language

I found out about cursing in second grade. I remember being in the computer lab (you can TELL this was the early 90s because we had some sort of turtle math blaster thingamajig, and I didn't even know that "*" stood for multiplication), and being terrified of cursing, and what it would do to me, but still wanting to try it out. OF course cursing was the word "dumb" or GASP "Shut up". I remember me and my friend Natasha Djsevic or something were like "Well, does curshing bring you to hell?" "How many curses are you allowed?" and my friend innocently turned to me and said "Oh, about 100." I immediately started counting all the times I said dumb in my head or out loud and got so scared!!!! So insane to look back on now!

I used to believe…

When I was in 2nd grade, I found out what the middle finger was, it's terrifying impact that is. I was from then on scared stiff that I had accidentally lifted my middle finger and left all the other ones down. I mean, who remembers what their finger has done for the past 7 years. I believed I could go to hell if it ever happened, so I was terrified that I had accidentally did it, or was going to.

I used to believe…

One day my Dad came home from work and told my Mom that he'd hit a pigeon on the way home. I was very young and was still learning and confusing words. At the time, I thought a pigeon was a small person. I remember being very interested and shocked at the news that my Dad had hit a midget. I was even more amazed that he was so relaxed about it, like it was no big deal.

I thought people who didn't speak English were just being difficult. I thought since words in other languages could be translated to english that people who spoke other languages could speak and understand english but just chose not to.

I used to believe…

We had a dairy queen right next to a SunCoast (I think that's right, yellow jagged sign) Gas Station, so the signs were together on the same pole. I use to think that they meant the same thing since they were on the same pole (like SunCoast meant Dairy Queen in Spanish).. so whenever I saw a SunCoast gas station I would scream for my mom to stop and get ice cream.. I didn't figure out the different until I was 11 and we took a trip to Mexico and saw a dairy queen..

I used to believe…

when I was just a little girl, we had the classic video of "the Wizard of Oz", but it had no suntitles (and english is not my first language). So I saw the video with my dad to explain to me, and at the end, when when the lion sings his kings' song, I asked him what the song is about. He told me he don't know, 'coz the song is in lions' language (and I stopped asking).

I had a Mexican nanny when I was little who spoke some English but not much. Sometimes my mom would try and speak to her in Spanish, but rather unsuccessfully. I, however, had completely figured out how to translate anything English into Spanish by the age of three. My "translational" method (which I taught to my poor simple-minded mother) was that you just had to say "es" between all of your words. Example: "Felisa, es can you es es make es me es some es pasta es? Es thank es you!" I now understand the puzzled and worried look that she frequently gave me. Heheh, es silly me!

I always used to think that the end line in the chorus for "Alice" - was Alice? Alice? Who the fork is Alice? I got really confused when my mum told me to stop singing it..

I used to believe…

When I was little i thought that cursive was a grown-up language that was made up of just circles so when i wanted to send a parent a secret message i would put endless connected circles and got mad at my parent when they couldn't read it

I used to believe…

When my mom was driving the car, she used to yell 'indictors!' really loudly to people who didn't use their indicators. I used to think it was a swearword so i cried every time she said it.

I used to believe…

When I was little, one of friends told me that the S word was "sex." I would get really mad at my parents whenever they said the word "sexy." I wouldn't believe them when they told me that it just meant "pretty." I still have a lot of difficulty saying the word, and that's really bad cuz now I'm in high school and I have to use that word.

I used to think that every language used a different alphabet. Once I was in Frankfurt on stopover. All the airport signs had the german on the top and the english on the bottom. So i thought the german words were just english adjectives, despite the fact that the two languages were distinguisehed by different colors. Plus it did not help much that i did not see any signs that read a german word with umlauts over certain vowels or that letter which looks like a beta. Anyway I came across a sign for baths, and the german for bath is "Bad" (also in plural form). And since the german was over the english, I thought it was a place where you take not-so-good baths. Soon I joked, "you take bad baths in germany and good baths in america." I ended up taking german in college to fulfill the language distrbution requirement. I shared that story with my classmates and my instructors.

I used to think that every language used a different alphabet. My family is indian,and the languages spoken in india for the most part did not use the same alphabet. When I was around 8 or 9, i found out that French, german, spanish, italian, swedish, polish, etc also use the roman alphabet.

I used to believe…

When I was small, I was absolutely convinced that I invented a different way to write the number four. There was the traditional method of writing the 4 as the typewriter types it, but I thought I invented the method of not having the top of the 4 touching. I know it's crazy, but I thought this for years.

I can remember when I was little, I figured out how to count up to very large numbers for the first time. I was in the yard, and I counted outloud... I counted to fif-dee, then six-dee, then seven-dee, then eight-dee and finally nine-de,e and I kept going... nine-dee seven, nine-dee eight, nine-dee nine and finally --- TEN-dee! Ten-dee one, ten-dee two... until I got to ELEVEN-dee, then TWELVE-dee.

I was so proud, that after I got it down I did it in front of my mother, who then kindly corrected me, and explained that after nine-dee nine came one hundred.

I don't know how old I was, but the memory is as clear as a bell.

I used to believe…

My parents made me believe that anything with F and U in it (not necessarily in that order) was a swear word. So imagine what it was like not being allowed to say "fun", "full", "feud", or worse of all, "frustrated" and "unfurnished". I wasn't told the truth till I was 14!