Top 10: What's your most useless skill or talent?
- We asked our readers what their least useful talents are
- From spinning pens and pencils to wiggling their ears, here's the most useless skills they're proud of
What useless skills do you have?My fingers are very soft, and they can be twisted into very complicated patterns. For example, the first joint of my index finger is flat and it can be used to make a coin stand up. Although this is a useless, boring skill, I can brag about it with my friends.
Noki Wong Nok-ki, 15, Fung Kai No. 1 Secondary School
I don’t have many useful talents, but I do have useless talents! My most useless talent is that I can roll my tongue into a “U” and blow from it. Many people find it disgusting while others say it’s really cool. As for me, it’s just a common useless talent that I picked up in primary school. Some of my schoolmates could do it, too.
Gurung Akrity, 12, Maryknoll Fathers’ School
Imitating accents, intonations and speaking habits. I think it’s fun pretending to be somebody or something. My best imitations are the DSE English Paper III and GPS intonations. Sometimes I try to speak like my friends and make others laugh.
Anna Wong, 15, Chiu Lut Sau Memorial Secondary School
If you could open your own restaurant, what would you serve?
It’s probably being useless. I cannot speak well, I don’t understand ideas properly, I don’t listen to people ... and the list goes on. Basically, I cannot do what anyone else can do well.
However, on the plus side, being useless can make you popular because people like to see you fail and lose your self-esteem.
Being useless also means I do fewer extracurricular activities, such as sports training, than other people, so I have plenty of time to do whatever I want, even if I’m not good at it.
As the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi says in one of our DSE passages: “Being useless is the most useful”, and this requires talent!
Wylok Wong, 15, King Ling College
Swearing at others. Sometimes when I am angry, I use some bad words to scold people. I think I’ve learned this ‘‘skill’’ from my classmates, and also my mother because she sometimes uses foul language on the phone.
Yuen Sung-yau, 12, Shatin Tsung Tsin Secondary School
Spinning pens and pencils. People usually do that when they’re bored. They also experiment with different ways to do it. Spinning pens or pencils has long been popular among students. Although this is a bad habit, I always do it. I hope I will get rid of this habit soon.
Ryan Lam Siu-hei, 12, Maryknoll Fathers’ School
What's the most helpful study tip you've learned?
I am a very curious person so I’ve picked up a lot of weird skills. For example, I can recognise animals and plants quickly, write and use chopsticks with either hand, hold the same posture for a really long time when I am drawing, and I can imagine what’s happening – with voices and appearance of different characters – when I am reading a book!
Zhang Tsoi-ting, 14, PLK Tang Yuk Tien College
I can make my ears wiggle. There is a popular belief that people who can do this are often very clever and creative. But I am not very smart. What’s more, I know many others who can “play” with their ears, too. It’s a useless skill but it’s very funny.
Tina Fang, 15, Fung Kai No. 1 Secondary School
Shouting very loudly. It may be a good idea to cheer on your classmates at the top of your voice on the school’s sports day, but the next day, I’ll have a really bad sore throat. Once during a primary school camping trip, I shouted very loudly for a long time, and my voice sounded like Mickey Mouse for a few days.
Hysan Kwan Shing-hei, 12, Shatin Tsung Tsin Secondary School
Peeling apples and pears “perfectly” with a knife so the skin stays in one piece. It gives me a sense of achievement. That’s why I think this is my best useless skill. Although there are other tools that can help peel an apple, I am happy that I do a perfect job using my hands and a knife.
Chloe Huang, 19, Fung Kai Liu Man Shek Tong Secondary School
Our question for next week is: What would happen if a vampire bites a zombie?
If you’d like to take part, please send your response, along with your full name, age and school, to [email protected] by Friday, October 23!