I don't know how I managed this one, but I'm currently a French 3 honors student and, until someone corrected me this year, I believed the word 'Oui' (it means yes) was spelt 'Qui'. I guess I thought this because the u after q rule. I have no idea how I came this far without a teacher correcting me.

Anon

When I was younger I used to think that cities, towns, states, provinces, territories, etc. were all just different words for countries. Also, if you lived in a different country, you spoke a different language. No one knew any other languages but their own, and that's just how it was. While we were driving to visit my aunt and uncle in a nearby town I asked my dad why Aunyie Mary and Uncle Dennis didn't speak another language, them being from a different country and all. He just kind of looked at me strangely and told me that they were still in the same country as us, just in a different town. I just kind of ignored what he told me because, of course they're in a different country, and they speak a different language. I thought that since they spoke english, they were doing it illegally, so that's why I never told anyone about it again, trying to protexct them from being arrested.

--A

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

Anon

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!

i used to believe that cursive writing was a secret language that only grown-ups could understand.

nicole

I used to belive when my parents talked a foreign language over our heads, it was actually just a "coded" version of my own language. I thought I just had to do something with my ears to understand it.

Tone

I used to think that every word meaning something had the same pronounciation in all languages-the difference was only with the scripts (Example Mom was always called Mother in English, French, Hindi etc). No wonder than that when i wrote my first Hindi exam using English words and Hindi scripts, my score failed to move beyond zero.

Bala

I beleived as a child that French people thought in English and then had to translate it to French before they spoke

Iscaboo

When I was a child I couldn't understand how a radio made in Japan could play songs in portuguese ou english. If they are made in Japan, so they should just be able to play japanese songs

Daniel, from Brazil

When I was at kindergarten age I used to believe that my native language (Bulgarian) was the chief one from all, because expressions from any other language could be translated in my motherly. That was patriotic... :)

Hristina

As a kid I didn't understand English at all (I'm French Canadian). So when that little English girl asked me something (I was 4-5) my answer looked like "Aw chaw cho no wo err loo."
I really believed she would understand since it sounded English to me.
Until I saw her puzzled face...
Would be cool if it were that easy, wouldn't it? :o)
Until I saw her puzzled face...

AnneMarie

When I lived in Brasil I thought that everyone in the world spoke Portuguese and that all the TV shows were Brasilian... When i moved to the U.S. at 5 y.o., little did i know that 'Pica Pau' was really 'Woody The WoodPecker'... I was devastated to find out that he was a fraud...

Flavia

I am German and when I was about 6 or 7 I learned a few English words like mom and dad (my first complete sentence was daddy go to bed)-well besides the point. For a very long time I believed that German was the only correct way of saying anything and foreign languages were just for people who were to stupid to learn German...I gave up that believe when I told my dad about a week after I first had that though....he actually kinda got mad at me.

stupid german

I used to think that people who spoke other languages had transaltors in their brains that made them hear in english. I was always so amazed when people could speak more than one language.

melissa

I grew up speaking French and English equally. At first, I didn't even realize they were different languages! But when I figured it out, I decided everybody must know one or the other.

At a restaurant one night, I decided to tell the people at the next table about my stuffed bunny rabbit, who was very smart, and had figured out how the desserts were made. (I think it involved bicycle pumps for the meringues.) But they didn't understand me, so I tried it all again in the other language, which only confused them even more! My mom came to get me, rescuing the poor Germans from the weird kid babbling at them in English and French.

fey

I used to think there was one "fundamental language", and English couldn't be it because of the strange grammar and stuff (and I don't know how to speak any language other than English!)

Anon

A variation on the substitution theme: my family moved to Japan from California when I was seven. In Japanese class, they handed out a pronunciation chart for Hiragana, so I thought if I wanted to write in Japanese I just had to use these new characters instead of the latin alphabet.

Anon

When I was little, I used to believe that all the people on Earth really knew English, but invented all the different languages because everybody speaking English all the time would be boring.

Molly V.

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

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