Show most recent or highest rated first.
page 8 of 11
< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 >
When I was about eight, my family went on a trip to Canada. Since I was "American," I decided it would be cool to call peoplefrom Canada "Canadians." I was so convinced that I made up the word "Canadian" that I was really disappointed that they didn't mention my "great new invention" on the news that night.
So what did Canadians call themsleves before, really?
Jackie F
I used to ask my mum why Americans put on funny accents and why they just didn't speak normally like Australians.
Anon
I used to believe you could only marry another person from your country -Canadians couldn't marry Americans, and you had to be the same age.
I also thought there were only Canadians and Americans, and when I found out about British people I was amazed and thought that now you could only be one of those 3.
Goonie
i used to think that albinos were from Abania..
Cass
when my mom said that i should look at china because they got starving people, i used to think seriously why couldnt we pack it up and send it to them.
people where I live are always complaining about Bosnians, so one day my confused little sister said "there are Bosnians all over the place, aren't there? they must have a lot of kids!" she thought that 'Bosnian' was a surname and that all the Bosnians were part of the same huge family!
Elisa
I was on the bus one day when I was little and I saw a man wearing a turban. I was really excited because I thought he was a genie (I think Aladin had just come out). My aunt explained to me that he was sikh and I was really upset.
ann
When I was about 7 my parents took me and my brother to Purto Ricoon vacation. The first day we went to the beach I saw eroupean men walking around in speedos. I thought that they had lost thier swim trunks and were looking for them. i procedded to try and help them find their trunks until my mom told me that speedos were another kind of swimsuit.
Sami
When I was little I always used to belive what my dad told me. one day we were watching the simpson and he came out with the lie all Americans are yellow! it took me years to finally think hang on...
Jess
i used to think all chinese people looked exactly the same
moonie
When I was in seventh grade, a girl I was in Social Studies class with named Susie was reading her paragraph out of our geography book. We were discussing the Shiite and Sunni Muslims and she was the first one to read about the Shiites. The rest of us in class were not quite sure how to say it but we knew it probably wasn't how we thought it should be said. Sure enough, though, Susie kept struggling through her paragraph and got to Shiite, pronouncing it "Shitty" and making the whole class and our teacher laugh. When he finally got control of himself, the teacher explained to us how to pronounce it, Shee-ite. To this day (and I've already graduated from both high school and college), I still use "Shiite" (pronounced the correct way) as a euphemism for that other expletive.
Jess
I used to believe that the French perfumed their horses. Whenever a family member would try on a perfume at the mall, my dad would remark "You smell like a French horse." It took me years to realize that he really meant 'whore,' not 'horse'.
Kasey
For a very long time I thought that Germany's flag had a swastika on it ( I didn't realize it was exclusive to the Nazis). I imagined those citizens having very mixed feelings when raising it.
re
When I was about five or so, I saw a beer commercial on tv. It was two guys having a beer, watching a football game. and at the end the announcer said " The American Beer". Well see I'm Canadian, and I thought that an American was what you called someone who drinks beer and watches football today. I believed that for a couple of years, till i finally asked my parents.
krissie
When I was young and looked at a map, I thought that the colors of the countries on the map were the colors of the people who lived there.
Em
I used to beileve that all men with brown hair and glasses were from england, and were freaks. I also used to believe that they probably were plotting to kill me.
I am Chinese but I moved to a foreign 3rd world country(even more 3rd world than china) with very limited information resources at early age, I went to school with a japanese and a korean. And the only information I got was from reading dictionaries and the pictures on it and I read about 2nd world war and japanese carriers and since I grew up in the 80s jap products have become very popular there and i thought they were ruling the world and since they attacked china i thought they were better, but later i read on magazine that china had largest army in the world and I couldn't believe it since I only kno china thru chinese kung fu movies which showed very backward people, and this jap used to tease me and look down on me, But I now know better that china has developped nuclear weapons and space programs to kill all japs if we wanted...what a relieve japs are not ruling the world whew
confused chinese boy
When I was eight or so, I believed Scotch tape came from Scotland and the kilts that Scottish people wore all had the same design like the one on the Scotch tape package.
Janelle
When I was little and I saw Indian, Hindu etc. people with little red Bindi dots on their foreheads I would marvel at how those people all got 'pimples' in the same place.
Emily
When I was young, I thought lesbians were citizens from Lebabanon. I remember seeing an episode of Night Court in which some character says "Christine, I'm a lesbian!" and begins to kiss the surprised Christine and for a few years after that I thought that people from Lebanon had some rather interesting social customs. I found it a bit strange,but I knew that Mongolians stick out their tongues in greeting and it seemed to just be one of those things...
page 8 of 11
< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 >
I Used To Believe™ © 2002 - 2012 Mat Connolley , another Iteracy website. privacy policy
