On Learning

So, I'm pretty smart. But every time I start a new job - or get a new responsibility therein - everyone thinks I'm an idiot. And it's not just because of my crippling social phobias, which prevent me from ever pasting an appropriate expression onto my face. It's also because of the way I learn, which THEY don't understand because they didn't spend four boring years in college reviewing the same high school Psychology material over and over again. Incessantly. (Are you impressed with my degree yet?)

Everyone has different learning styles. In the simplest theoretical terms, I'm a visual learner, because I learn best by writing things down, which inherently means I have trouble processing things just by being lectured. This might also partially explain why I literally black out as soon as someone starts trying to explain football to me (although I suspect there's something deeper there as well... like a brain tumor maybe). More accurately, I'm what's called an accomodator, which is someone who learns best by engaging - either by mapping things out, writing things down, or asking questions.

In other words - I ask a shitload of questions. I cannot accept "You push this button instead of this one." Irrelevant though it may be, I will not only ask what the other one's for, I will insist on knowing. I literally cannot move on to the next topic until I know everything there is to know about that gratuitous button. I cannot fathom the role of the useful button unless I fully understand the useless ones around it. Once explained, it's like - duh, I'm a genius. But you can't really sit your boss or trainer down in the real world and say "Look, I need you to explain every detail to me, because I'm smarter than you, and I won't be able to function in this unfulfilling position unless I know everything about how this entire company works."

This happened to me in retail - I was a manager, but was unable to delegate even the simplest tasks until months into the position, when I could map out in my head exactly who my employees were, where they were standing, what tools they had, and what their mothers were doing last night (hint: they were with me). Instead of looking like a detail-oriented (read: OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE), responsible person, I apparently gave off more of an "I don't speak english" vibe. And now it's happening to me again. I'm a receptionist. I have a double BA, for gosh sakes. AND YET, every time I forget an extension - usually because I'm trying to memorize them instead of looking them up - or mispronounce a foreign name - because I'm trying too hard to replicate the exact pronunciation - or try to help someone I should hang up on - because I have trouble following rules - I get screamed at by people who can't even spell.

And I don't care what your learning style is, there is NO excuse for poor spelling.