I used to believe that other culture wore their indigenous outfits ALL THE TIME, like the British all wore Robin Hood outfits and suits of armor, and the Chinese always wore silk robes, and that Indians always wore feather hats. If they didn't wear these things they would become Americans and lose their accents.

I also believed that other countries made up languages to confuse us and all really spoke English, but didn't like us so they made it up. I still think this one a lot!

Max

As a child I thought the whole world was England and that Americans were from another planet! I must have seen a program on a rocket being launched because then I was convinced thats how the Americans got to this planet!

Vikkie

Whenever I asked my parents if I could call my friend in America they told me I couldnt because she would be asleep so I thought all they did in America was sleep all the time.

Sandy (Sydney Australia)

I used to believe that if you touched Chinese people, they would break.

Christian

My (French) mother told me that every third child born into the world was Chinese. Being a third child of entirely Caucasian appearance, I naturally assumed that I was in some way Chinese, and that this would begin to show when I was a bit older. This led to many hours at the local library researching my "heritage", and a lifelong love-affair with Chinese food. I even had a Teach Yourself Mandarin record (45 rpm) with a little booklet containing realistic interactions from Chinese households for me to repeat. Most of these seemed to involve Mrs Wu scolding Mr Wu for not helping more around the house. I was about nine years old before I realised that however hard I studied I would never actually be Chinese. Now in my mid-40s, I'm still coming to terms with the disappointment.

Anon

I believed that Mongolia was where mongoloids came from. I pictured all these mongoloids raiding villages on the steepe on horseback with fire and sword. I figured they were only nice and gentle in America because they were outnumbered.

Morgan

I was born in the U.S. in 1940, and WW II was a daily topic in our household. Of course, Germans were the bad guys, and wanted to harm us. On the other hand, Mom was always cleaning, the stated reason was so we would have no germs to make us sick.

It wasn't until I reached the 1st or 2nd grade, after the war, that I finally realized that germs were not Germans, and vice versa.

Pete

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

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

When I was 3 I went to Spain with my parents and while standing in the middle of a really crowded street I asked my mother where the spaniards were... I guess I was expecting to see really strange creatures instead of regular people just like me...

sao joao

When I was little and everyone would talk about the Palestinians(sorry can't spell)I used to think that they were saying "palace indians" and in my head I had an image of indians living in the Buckingham Palace.

Sarah

When I was in first grade, we learned about Native Americans, and how it wasn't proper to call them "Indians." At the time, my dad worked with a woman who was Indian (as in, from India), and he made some reference to her being Indian. However, I had never heard of the country of India, and I got really mad at my dad, saying "No! You have to call her Native American!" He kept insisting that, no, she wasn't Native American, she was Indian. I just thought he was being really mean and ignorant.

Anon

I used to believe that Scotch tape was made from ground-up Scottsmen who had in some way betrayed their country.

Rachel

In 5th grade, the first time I took a standardized test, I didn't know what box to fill in for nationality, so I crossed out everything, and underneath, I wrote, "Peach".

Bryce

When i was little i used to believe that only Americans could change their accents to match other peoples', like Australians or English for instance. I thought they were "stuck" with their accents for life or something, but Americans had this ability to talk differently. My good friend, who's from England, began talking with an American accent after being teased about hers, and i was shocked!

anonymous

I was always stumped with this when I was younger: I knew that Chinese people ate with chopsticks and that American people ate with forks, and I remember thinking that if Americans used those miniature forks to feed their babies what did Chinese mothers use? Toothpicks? Twigs?
Some of you might have heard this elsewhere as a joke, but I assure you that I really thought it. ;)

dumb

My ethnic heritage became important to me when I was in second grade. My parents told me that I was "...mostly Scottish and French." I asked my mother what I was LEAST and she replied, "Chinese."

Quite truly, the next day at show and tell I announced to the class that I was a very small bit Chinese.

Wily

when i was in kindergarten, we used to have this racial appreciation thing where every week we would celebrate and learn about a new race/culture through each other. so it was going to be my turn soon to share my race and culture, and i asked my dad what i was. he said i was scottish cuz he's weird. but really, i'm 100% chinese. yeah so i told my class that i was chinese...but scottish at the same time. so for the longest time (i think up until 4th grade), i believed i was scottish somehow.

i just talked to my brother, and my brother said that he believed he was part hawaiian for a while too. man. my dad sucks.

Jen

When I was in first or second grade, I asked a dusky-skinned girl what nationality she was. She told me she was Indian, and I told her something along the lines of that she couldn't be because Indians wore their hair in braids and she didn't. It wasn't until years later that I realized she meant Indians from India rather than Native Americans (who in old pictures most always have their hair braided). However, for years after that, she often, if not always, wore her hair braided, and I wonder now if she took my words to heart.

AJT

When I was a kid, I'd never heard of Wales, so I thought that Princess Diana was Princess of Whales. I always pictured her riding on an orca.

Anon