[Closed] Your Glaring Cultural Weakness

Languages; Art; Music; Dance; Sport; Literature; Academics

Languages. I struggle in French and despite spending much of my life working in Spanish speaking countries (I even lived in one for two years) I still occasionally feel my ears glaze over...

Can I just shock you? I like wine.

I'm relatively shit at languages (though made some progress through hard work when living abroad) and have no interest or ability in playing musical instruments (though I can sing in tune).

But I enjoy cooking which is just as well given how much I like good food 🙂 and I'm ok at sport (at least the handful I do)

I'm struggling to find a complete blind spot. I've been to the theatre though not that interested. I've even seen an opera. I'm not much of a one for spectator sports, but occasionally I get into it and can even get engrossed, though it takes a world cup or olympics to do that. I've been to a county cricket match and a motor racing circuit (once each) but I have never been to watch a football match, which is something I probably should do before I die, given its cultural prominence in Blighty. All the other things mentioned - languages, musical instruments, art, cooking, I'm well up for regardless of my facility with them.

Apparantly i have the writing style of an arrogant ****.

On the plus side, im quite good at Spellin.

I don't even know what "Academics" refers to.

Probably everything.  ie I eat what I like, paint, draw, play what I like, write what I like, and listen to what I like.  'Culture' is akin to fashion isn't? That'll be my weak point, ie not knowing what to like.  Being curious and unabashed has left me arguably semi-rounded,  but mostly in an orthogonally trajected fashion due to obsessive niche interests

Yours,

Philistineus Maximus

The forum is the only time I express myself through words. All my other interactions in life are carried out through the medium of interpretive dance

I can talk about science and history, I'm also currently on a Statistics PgCert course.

I have no appreciation for art, except for music and the odd photograph and I need to learn a new language. I'm considering undertaking a masters course at Tsukuba, so I can kill two birds with one stone - the masters and another language.

Also, I really fancy the mountain biking in Japan.

Cultural weaknesses you say?

Well, I tried for ages to learn how to play guitar and realised that I am monumentally bad at music. The same with art, especially anything that involves drawing or painting. Anything I draw looks like a 4 year old with a shortage of ADHD medication was let loose with a box filled with Haribo, Red Bull and crayons. Strangely, I was pretty good at engineering drawings and would still love to have a large drafting desk at home.

Sport-wise I have always been average. Except for target shooting. I was good at target shooting. Probably not something that you should admit on the internet, but I can hit pretty much anything out to 1000 yards and still miss my .308.

Any situation involving camaraderie: Team sports, group rides, stag nights.

Cultural weakness?

Inhave no appreciation of “jingly jangly” music 🤪😜🤷‍♂️💨

Indeed, if I wanted to earn any sort of Renaissance title, I would have to experience some sort of culinary epiphany.

You need a Soup Maker

Hate theatre, have no interest in art (painting etc). I do appreciate music in many forms.

Don’t watch any sports apart from bike/motorbike related.

I prefer to do rather than observe I think.

I should be better in the kitchen but can’t get interested.

I have conversational German but I should try to improve it really.

I don't drink, so I am a wine/craft beer/whisky/gin etc. etc. philistine. Which can be quite a handicap at this time of year :-/

Well, I tried for ages to learn how to play guitar and realised that I am monumentally bad at music. The same with art, especially anything that involves drawing or painting.

Much the same for me.  Though I didn't try guitar "for ages," after fiddling on and off for ten minutes at a time and finding that I wasn't immediately the ghost of Hendrix I gave up in disgust.

I try to be "competent" in most things rather than particularly good at it.  I'm a practical sort of person and can turn my hand to most things, and I have a little bit of knowledge in a vast array of subjects.  I wouldn't consider myself an "expert" in anything.  Well, I know a bit about computers I guess.

Oh, Chemistry.  Never did get the hang of chemistry.  Baffles the crap out of me.

Languages.

As a kid we never did any foreign travel - all our family holidays were to Scotland or the Lake District. Started secondary school at 11 and all students had to do Latin and French. I was actually quite good at Latin, it's fairly logical. French - no chance. The teacher we had in 3rd year was dreadful and I gave up on it completely, taking up German instead. It meant that, for a while I was doing French (or at least, attending lessons but largely ignoring everything), German (which I really tried to like) and Latin.

Progressing into GCSEs I continued with German (a B after much extra tuition) and Latin (a B fairly easily) and then after that I did an AS level Spanish which I failed miserably (again, pretty rubbish teacher but I had zero natural talent for it).

But now every time I go abroad I'm sitting there completely stumped while a mix of Spanish, German and French cascades around my head in a confusing mess.

All of them.

culture is a thing I neither do/understand/want to be involved with.

I am devoid of anything cultural.

I always drop petri dishes.

Though I didn’t try guitar “for ages,” after fiddling on and off for ten minutes at a time and finding that I wasn’t immediately the ghost of Hendrix I gave up in disgust.

All we need is just a little patience

(and two grapefruit)

(-:

Nothing, I am utterly brilliant at everything*

* Best read in a Jeremy Clarkson voice.

Also, the above may not be true

Seriously - can someone please explain what "Academics" means in this context?

Good at school, in a general sense. At least that’s what we called it when I growing up!

In adulthood, it might be someone who is somewhat competent across a variety of academic subjects.

.

I like watching movies, tv shows and porn.

I read a book now and then.

I like riding my bike, hill walking, wild camping and fishing.

I like beer, cooking and diy.

That's enough for me.

Have no interest in art, theatre, dancing or music.

Have no interest in travelling to far flung places.

Have no interest in other languages, except I occasionally look up the meaning of some place names and hills.

I have no interest in wine and cheese.

Theatre, most music, and have no idea what’s going on with Jurelusem and that stuff, I think it’s something to do with Jews and Muslims but no idea who plays for what team

I only have one useful skill - the abilty to read and digest complex compliance regulations then explain these in practical terms to folks who cant be arsed to read complex compliance regulations that impact their business.

I am crap at everthing else in life....

@scoutroutes

I don’t even know what “Academics” refers to.

Thought that was just me, I presume it means talking nonsense on teh interwebs! 😆

I do bikes, PS4 and food, though I'm a shit cook.

I R well cultchad innit

I like cooking.

I dislike eating.

It's an odd dichotomy if I'm honest.

maccruiskeen
<div class="bbp-reply-content">

Any situation involving camaraderie: Team sports, group rides, stag nights.

Pretty much sums it up, also: big group activities, dinner parties, Xmas meals, corporate schmoozing, any kind of event with a big fence round the outside, booze cruises...

</div>

I have a very STEM oriented brain so it's a long list, I'm pretty much a cultural dessert.

cultural dessert

Ah, Pavlova a marvellous pud!

I'm interested in almost everything except shopping; shops make me feel deeply depressed.

I'll have a go at most things, but I don't like Jazz. It's shit.

Not sure why not wanting to do something is seen as a weakness though.

Not sure why not wanting to do something is seen as a weakness though.

Agree with this.

I guess I like culture when it's doable, tangible or relatable; interested in the culture that affects me.

I like music for listening / playing pleasure but not as art. I like to look at some obvious art but not do art nor study it. I don't like reading fiction / novels. I don't like history unless it helps me understand something I am interested in. I don't like theatre. I don't like going to gigs. I love comedy.

Is sport culture?

Is sport culture?

Of course. We seem to separate them administratively for some reason such as having a government department of culture, media and sport.

Mind you in my local authority days ‘cultural services’ was a department that included my art gallery and also included museum and libraries, sport, leisure, community education and .... waste management.

Is sport culture?

Yes, apart from football, which seems to be a religion.  (And also devoid of any culture from what I can tell.) 🙂

I was good at (nearly) everything in school, including sport, and I did no homework which is why the term 'swot' did not apply. I can do languages (although I haven't followed any through to a high level), I can do music and appreciate it, I can write well creatively and appreciate literature although I don't read many classics. I love history and Philosophy too. And of course science, maths and engineering. I come at the artistic stuff from an analytical direction though which means I do think a little differently about it than actual arty people.

But, I am crap at art. I like a bit of photography but mostly just abstract stuff. I cannot draw or paint at all. And as for food, I have the pallette of a 10 year old. I don't drink either so all the world's fine wines taste like moldy grape juice to me.

And for all the things I have aptitude for I never followed any of them to a high level. I cannot draw or paint at all. So I'm quite crap really.

Re the OP, SaxonRider's breadth and depth of knowledge is utterly awesome and I am hugely jealous, but for the sake of my self esteem I cling onto the facts that he cannot navigate for toffee, he can't fix bikes, and needs help with his DIY 🙂

Actually that's not quite fair, he has a go at bike fixing and does do reasonably well!

Oh yeah and re music, I really don't care for opera or jazz.

Cultural weakness

I wear a fleece to inappropriate social and work situations often

I wear a fleece to inappropriate social and work situations often

I don't even know how you got that job as an erotic dancer

I always drop petri dishes.

[img] [/img] 🤣

lacking any natural affinity with Terpsichore , I rely on enthusiasm, energy, and beer.

@johnx2, isn’t that you with the quiver?

Molgrips, was this you? 😛

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently.
Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row. I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing. I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook 30-minute brownies in 20 minutes.

I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.
Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello. I was scouted by the Mets. I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don't perspire.
I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal force demonstration. I bat .400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.

I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.
I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life, but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven.
I breed prize-winning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.
But, I have not yet gone to college.

I lile to think I worship at a pretty broad church - as a younger man, there were things I would rule out as crap because I didn't know anything beyond a cliched description, these days I'll give most things a go if I haven't tried it and hated it before, if I like it then great, if I hate it I never have to do it again.

So: I love books, music and the theatre in that order - I have enjoyed writing and earned modest pennies at it, I can play a few instruments mediocrely (best is bass guitar, which is ever the refuge of those not quite arsed enough to learn proper guitar), and I do a bit of am dram (16 plays in 6 years, which is a chunk for am stuff).

I have enjoyed concerts and festivals, I have been gobsmacked by quality ballet, and fairly bored by opera. I can do basics of a few languages, I can make something edible out of whatever I find in the fridge.

I like sport (and briefly hosted a sports radio show on the world's smallest internet radio station) - big fan of motorsports, fan of anything on two wheels except speedway, like a bit of boxing and football and rugby, and even known to watch cricket live (although only live - telly's not a cricket medium for me). I've done all at (again!) mediocre levels, although I'm proudest of my undefeated boxing record (1-0, baby - read it and weep!). I'm a bit crap at sport, even though I love it.

I think, what's standing out for me is that I'm ok at stuff but can't really arsed to commit enough to get good at anything!

I don't know art, but I know I like marmite.

No interest in music despite coming from a family with some exceptionally talented musicians, some professional.

Cannot understand the obsession with watching ball sports of any sort, although don't mind a game.

I don't care what the weather is doing. I like it regardless.

That means I'm no good at casual small talk, and that's my other cultural failing, it doesn't bother me.

I studied fine art at university, I loved going into the studio everyday and painting. I had the potential to be good at drawing from life, but I was more interested in what potential visual language I could invent. I continued to paint after I finished university for several years, but there was no desire to water it down to enable production of anything of marketable value to make a living from. I was also fairly cut off from any artistic communities and was pretty much scared of approaching people. Found some online communities but over the years my work didn't attract enough interest for me to maintain a desire to stick at it. Basically, I wasn't the Pablo Picasso I thought I was.

I am pretty good at most things with the exception of communication. So you'll just have to take my word for it.

Shakespeare and ballet, Just don’t get it...

Jack of all trades - master of none if i think of arts & culture. Though I like to eat ,not cook & NOT good in large(or small) social gatherings.

Good at academics - are you the bloke who drinks water at the pub quiz?ha  😉

I’m not as funny as I think I am.

Horse racing.

Molgrips, was this you?

@raybanwomble - brilliant.

painting and visual arts; I appreciate and love other peoples but I cannot do it myself, my handwriting is terrible also. I'm aware that it's a practice thing but I spent all the available time doing music, my pen skills start and finish with the ability to draw a 3D box and a cartoon cat.

my handwriting is terrible also

Oh, likewise.  It always was, but I pick up a pen so rarely these days that I can barely write my own name.

I figure, if god had meant us to write things down he wouldn't have given us keyboards.

Not having any and not being arsed about it.

I figure that SaxonRiders Glaring Cultural Weakness is his rather elitist notion that not liking or doing something is a Glaring Cultural Weakness rather than simply being a matter of free choice.

Calling Jordan Peterson to the thread.

I’m not as funny as I think I am.

If at first you don't succeed......

If at first you don’t succeed……

Exactly. You need to shovel loads of shit if you want to find a diamond 💎

Also, I quite enjoy annoying those who are easily annoyed.

@scotroutes: I don’t really get what you mean. There are a few things I wish I could do, but have never prioritised, and so they remain ‘weaknesses’ to me (and to others, when opportunity arises to exercise them).

So, for example, cooking is one, but so is any type of building work (something my dad could do proficiently), and dancing.

Consequently, although I love dance as an art form, I freeze when in a situation that might involve me undertaking any form of dance in front of animate objects. I wish I didn’t.

And when it comes to the kitchen, you could put a jar of peanut butter and two pieces of bread in front of me when I’m hungry, and it still wouldn’t dawn on me to make a sandwich. I don’t impress myself with my ‘kitchen-blindness’, and I certainly don’t impress others.

"@scotroutes: I don’t really get what you mean."

I think I do.  He's trying to wind you up.

I won't say that I like something if I don't like it; this applies to art, food, wine, music, overly-long films, etc. I am that little child in the story of "The Emperor's New Clothes"

I really want to find astronomy and space fascinating, but can't

My strength is being able to identify a d@ckhead quite quickly - my weakness is tolerating them for very long.

I am not sure I see it as a "weekness" - thats rather judgemental IMO

However most poetry. opera, dance and much art leaves me cold.  I just don#'t get it at all.  Opera especially - the singing hurts my ears.