@troubleinharlem restaurauauruaruaunt The first things I thought of were “delicious!” and “dinosaur.” This should be a real word. I’m going to start using it, seriously.
I have lots of gaps in knowledge, but here are the ones that bother me the most.
-Chatting/ small talk. When I was managing the cafe I realized this is a real problem for me. Lots of the regular customers would come in and chat with us, but it’s always stuff like football or politics that makes it hard for me to see what really makes them tick. So I’m struggling awkwardly for casual conversation topics.
-Literature: The last lit class I’ve taken was AP English in my senior year of high school. Once I got to art school we had very few core credit requirements so I didn’t need to take English again. I’m trying to catch up by reading on my own, but I miss the context and debate that comes from learning about a book in class.
-French wine: There’s a big, France-sized hole in my knowledge of wine. Wines from other places in the world are pretty straightforward. If you know the grape and the region, you can pretty much figure out what the wine will taste like. Most places in the New World, like California and Chile, have relatively stable weather from year to year so you don’t have to worry about vintages. Not so with France. Wine is named after the region, not the grape. How many appellations are there in France? Shitloads! The weather can be great one year or musty and rainy the next, so all that talk about vintages? It’s serious business.
-How to pronounce words that I have only read. Those pronunciation guides in the dictionary tell me nothing.