thinking of) before they are even aware they needed that word next? I often do.

No, but I often type whatever someone in the office says out loud, and my colleagues swear like satan with the trots.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

So does anyone else find themselves typing the next word in the sentence (instead of the one they are thinking of) before they are even aware they needed that word next? I often do.

No, but I often find my thought process has moved faster than my typing and the wrong place word appears out of...and I have to edit it back so that it reads ''the wrong word appears out of place.''

Happens with numbers too.

 

[Recycle]

That's a 'thing'? I thought it was just me! I'm not being flippant!

I was making light of a fairly serious topic. I used "thing" for want of a better word. I don't have numbers but this is a fairly common spectrum disorder. That is most people could identify with the symptoms to a certain extent but for some the condition is a serious disadvantage. Climate scientist James Lovelock admitted to the condition and said his scientific career would have followed a more mathematical direction if he could ever get the answers right. It doesn't affect your ability to understand the problem, its calculating the answer that's the issue. Identify with that?

This is often defined as a type of discalculia which is unhelpful because discalculia is mostly associated with a problem of mathematical comprehension. This has nothing to do with comprehension. I qualified as an engineer and just scraped through my exams because I finally figured out that demonstrating you understood the maths was more important than getting the answer right so I stopped obsessing with the answers.

The problem also manifests itself in language. In reading the brain will transpose syllables in words so that “predilection” for example will be read as “prelidiction” (I only know I got the order of that example that right because of the spell checker). Word order in sentences can be changed as well.

It can also show up in binary decisions. Left is swapped for right and so on. I worked for a company that had offices in the City and Canary Wharf. When people phoned me to ask where I was I would often identify myself as being at at the other location. Weird.

I could go on and probably have done already. For those who are unaffected, apologies for going seriously OT.

 

[MontyVeda]

what really annoys is when spoken , " th" is replaced with "f ",as in fing ,baff and teef etc . dont know why but it really boils my p!ss

I was dragged up being unaware of a different pronunciation between F and Th. Neither my parents, grandparents nor umpteen teachers pointed out the difference to me... so my record player had two speeds, forty five and firty free and a fird.

Then I started a YTS and my constant mispronunciation of firty free and a fird and other words which really should be th was responded with a punch... you know, to learn me proper.

After god knows how many dead arms, I am proud to say that my record player has two speeds, thorty thive, and thirty three and a third.

 

[swee'pea99]

The insistence of southerners to introduce an extra "r" into words such as barth and grarss. It's a bath and it's grass.

I read somewhere recently that the long 'r' ('barth') was unknown in this country until the 19th Century when it was invented by the southern middle classes as a conscious ploy to give themselves airs and mark their separation from the great unwashed. Jane Austen's characters - even the poshest - would have pronounced 'bath' as a Yorkshireman (or, for that matter, an American) does today.

 

[mr_hippo]

If you want to be confused with time, try the Thai system of 6 hours! 4 o'clock in the morning is 1000hrs, 4 o'clock in the afternoon is 1600hrs, 4 o'clock in the evening is 2200hrs and 4 o'clock in the night is 0400hrs

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I was making light of a fairly serious topic. I used "thing" for want of a better word. I don't have numbers but this is a fairly common spectrum disorder. That is most people could identify with the symptoms to a certain extent but for some the condition is a serious disadvantage. Climate scientist James Lovelock admitted to the condition and said his scientific career would have followed a more mathematical direction if he could ever get the answers right. It doesn't affect your ability to understand the problem, its calculating the answer that's the issue. Identify with that?

This is often defined as a type of discalculia which is unhelpful because discalculia is mostly associated with a problem of mathematical comprehension. This has nothing to do with comprehension. I qualified as an engineer and just scraped through my exams because I finally figured out that demonstrating you understood the maths was more important than getting the answer right so I stopped obsessing with the answers.

The problem also manifests itself in language. In reading the brain will transpose syllables in words so that “predilection” for example will be read as “prelidiction” (I only know I got the order of that example that right because of the spell checker). Word order in sentences can be changed as well.

It can also show up in binary decisions. Left is swapped for right and so on. I worked for a company that had offices in the City and Canary Wharf. When people phoned me to ask where I was I would often identify myself as being at at the other location. Weird.

I could go on and probably have done already. For those who are unaffected, apologies for going seriously OT.

And I posted with poor use of English - I should have said 'I didn't realise such persistent errors were an identified and common issue'.

Yes, I identify with this very closely. I'm constantly corrected by everyone I know, and the infuriating aspect is that sometimes I know I'm saying the wrong word even as it comes out of my mouth, the rest of the time I have no idea I've said the wrong word, and am damn sure I've said the right thing!

Got me in constant shoot at school, people think I'm being awkward!

 

[Hover Fly]

The insistence of southerners to introduce an extra "r" into words such as barth and grarss. It's a bath and it's grass.

The real tests are "water" and "father".
Just out of interest how do the locals in Somerset pronounce the name of their county town?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I read somewhere recently that the long 'r' ('barth') was unknown in this country until the 19th Century when it was invented by the southern middle classes as a conscious ploy to give themselves airs and mark their separation from the great unwashed. Jane Austen's characters - even the poshest - would have pronounced 'bath' as a Yorkshireman (or, for that matter, an American) does today.

I'd never heard that before. I originally come from Yorkshire so, even after 40-odd years in London, I still find the inserted r alien.

Incidentally, most Americans I've heard would pronounce bath with the hint of an e after the a - lengthening it noticeably. Baeth in jazz phonetics....