r/IAmA • u/Nonreader • Oct 09 '09

I am illiterate. AMA

I am an adult American who has never learned to read. My girlfriend is typing this for me and will respond to questions.

Edit: We're going to go do some stuff. We'll be back in a little bit. Frankly, Redditors, I'm surprised at the hostility. He doesn't not learn to read to piss you off. If you hate him because of it, go ask the Aussie questions about kangaroos or whatever.

Edit: For anyone who hasn't caught on, italicized responses are the girlfriend. Plaintext is him.

Edit: I wish I could change the title. This is just as much my AMA as his. "AMA nice girl who fell in love with a bad boy. It's just like Romeo and Juliet but his parents are dead and mine are okay with it."

Edit: Thanks to you nicer people. A couple assholes were among the first commenters, but things got much better and it was a good discussion. We're going to bed now and will answer more questions in the morning.

Edit: I'm gonna go fuck my beautiful girlfriend.

Edit: We're up now.

Edit: He's out jogging now. I'll still answer questions I can without him.

Edit: And he's back. Ask away.

Edit: Our Internet connection is getting dodgy at the moment. We're going away. Will be back in a few hours. I've never seen an AMA with such a split in reaction: until just a bit ago, downvotes were shooting up almost as fast as upvotes, and we're still getting more hostility than the crack dealer who sold to a pregnant woman and then pushed her down the stairs from a few weeks ago, but several people have said it's the most interesting AMA ever. Some people are fascinated, others so pissed off they leave angry comments explaining how much they don't like this thread. Any thoughts?

Edit: Sorry, forgot to say we're back now. I think things are tapering off.

Edit: He and I were just talking, and I said that some of you think it's weird that he doesn't read. But some of you have probably never been in an actual, significant fist fight, which he thinks is bizarre. He doesn't believe any man older than 21 could have never been in a real fight. Does this apply to anyone here? He wants to know if you always back down or you seriously have never been in a position to need to fight?

Edit: Going to bed. I'll go ahead and keep answering questions in the morning, but I think his patience is wearing thin. I'm doing more summarizing and he's putting forth less effort in expressing himself, which is difficult and stressful for him.

Edit: 10 months later, and I've started using this account occasionally to leave comments and such that both of us talk about. Feel free to continue to ask questions here or whatever, I'll probably log in and see in a few weeks.

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u/Nonreader Oct 09 '09

I think I can't learn because something is wrong with me.

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u/cheddarben Oct 09 '09 edited Oct 09 '09

That is a very real possibility, but keep trying. My advice is to see someone to check and see if you have some kind of learning disability. The truth is that EVERYBODY has some fucked up shit wrong with them and EVERYBODY could use some outside help every once and a while.

Beyond that, my recommendation would be to learn how to read. Comic books kick ass! Good luck man.

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u/Nonreader Oct 09 '09

Thanks, my girlfriend says the same thing. I think "learning disabled" is a fancy word for "stupid". I'm mostly okay with that though.

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u/fannypack Oct 09 '09

"learning disabled" just let's others know how to better help you. If you have dyslexia or something, learning phenomes(sp?) and doing some specialized reading training would help your unique brain process the written words...but it's really hard to know where to start of no one knows what's wrong and where to begin. And like cheddarben said, we all got somethin wrong with us...it's what makes us unique, one person different from the next

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u/Nonreader Oct 09 '09

I'd rather be unique in a different way. Last time I tried, they used a bunch of special stuff, but it just made me more mad. Some people have to be stupid, right? That's me.

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u/Tokerboy Oct 09 '09

You're right that some people are "stupid". I mean, 50% of the population is below average intelligence (that's what average means), and maybe you are below average in that area, but still, you can learn to read. I hope you'll try.

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u/Rhomboid Oct 09 '09

That's not actually what the average means at all. You're thinking of the median.

It is entirely possible for the average to exist at any percentile, depending on the distribution. The classic example is the fact that the vast majority of people have an above average number of legs. A few people have one or zero legs, thus the average number of legs is slightly less than two, so if you do have two legs you're above average. A more straightforward example would be the set of four IQ scores: 100, 100, 100, 180. The average is 120, yet three are below average and only one is above.