Being a lefty

I remembered one incident my elder SIL told me that when my eldest niece, Michelle, started going to school, her teachers kept insisting her to use her right hand to write. I wasnt sure how dumb were those teachers for not accepting a lefty, I felt very sorry for my niece who actually was so stress that she ran back home (without the teachers' knowledge), hid in her room and refused to go to school after that incident.

Once, a friend saw lil C scribbling on my notebook and told him that he should be using his right hand to write.. and not left!

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS SO WRONG FOR BEING A LEFTY? Some culture said that our left hands are 'dirty' and we should not hand over things to another person using it. Imagine we were forced to use our left hand and not right, living in a lefty dominant world..


Reading pleasure, the leftys' agony:

ONE in 10 people in this world is left-handed. Yet, almost everything is designed for, or favours, right-handers. Although left-handers, who celebrate International Left-Hander’s Day tomorrow, have always been present in this predominantly right-handed world, just how much of their lives do righties understand? ANIZA DAMIS finds out.
IN this liberated and rights-aware 21st Century, it’s shocking to hear that some left-handers are hesitant and even ashamed to admit to being left-handed.

The right to use your limbs is so basic it hardly seems worth mentioning.

Yet, many left-handers are shy and even reluctant to admit to being southpaws, says Left-Handed Convenience co-founder Chong Siew Chin.

"Many left-handers have grown up being told that it is not good to be left-handed.
"So, left-handers who have been commented on become a bit sensitive," adds Chong, whose company is both a left-handers’ awareness society as well as a shop that sells left-handed goods.

Former national bowler Kenny Ang agrees.

"A lot of people look at us differently. And because of that, even we left-handers think left-handers are a bit different.

"But whenever we see a fellow left-hander do well, we feel some pride and happiness because we know what hurdles he or she had to overcome," says Ang.

When Chong was in school, she received painful raps on the knuckles for writing with her left hand.

"One particular teacher kept trying to make me write with my right hand, but when she wasn’t looking, I switched back!" chuckles Chong.

Thankfully, that only lasted a year.

Ang was not as lucky. His parents insisted that he write with his right hand, as well as use chopsticks with his right hand.

"Using your left hand to hold your chopstick is considered very bad manners in the Chinese culture. People will say that your parents don’t know how to bring you up properly," says Ang.

So, Ang grew up being "half-half" — writing and eating with his right hand, and doing everything else with his left hand; including bowling.

Being left-handed, says Ang, is hardest for the young.

"It’s harder to use scissors, which are designed to fit the right hand."

Chong says children who don’t have access to left-handed scissors or pens cannot do things properly, and so, get left behind in school, or are ridiculed by the teacher or peers for being "clumsy".

She has this advice for parents who want to ‘convert’ their left-handed children to right-handedness: "See if the child is comfortable with using his right hand.

"If your child is not comfortable with it, or if he switches back to the left hand when you are not looking, don’t force him."

Forcing the child to go against his natural tendency, to be something that he’s not, creates trauma. [Read MORE..]

Other interesting articles to be read: Nothing right for the Left & Living in a Right-Handed World

Resource: New Strait Times Online