language

I used to think that if you spoke several languages, you could only do one at a time. So, if something interesting happened when you were in French mode, you wouldn't remember it if someone asked you in English. I believed this for a very long time.

I used to believe…

When i was about 7 i heard my older sister, Amy(12 at the time) accidently cut her toe on some glass, then mutter "bloody tourists". after asking her about it i learned from her that everything bad that happens is tourists faults (thanks Amy!). i soon was too saying "bloody tourists" whenever something bad happened. about a month after that my aunty and uncle came over from New Zealand to stay with us and my aunty jessie was setting the table when she accidently spilt gravy all over my food (i hate gravy). her face went deep red when i screamed at her and walked off to my room saying "bloody tourists".

I used to believe…

As a young child I attended a Mexican run religious pre-school. The nuns there tried to teach us our colors by song, for years I sang it with their accent, "Red, orange, jell-o, green blue purple..." My mom still laughs at that one!

I used to believe…

When I was 8... I read the book Fantastic Beasts and where to find them, which is written as part of the harry potter books.

I read the entry about a Letifold which the book said was a big black blanket-like animal that slithered under the door and ate people. I made my parents keep my bed facing the door so i could always see if there was one crawling in. Then I read the book again and noticed that it said they could only be found in tropical areas. So i was safe.

Then my parents made me go on vacation to Hawaii. I cried myself to sleep because I was so scared. After we went home my parents managed to convince me there was no such thing.

I used to believe…

When my father was young, he would read adaptations of Greek myths. He thought that Persephone (purse-eph-oh-nee), the queen of the underworld, was pronounced "purse-eh-phone." He also thought that Penelope (pen-ell-oh-pee), the wife of Ulysses, was pronounced "Pen-ell-lope" (rhymes with "cantaloupe.") It actually took him a long time to adjust to the correct pronunciations.

I used to believe…

When my husband applied for his first job when he was around 15 or so...
The application asked if he spoke a foreign language he put Enlgish. He got the job, I'm assuming because he made the interviewer laugh so hard when he read over the app. I asked him why he would put that. He said well I of course speak Amerian because I live in America & I took English in high-school so at the time it made sense. He also trys to play it off that he was nervous as it was his first job interview. Now when he mumbles something & I can't understand him...I'll ask him to let me know if he's speaking American or English so I can translate it as I am not bilingual.LOL!

I was in the third grade when John F. Kennedy became President. My father was an ardent Republican and a big critic of Kennedy. He was saying that Kennedy was "always putting his foot in his mouth". I didn't understand that figure of speech. When we did art at school, I drew a picture, supposed to be of President Kennedy, with his foot literally in his mouth. My teacher was confused and definitely not amused.

I used to believe…

When I was about 9, i thought i was really clever by making up the phrase "birdbrain goes twit twat"! I thought it was innocent enough, I was just creating a phrase using three derogatory terms - I was quite a know it all! Birdbrain - stupid person; instead of him goin tweet tweet, he would go twit twat! My pride was short lived! I announced at a family gathering that I had made up, all by myself, a clever new saying! After saying the word twat infront of my nan, I was swiftly sent to my room! what disgraced me more was that i didnt know what the word meant, i was so embarrassed!

I used to believe…

when i was about7 ish i used to think that the correct way to pronounce gand prix was grand pricks. when i shouted it out in class i had to stand in the corner for the rest of the lesson

I used to believe…

Up until about 3 years ago i had always mistaken the expression: "Take it for granted" for "Take it for granite." As much as i tried to understand this, i could never comprehend why anyone would take anything for granite.

I used to believe…

This isn't really a belief, more of an experience.

When I was in third grade, I was convinced that 'bad words' did not exist. If someone told me that I'd said a bad word (and they were mistaken, because I never said anything worse than 'stupid'), I would ask them indignantly how a word could be bad. The same thing happened if I accidentally used my middle finger to point to something - it was just a finger!

One day, while there was a substitute, we were working on something about the states and a few kids in my group had just realized that Massachusets, when said with an odd accent, sounded like "Massachu-shit." They were laughing hysterically at this, and I thought that "shit" just sounded funny to them and had no meaning, so I said it once or twice to get a laugh.

A few minutes later, one of the kids had somehow snuck away (the very same one that taught my my new word) to tell the teacher that I had said a bad word. I, of course, had absolutely no idea I had, and I didn't say the word "shit" until the seventh grade out of sheer embarassment.

I worked at a daycare center after school and one day me and another girl who worked there walked into one of the classrooms and saw that the kids had had show and tell earlier that morning, we were asking them all what they brought in. one little boy came right up to us and said 'i brought in a dumb fuck', meaning a dump truck. we both practically fell off our chairs laughing!

I used to believe…

Living in the UK during the 70's and 80's I used to get really upset 'cos so many people were losing their jobs as plants and factories were closed down. I even asked my mother why didn't they just move to that town where there were loads of jobs. Following a rather blank look, she asked what I meant. "Well" I replied, "The man on the news said there were thousands of jobs in Jeopardy"

I used to believe…

When I was 7 our family decided to move to Dubai for afew years. I thought that I'd completely stop speaking English and I'd start speaking Arabic and Arabic would take over English and I mae my friends swear to teach me English again when I got back

I used to believe…

my friend thought that French was pronounced like English backwards, because we live in Canada, and English is on one side of packaging, and French on the opposite side.

I used to believe…

when 1 was 5 i went on my first holiday abroad to spain and i thought soon as i got there i could instantly talk spanish and will come back unable to speak english

I used to believe…

When I was in kindergarten, we learned the vowels. I drifted off during class, not really paying attention. Afterwords, I came home and told my mom that the vowels were A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y and W. She told me W wasn't a vowel - I contested that, yes, it was because my teacher had told me so!! And I held to that belief that W was a vowel up until 5th grade...

I used to believe…

There was this kid in a higher grade than me and he called someone the E word (I was oly 7 so i thought it meant idiot or stupid head, not a swear) so later in class i got REALLY mad at some one and i called him the E word, unfortunatly the teacher heard me...