language

I used to believe…

when my little cousin was 4, she was able to count until 9 in english. She said "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eightnine..." she thought eightnine was a whole number.

i used to think that 'e' was in the wrong place in the alphabet bc to me all letters and numbers had personalies and 'e' was a mean letter and he lied and cheated a lot, so he should not be so early in the alphabet or such an important letter. I think i associated him with the color green which for some reason i really didn't like.

I used to believe…

When i was about three for some reason i called Kentucky Fried Chicken, 'F*cky Fried Chicken Kentucky'... i never knew why my grandpa kept asking me to say what my favorite resterant was.

I used to believe…

This happened with my teenaged son. He actually could spell quite well, but his handwriting was atrocious. One day my spouse and I were packaging foods in plastic containers in preparation for a long camping trip, and we assigned our son the job of writing the name of the contents on the lid of each container. When we began opening the containers, each one was like a surprise package! I don't remember them all, except "Raisins" looked like "Raisies," which of course, we never let him forget. Raisins remain Raisies to this day!

I used to believe…

My family speaks German, and as a child I didn't grasp the concept of foreign languages. So when I first heard my aunt's husband, who was from Hungary, say a German word (as opposed to some Gibberish I couldn't understand), I exclaimed: "Look! Uncle Georg can speak!"

I still hear this regularly from my relatives.

I used to believe…

When I was about 6 my mum always used to talk about tatty ard sheep or so I thought, until I pointed out some tatty ard sheep one day whilst out for a drive in the car, my dad had to pull the car over he was laughing so much apparently my mum actually called them tatty arsed sheep and I'd just misheard her.

I used to believe…

My friend used to believe that the phrase "missed by a hairs bredth" was really "missed by a Hares breath". To explain this he said " A hare was crossing the road when a car just missed it." The Hare said,"Phew that was close" Thus the hares breath.

I used to believe…

When I was in kindergarten I used to think that the letter 'n' was in the alphabet twice because at the end of the song, you would sing, "Y and Z", but nobody was being very clear in their pronunciation. This was a source of confusion for probably two years when I would ask my mom "which 'n' do I use here?"

I used to believe that American people were the only people in the world who didn't have accents. I always conplained that I was born in the one place where people didn't have accents. I got over it, though, when my brother informed me that I have an American accent.

I used to believe…

When you learn the alphebet as a kid, it is taught in a song, so it's easy to remember. Well, when ever it came to the "L,M,N,O,P" part, I always thought that was one letter, kinda like "elemeno, P"

I used to believe…

When I was a little girl, all of the older members of my family spoke the language of their home country. I used to think that when you got old, you automatically knew how to speak Yiddish.

I used to believe…

In Belgium, when a public holiday falls on a Thursday or Tuesday, some companies try to allocate an extra day off on Friday or Monday, thus bridging the public holiday and the weekend making an extra long weekend.
Literally translated you would hear people ask and tell each other :
"We build a bridge on Friday, do you?"
Imagine my excitement when I thought my parents were building bridges all over the country! My friends were all in awe as well!

I always got the words kidnapped and adopted mixed up. When I was in the first grade I almost fell over in the lunch line when my friend said she was adopted, (thinking she was kidnapped) I told my mom as soon as I got off the bus that day and she had to explain the difference.

I used to think that my younger brother who was just learning to speak could talk to my even younger cousin who was just a baby (i don't even know where i got this strange idea) but when my cosin would cry i would try and get my younger brother to ask her to stop.

I had a little brother who played soccer and watched a lot of sports movies. In the movies they gave people "pep talks". My brother, since the people were yelling in the movie, thought they were calling people "peptoks" and called me that all the time because he was mean and still is.

I used to believe…

Once, when my sister an I were about 6 and 8, my mother grew exasperated with our unruly behavior and said, "You could try the patience of Job." I thought she said, "You could fry the potatoes of Joe," I was puzzled by why she wanted me to fry potatoes, and repeated that back to her asking what she meant. She started laughing. After that, it became a family inside-joke.

I am an older sister and took great pleasure teasing my younger sister. I told her you had to be 16 before you could be sarcastic (a bit like buying alcohol). She reached 16 and asked if she was old enough yet. I said she had to wait until she was 18 and she very nearly did - Sorry sis.