language

I grew up in the South of Germany, so we watched a lot of Austrian TV. Most of the time the reception was very bad, and I figured out that the different accent of the TV speakers was not due to their Austrian dialect but some result of the bad TV reception.

I used to believe…

When I was little I used to think that when people in movies would draw their swords and say "On guard", they were saying "I'm God". So whenever I play with someone and I'd pretend to draw my sword I'd shout "I'm God!".

I used to believe…

Not mine but my friend thought for a long time that if you're not speaking English your speaking Spainish/ Mexican (the Spainish from Spain is diff. from the Spain is Mexico).

I used to believe…

When I was about 8 or 9 I loved to read (I still do). My mom said that reading made you smarter so I always had this vision that after each book you read that your brain literally had these little tick marks showing how many books you've read. The more tick marks you have the smarter you are.

I used to believe…

When my husband was very little and heard the phrase "Throw caution to the wind", he thought the person was saying "Throw cush into the wind". He told me that for years, he didn't know what "cush" was, and was too embarassed to ask anyone!

i was about 8 when i was at a party with family friends. While listening to my dad talking to other adults i overheard him talking about eating a "carnero" (we were all spanish-speaking).
I thought hard about this unknown animal and came to my conclusion.
"Dad? what kind of bird is a carnero?" i asked.
He burst out laughing and explained that a carnero was a lamb
whoops!

I used to believe…

When my Dad was young he thought that when you studied English at school, it was just the name for your own language. So when French people studied French, they called it English.

I thought the word "funky" was a bad word until high school. -What I didn't realize was that I had been saying it without the "n" and that's why it was a bad word!

I read alot as a child and there was one word that intrigued me: IDIOT.
For the longest while I pronounced it I-Dot. Somehow it did not occur to me that a word I used in everyday language spelt like that until about 12 years

I used to believe that all the numbers up to 20 had different personalities, like 5 had 4 children (1,2,3,4) and she was married to six who was always getting attacked by 7. This is how I remembered my math problems.

I used to believe…

When I was about eight or nine, I discovered the lovely "f-word". I knew that my grandparents and my dad would pass out if they heard me say it, but I had to "feed my undying obsession" somehow.

So, I wrote it down on little sticky notes and hid them in a "secret place" (under the couch). Every so often, I'd sneak them out, go into another room alone, and read them while laughing hysterically.

Gosh, I can't tell you how many afternoons I sat in my grandparents' room, staring at little yellow pieces of paper with dirty words scribbled all over them.

It's not like every nine-year-old doesn't have problems.

I had convinced myself that that "even" meant "1,3,5,7" and "odd" meant "2,4,6,8" because of the letters...one, three, and five all had "e's" in them, and seven had the word "even" in it...and two and four had "o's" in them, just like the word odd.

I have no idea how I managed to do so well in elementary school.

I used to think that "Fl. Oz." stood for FLORAL ounces, and I couldn't understand what flowers had to do with anything. I still occasionally misread that abbreviation.

I used to believe…

When I was 9 I overheard my mother talking to a guy friend. Well I was across the room but I swore I had heard him say he was a lesbian. This confused me greatly because I knew lesbians were women and this was clearly a man. I didn't know what to make of it so I put in the back of my mind for a while. A while later he came back to visit and as he was leaving my brother pulled in the driveway and when he came in the door he asked who it was that was leaving our house. My mother replied "Oh that was Mark. Cynthia's husband" and I eagerly added "Yeah and he's a lesbian!" with much enthusiasm. My mom looked at me bewildered and asked where I had gotten that idea. I told her from the visit before, he had said he was a lesbian. She still looked confused a few seconds when it dawned on her and she started cracking up laughing. "He said he was a thespian not lesbian, you silly girl!". Apparently when across the room and listening to the t.v. the word thespian can sound a lot like lesbian to a child.

I used to believe…

When I was about six and first encountered the word 'slippers', I asked what it meant, and was told that slippers were shoes you put on your feet indoors. I made the assumption that they were called 'slippers' because you slide around on them indoors, like on ice skates, and was disappointed for a long time afterwards that this didn't seem to work.

I used to believe…

When I was 6, I heard my mom say pitiful, so I snuck under the kitchen table when nobody was looking and whisper "pitiful, pitiful, pitiful,"to myself because I thought a noughty word!!!

I used to believe…

When my dad used to go out and didn't want me to accompany him, he would always tell me that he was going to see a man about a dog. I used to get really excited thinking that he was going to bring a dog home! I never sussed it even though he never came home with a dog.