15 people share something they learned embarrassingly late in life.
There are some things we learn at similar ages.
As children, we're constantly updating the meanings of words and turns of phrase in school.
However, there are always a few things that slip through the cracks, and when we learn them it feels hilariously delayed.
In a popular Reddit thread, people shared things they learned embarrassingly late in life.
1. From MildMeadows:
When I was 10 I thought the word 'masturbate' meant 'contemplate.' So I told my math teacher that I needed more time to 'masturbate my math problem.'
Also, when I was 15 I learned that a woman's eggs were not the same size as chicken eggs. I thought periods were so bloody because the chicken-sized egg was stretching them out.
2. From sb_747:
Things aren’t supposed to start to get blurry at about 15-20 feet. Learned I needed glasses at like 26 from one of these threads. Yes people you are supposed to be able to see individual leaves on trees.
Hope someone else can be helped like I was.
3. From Baffhy_Duck:
I live near the Hospital for Joint Diseases….when I was a kid I thought it was a special hospital for people who had two different diseases at the same time.
4. From Complete_Minimum1001:
That all the places in France were not named after wines.
5. From carmium:
My Dad was fond of framing questions to my brother and/or me regarding just what on Earth we were doing (up to age 10 or so, when it no longer seemed necessary) using the term pray tell, as in 'what are you doing with the tools, pray tell?'
I presumed a 'pratel' was a gentle equivalent to 'goofball' or 'dummy.' One day I corrected my brother about some misconception he had, addressing him as 'you pratel!'
'What did you call him?' asked Dad, who happened to be nearby.
'A pratel. You call us that all the time.'
'I do?!'
'Yeah, you say 'what is that supposed to be, pratel?'' I'd never seen him laugh through a facepalm before.
6. From anontidbits:
That a prostitute doesn’t actually sell a piece of their body.
Backstory: my mom and I were watching the scene from Titanic where Jack tells Rose that he painted a one-legged prostitute. I asked my mom what a prostitute was and she told me “It’s someone who sells their body for money.”
I could not fathom why someone would sell their leg for like $30.
7. From boldolive:
Until I was in school for environmental studies, I thought “mourning dove” was “morning dove.” I usually heard them calling in the mornings, so “morning” made sense to me.
8. From MR-LIBERIA:
That pineapples grow on the ground, and not in a tree.
9. From ixent:
That Bonsai are not a species of tree, but a way to grow them. Any tree can be a bonsai.
10. From JC_Hysteria:
When I was a teenager, I posted a status online that said I was “jacking off.'
I thought that meant you were just bored and wasting time…until my older sister messaged me, horrified.
11. From casper02127:
My sister was in her 50's when she found out the meaning of: 'you have an addictive personality'. She thought after all these years of therapy that it meant that people were addicted to her personality.
We laugh hysterically when we talk about this (in a very sad way).
12. From BendyBrains:
Let me tell you about how I thought you were awarded a 'Pullet Surprise.'
13. From ConsiderationWest587:
Coca and cocoa are two different plants, not one magical organism lol.
14. From whyunoletmepost:
I learned that pork and beans are not called 'cowboy beans'. I was 18 and asked a grocery store clerk to help me find the 'cowboy beans.'
We were looking everywhere and I was getting frustrated because I know that every store carries these beans.
After a while I pick up a pork and beans can with a picture and say 'see, it looks just like this!' He says 'you mean pork and beans?' Then I realize that my mom called them that so that I would eat them.
The look of disappointment from that grocery store clerk haunts me to this day.
15. From Prestigious_Sweet_50:
Why I was really young my sister told me she threw her guts up. So I was really afraid of vomiting my entire insides up for years.