Ultimate Blog Challenge - What do you feel you are an expert in?

Welcome back to the  Ultimate Blog Challenge. Today's question is

What do you feel you are an expert in?

Whoa, define "expert"!?

In my Matura, which is sort of the equivalent to the U.S. High School diploma, I had a 6 (an A) in German and French, so back then my classmates would definitely ask for my help if they were stuck.

Later I became experienced and skilled in several Human Recourses subjects, such as recruiting, analyzing resumés, reference letters and the like. I can also write work certificates, and I don't mean the standard ones for good employees, those are easy. The real art is to find something to write about lazy and uncooperative folks.

Work certificates?

In Switzerland it is an employer's duty to issue a reference letter for any employee who is leaving the company. It can be a pain in the butt if you work for an organization with a high fluctuation, but as I was saying, you're getting skilled.

The impossible task of issuing a work certificate is that is has to be

• true
• worded sympathetically
• complete and consistent
• individually drafted
• clearly formulated

So isn't "true" and "benevolent" contradictory? Of course it is. That's where some HR people will just take the easy way out and issue a good certificate just because they don't want to deal with the individual and/or the individual's lawyer. 

I can probably also be called an expert when it comes to music from the 1980s. Back when we were dating, Hubby and I used to play the "second game", he'd play me one second of a random song, and I tried to determine the song and the artist. If I couldn't, he would give me two seconds, and so on. It could be the beginning of the song, which is oftentimes super easy, think "Purple Rain", "Come on, Eileen" or "Hells Bells". It gets trickier if the few seconds are somewhere in-between, in a some less distinctive part of a song. Either way, it's good fun, try it!

What else?

My super power is that I can memorize birthdays and addresses of people. Ask me about my elementary, middle and high school mates. I can tell you their address, their dob, the names of their siblings, parents and pets. Not that this is useful in an average life situation, but neither is it to recognize a Bryan Adams song within one second.

Since I'm Swiss, my fellow country-people find it amazing that I can list all the states of the USA plus their capitals. Don't know if that qualifies as expert level. On the other hand, let me ask you, dear readers from the USA, how many European countries do you know offhand? 

My son was very interested in these things when he was as young as two years old. He knew almost all the flags of the countries in the world, and he would recognize the national anthems of some 20 countries. 

It was amazing. He's the real expert here. 

Now I'd like to learn about your fields of expertise! Let me know below.