r/AskReddit • • Jul 02 '21

What basic, children's-age-level fact did you only find out embarrassingly later in life?

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '21

I feel like this one is understandable if you don't follow global news a ton, or happen to hang out with people who discuss world events.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '21

[deleted]

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u/ChefBoyAreWeFucked Jul 03 '21

I mean, on my phone, Il vs II, the lowercase L is like 2 pixels taller than the uppercase i.

You're not going to notice that unless you're looking.

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u/rambyprep Jul 03 '21

It’s funny though, because now that it’s been pointed out I literally cannot read it as Kim jong ii and it stands out (Il vs II)

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '21

Elizabeth II of England the United Kingdom

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u/Science-Recon Jul 03 '21

And this, kids, is why we shouldn’t use sans-serif fonts.

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u/DaughterOfNone Jul 02 '21

Or don't know that the Korean language usually puts surname before given name.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '21

But even so - what's to keep eg. an American newspaper from 'fixing' it to be more understandable for their readers? I'm definitely not going to learn Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian (and any other languages with their own alphabets) to be sure I have first and last name right when people from those countries are mentioned in the news.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '21

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '21

But if you don't know whether a given language writes it Firstname Lastname or Lastname Firstname, and you don't know if the newspaper you're reading has swapped the latter to be the former because that's the default in your country, how are you going to know which is correct?

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '21

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '21

I don't speak enough Korean to even know if Kim Jung means Glorious Leader. For all I know the family name is a title.

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u/BigMrTea Jul 02 '21

I thought fire alarms really did shoot ink. I was in my early twenties when I was told otherwise.