When I was maybe eight or so, I found a piece of paper that had instructions for something in English, and the below that in Japanese. I decided that each one of those Japanese symbols must be the equivilent of an English letter, and I was always mystified as to why the Japanese words had so few "letters", even if the English word for it had ten letters.
A childhood belief about foreign languages
others believed things like this
- i used to believe that i am american.
i am japanese . — mayumi - I used to think that even people who spoke something other than English, thought in English— Peaches
- My older brother made me believe that wristwatches were powered by tiny Japanese men inside them.— Outsider
- I used to believe that if I spelled Norwegian words backwards, it would be English. I don't anymore...— Gudrun
- I used to believe that foreigners' ears translated English words to their own languageAnon
- I used to believe that "elemeno P" was a certain kind of "P" found only in the English language. Anon