language

I used to believe…

In Kindergarten, I asked my friend what she was dressing up as for Halloween. She said Tina Turner, but that meant nothing to me, for years I thought she had gone as a teeter-totter(Playground Equipment).

I used to believe…

My dad told me at a very young age that I should read the book "To Kill a Mockingbird". However, I heard him wrong and until I hit the seventh grade I called it "Tequila Mockingbird"

I used to believe…

When I was young, I clearly didn't have all of the language skills that I do now, so I was often frustrated by the fact that I could not spell many words. I thought that in order for a vowel to say its name, the word had to have an "e" in it. Thus, I would spell a word like "cold" as "coled." Also, I would write notes to my mom using only the first letters of each word because it was easier, and I was sure she would understand what I ment. Thus, if I wanted to say "I made my bed and I love you" it would read "I M M B A I L Y." I cannot imagine why she never asked me about this.

I used to believe…

My mom was hosting a fundraiser one year, but I thought she was saying "fun razor". I wanted one (a fun razor)so badly because my dad would never let me play with his razors.

I was obsessed with people that spoke another language when I was a kid. I would drag my mother toward them (much to her embarassment) telling her "Mommy, look! Those are language people!" I wanted to talk to them, to find out what they were speaking, where they were from, what their culture was like. This was when I was three or four. Is it a small wonder that I'm now a translator?

I used to believe…

Being Canadian, I assumed that every country had two official languages; I deduced that the official languages of the USA must be English and Spanish. I'm not sure when I was disabused of this notion.

I used to believe…

My mom was an obstetrician, and I got into her books on labour and birth, so I figured I knew what's what. So a kid on the playground asked me a question about sex, and it started "When a man fucks a woman..."

I didn't have the faintest idea what he meant or how it was relevant to babies; at that point, I thought "to fuck" meant "to beat up"... because you tell someone "fuck you," right?

I used to believe…

When i was very little, i thought God Damn was a name. My great grandma had been talking to my father and she said, "god damn!" and i heard her and said, "that not god damn, thats my daddy!"

I used to believe…

When I was in elementary school, I would spend my summers in Korea with my grandmother. However, my Korean wasn't that great so I often confused the word "shijang" (the market)with "shijip" (married). Needless to say, I got some odd responses when I told callers that my grandmother couldn't answer the phone because she went to get married.

I used to believe…

When I first heard the alphabet, I thought it went a b c d e f g h i j k elameno p, q r s etc. I thought elameno was one long letter. I imagined it would look kind of like an 8 on its side... Don't ask

I used to believe…

When I was a little kid, I wasn't sure if the middle finger or the pinkie finger was the bad one. I think it came after I went out for tea at the ritz and put my pinkie finger up. I must have forgotten which was which! After that point, I was scared to put either finger in the upright position, or risk being a very bad person! (so i thought)

I used to believe…

When I was little there was this asian teacher at school. She had an asian accent so i was havin trouble understaandin her. I figured that if another asian woman could understand her but i couldn't, it must be because asian people have different shaped ears to white people(me). To solve this problem I tried to twist my ears into different shapes so that i could hear her too.
BOOYAH! It didn't work. I learned nothin.

I used to believe…

My sister used to pronounce demolish as de LOM ish.

I used to believe that bastard was just like darn because everybody would yell " You Bastard!" and they would be irritated with them. I was mortified when I found out what it really meant.

i use to think sucker was a bad word because i called my bro that once and he told on me and i got in trouble

I used to believe…

When I was young maybe 5 yrs. old whenever my mom would talk on the phone I always thought she was saying to the person she was talking to "potatos again". So I thought eveyone she spoke to ate only potatos. It was 4yrs. before I realized she was saying "Say this again". And I don't have a hearing problem.