20 Times People Learned Casual Things Embarrassingly Late

Despite what the name may suggest, common knowledge is not that common - and sometimes you learn it the hard way. You know, like the fact that Washington D.C. isn't located in the state of Washington or that ponies aren't actually baby horses. Reddit user u/LightningCole recently asked people to share some things they've learned embarrassingly late, and the answers were pretty hilarious. And with over 18k comments on the thread, you might even learn a thing or two yourself. Better late than never! Check out all of the simple things people learned embarrassingly late in the gallery below!

#1

Source: JamesandtheGiantAss Rottweilers are not just fat Dobermans.

#2

Source: Err0rbot That not every woman who's nice to me is interested in me, they're just being friendly. Wished someone made that clearer when I was younger, would've saved me a lot of embarrassment and stupid moments in high school and early college.

#3

Source: hoodibaba007 Riding a bicycle. I learnt it at 18, my parents believed in an astrologer who told them that I would have a terrible accident when I drive or ride. So I had to learn bicycle secretly from a friend.

#4

Source: boringberry When I was 20, I was presented with a really wonderful promotion. It required me to fly to a nearby state for a week of training. I was super ecstatic about the whole thing... until I remembered a friend of mine complaining about her struggles with getting a passport. So, I promptly declined the promotion. My superiors were really stumped as to why I turned down the promotion. Me: Unfortunately, I don’t have a passport. Manager: Boringberry... you’ve never flown before, have you? Me: No. I have not. Manager: You don’t need a passport to fly within the country. And then it hit me- my friend was going to Mexico. I was just going to a neighboring state. Once the realization hit, my superiors all erupted in laughter. The story itself followed me when I went to training. My trainer personally greeted me and asked me if I had any difficulties getting a passport before laughing.

#5

Source: seegruyere That Hawaii was a country before the U.S. annexed it. Unsurprisingly they do not teach us that in high school history class...

#6

Source: Norfolkwegian_8991 That the world owes you nothing. You can be a good person and that's fine but it won't lead to you being blessed with nice things; people can use you if you're too nice to them I grew up thinking that my life was special and that I was destined for greatness but I'm now just another fish in the sea

#7

Source: Booknerd13 I only recently found out that ponies are not baby horses, but full-sized ponies.

#8

Source: Martin_Birch When I was little my Dad told me the big cooling towers that are often found beside electricity generating plants were in fact cloud machines and the prime minister of the day had a switch on his desk to turn the big machine on when it got too hot. This made complete sense to me as they did produce big clouds of white cumulus-like exhaust when operating. Fast forward to when I was around 11 years ago and the teacher asks if anyone knows why some days are dry and some days it rains, some days have blue sky and some days have clouds. Of course at the mention of clouds I knew immediately where clouds come from and stuck my hand up to tell everyone about the prime minister and the cloud machines. Luckily the teacher picked someone else for the answer and I was most confused to hear someone go on about evaporation and rainfall and so on.

#9

Source: hitmewithurbethshot That truffles are a mushroom as well as a chocolate. When people talked about sending pigs in the forest to hunt for truffles I thought they’d buried chocolates in there to teach pigs how to dig food up I was 21

#10

Source: drewkawa Pickles are pickled cucumbers. Took me over 30 years to figure that one out.

#11

Source: hellothereitsanna I have a cousin who quotes Yogi Berra on a fairly regular basis, and it wasn't until last Thanksgiving that I realized he's a real person, and that my cousin hasn't been admiring the words of Yogi Bear all this time.

#12

Source: Okhy That K9 stands for "canine"... Like K9 unit in police is dog unit.

#13

Thought an orgasm and an organism were the same thing. Gave an entire speech to my class at 13 years old, first month at a new school, about how I wanted to be a marine biologist and work with marine orgasms. Everyone was laughing and I didn't know why. The teacher didn't say anything just laughed along as well. A girl I'd just made friends with had to fill me in after class. Turns out, they are definitely not the same thing. Source: JKell18

#14

Source: Bored-To-Reddit It's hard to explain this one and I can't google it to find pictures. Everyone has bought a tube of "cream" at some point (antiseptic / steroid / eczema) for example. On some of these "creams", have you noticed that the lid is circular but in the centre of the lid it has a sharp pointy end? Typically, these tubes of "cream" have a seal and I used to remove the lid and break the seal by finding anything sharp and pointy nearby (pen maybe). It took my 23 years to realise that the pointy end in the centre of the lid has a purpose...

#15

Source: Ellatomica Not me but my husband. He didn't know that meat is the animals muscles. He thought every animal had a bodypart named "meat". He had a bit of an emotional crisis when I told him. He is actually a very intelligent man, but this fact had eluded him as his mother had not wanted to upset him as a child.

#16

Source: jvisc930 I thought the phrase 'mix by hand' meant to literally shove your hands in the batter and mix, not use a spoon or a mixer. I didn't learn the truth until my mother found me wrist-deep in brownie batter.

#17

Source: onikoko Pilot and co-pilot actually has the same hierarchy. I thought that co-pilot is some kind of assistant to the pilot

#18

Source: walden12 That Houston is not the name of the guy astronauts talk to.

#19

Source: rainiejain2 You know when the doctor hits your knee to check your reflexes? I honestly thought you were supposed to kick your leg up high. Like you felt it and you kick. It wasn’t until I was 23 and moved to another country and had to do a physical that the doctor was like what are you doing?!

#20

Source: 3311gojw That Washington D.C wasn't in the state of Washington...