When I was little (1-5), I had a babysitter who would always write in these squiggly lines (now I know it to be cursive). I always thought that she wrote in her own different language, and was astounded when other people could read her writing.

Joe

I used to think that in every language other than english, there was a key. like, "a" was "e" in spanish, "a" was "o" in chinese, and so on. so i always wondered why i had to learn the language while i could just print out the sheet with the key on it. i didnt notice that in some languages words were longer than in english.

Not telling!

When I was little I always thought when Asian people spoke their language I always though they added more to the sentence than it actually was.

Kayla

When I was young, my mom would make "au gratin" potatoes. I always thought she was saying "og rotten" potatoes. I always wondered why something rotten tasted so good.

Jo

When I was little, my mother convinced me that putting 'el' in front of a word made it Spanish. (El I el was el easiy el fooled!)

Nadia

I used to be 100% positive that everyone in the world thought in English. I did, so why wouldn't everyone else, right?

So, I'm at the store with my dad one day, and we stop next to a Hispanic lady who's talking to the guy with her in Spanish. I said "You think in English, so just talk in English, duh." (I was 5 or 6 at the time)

Well, the lady did understand English, and it took my dad some serious explaining to escape that situation!! :)

AUDREY

When I was about 6, I had no idea what a language barrier was. I imagined it as some kind of power that foreign people had, in which they used their language to form a barrier. It never occurred to me to ask someone.

asdf

I used to believe that English was the only real language and that foreign people only spoke jibbrish so that Americans couldn't understand because they didn't trust us. I also believed that animals knew english, but didn't speak around humans for the same reason. It never occurred to me that if they spoke random words, they couldn't understand each other.

I am wierd :)

Okies dokies, when I was SUUUUPERR little, I would run out in the backyard and scream "Chinese"; which for me was "CHONG CHING!" OR something like that; and I assumed everyone in China could hear me and would shout back something in "American".

I was so cool. =]

Does not speak Chinese.

I used to belive that african was the language they spoke in all of africa

quark

I used to believe that all languages were just jiberish and I asked my mom why they didn't use real words.

Anon

When I was in third grade, we had these planners that we wrote down our homework in every day. There was sections for math, science, social studies. And there was one labled English/Reading. I knew what it ment, but this idiot that sat next to me named John did not. My friend Elizabeth asked me what section to write down some homework we had in, and I told her English/Reading. Then John said something like, "You wouldn't put it there! We don't live in England! We don't speak English we speak American!" He denies it to this day and I still burst out laughing whenever I think about it.

Emmy

When my sister and i were younger, we both tried to impress each other and our parents by speaking chinese. Of course, neither of us knew how to speak chinese, so we both started to make strange "ching, chong, chang" sounds in an attempt to sound authentic.

Shannon

I thought that people that spoke different languages had psichic powers

Micah

When i was about seven i invented my own language and said it ws from the planet Barbie (i loved dolls) I imagined this pink planet with craters everywhere and i told people that where i was from. I only remember one phrase from the Barbie language, Acaribada meaning "Where's my football" I dont know why i added that phrase to my language, i never liked football....

Mary

As a child, I thought everyone else in the world was so special, because they spoke more than one language, and that english was just a made-up language having only bits and parts of other languages in it...

English, the chili of all languages.

Andreas Harris

My parents always read the bible in english (the Authorised Version). I knew that jewish people spoke another language when they read their bible, but I used to wonder why they didn't talk like Moses, King David, or Jesus when they read.

I tried asking my dad and mum about it, but I misunderstood, and for all the years that I couldn't read, I thought my parents were reading in hebrew and greek with their eyes, but saying it in english!

Andreas Harris