language

I used to believe…

when i would see a "FIRE HOSE REEL" i thought that meant that it was indeed a real one, and that there were many fake fire hoses around to either trick people or just for display.

I used to believe…

My family went on vacation to Hawaii and we went to Pearl Harbor to do the tourist thing. They were refinishing an exhibit out doors and there was a sign that said "PLEASE WATCH FOR FLYING DEBRIS." My brother says, "what's flying DEB-ris (pronounced as it looks) and my dad says, "they are part of the Flying Wallindas." Dorks :)

I used to believe…

My parents were from a foreign country. Every time my dad would get mad, he'd let loose with a string of swear words in his native language. Then, when I'd hear an opera where they were screaming or singing loudly, I thought that they were also swearing.

I used to believe…

My Dad had a saying for when we were having lots of fun. It was "I haven't had this much fun since the pigs ate my little brother!" I thought it was hilarious and never actually believed it or thought anyone else took it literally. When I was almost 5 years old my kindergarten teacher heard me say it. My little brother was about 6 months old at the time and the teacher asked my Mother to come in for a serious discussion about my mental health.

I used to believe…

When I was a child, I thought that "ferret" was a bad word, and to call someone a ferret was one of the meanest things you could do. To this day, I cringe when I hear the word.

I used to believe…

When I was younger, I knew nothing about accents and thought that when someone talked with one, they had gotten into a car accident. One day when my mom's friend who had an accent came over, I said to her "I'm sorry about your accident, but I like your voice!"

I used to believe…

This happened to my brother. He used to call everyone "maggot" as a rude term to get a rise out of people. It was many years later he found out that when he thought he was calling people a racist term, he was really calling them a form of larvae.

I used to believe…

When I was little, I just couldn't get my mind around the concept of people from other countries speaking anything other than English. Yet I knew it had to be true because I personally knew people who spoke Czech, Italian & German. My solution to this dilema? I was firmly convinced people spoke other laguages, but thought in English!

I used to believe…

When i would explain an action by saying"well, I THOUGHT......:, dad would reply "you know what thought did, uh uh in her pants" . I thought he said "you know what "dot" did" which is my aunts name. I was left with the impression that my aunt had a bowel control problem for a long time.

I used to believe…

whenever i would ask my dad where is was going, hed answer "crazy, wanna come"? For the longet time i thought he said "Gracies" and couldn't figure out why my mom was letting him go to another woman"s house.

I used to believe…

When I was in third grade, our teacher had left the room for a minute and left me "in charge" of taking names while she was gone. Well, all was well until I told the teacher that a girl said a bad word. She asked me what she said and I told her "the B-Word!" The girl got in trouble and had to write sentences. All for saying "Butt"!

I used to believe…

When I was little I didn't know what the word 'determined' meant and always pronounced it 'dettermind.' It took me ages to realise what it meant and how it was really supposed to be pronounced. How embarrassing!

I used to believe…

When I was about 7 or 8 I hung around with a girl in the neighborhood who was about 12. One day some kids going by on a school bus flipped us the bird. I ased her what that meant. She said, "What's the worst word you could think of?" I said, "Sh**?" "No, no," she said, "it starts with an 'F.'" I stared at her blankly... "An F then a U..?" she said. Finally she gave up and just whispered it to me. I said, "What does that mean?" Frustrated, she walked away. I didn't find out until about four years later.

I used to believe…

When I learned there were foreign languages and seven continents, I thought each continent had one language. Then I thought that I could form my own language, but I'd have to find new land first.

I used to believe…

My grandmother's native tongue was Japanese and she pronounced English words very poorly. Up through college, my mom would say and even write in papers "asuna" as a word, not realizing that that's how her mother pronounced "as soon as."

I used to believe that in America (I'm English) it was thought of as swearing to stick up your pinkie finger without the others.

I also thought that swearing could get you a heafty prison sentance in America so when we were going on holiday there soon and my dad swore I got upset.

I used to believe…

When I first got elected to student government in my first year of university (so, I wasn't a kid then, I was NINETEEN years old, lol), whenever we talked about moving "in and out of camera," I kept looking around to see if I could find an actual camera hidden in the ceiling or something. One day, I asked this one really nice older guy where the camera was, and, fighting back the urge to laugh at me, he explained to me that it was just a Latin term to distinguish private, closed-door discussions from matters where we didn't have to worry about confidentiality so much.