language

I used to think that people speaking foreign languages must all be thinking in English at the same time - it never occurred to me that people could think and speak other languages without knowing a single word of English!

I used to believe…

For years my friend John and I would hang out in back of the library under a sign "NO LOITERING".
One day, (we were 17) I threw down a candy wrapper. John said "Hey- don't break the rules. There's no loitering here".
I said "What do you think that sign means?"
"No Littering."
"Well, why do you think it is spelled that way?"
"I don't know- I thought it was a fancy way of saying "No Littering".

I used to think one word in English was another word in another language.
I.E.- cat might mean hair
I would shout random words at my sister thinking I was yelling at her in French. ::shakes head::

I believed that all of the fiction that I read were real in some parallel universe. That when things happened, they set up echoes or waves that could travel between the universes, and that some people could hear these waves and would write them down, and that this is how authors worked. I always wished I could live a more exciting life, in case anyone was reading about me. I believed that people like Benjamin Bathurst, the man who walked around the horses, had found a place where the boundaries between the universes were thin, and he got to go to another universe. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what such a thin place might look like, because I wanted to go to the universes where of Oz and Narnia and Star Trek.

I used to believe…

As a child I could never understand how kids in other countries could manage to learn their languages. I figured it must be much more difficult than Norwegian (my own language) since it sounded like gibberish.
I also wondered why not everyone could speak Norwegian, since it was clearly much easier than other languages, in addition to it being so practical since we could understand each other that way.

Later in life I attempted to study Latin. Even though I was an adult by then, I almost caught myself wondering how the hell the Romans managed to make sense of anything. I was so frustrated by the cases and lack of sentence structure, that I made up a joke theory of how the Roman empire collapsed because of confused communication.

I never really was able to believe that one pound of feathers actually weighed the same as one pound of lead...
'But dad, It's _LEAD_ ! _LEAD_ ! and feathers !'

I used to believe…

When I was child, I used to believe that at the begining of the world, many people of each nationalitys talk together to choose a language for each one and that's because each nationalitys had their proper language.

I used to believe…

When i was about five, i couldnt figure out what number came after fourteen. i knew it sounded like fourteen, so when i counted to twenty out loud, i would say fourteen twice, but the second time i would say it faster, and mumble it a bit. i didnt think any grown ups ever caught on, and i thought i was so clever.

I used to believe…

When I was 7 I used to pick up one of my 'long' storybooks and start reading, then I'd sort of glance up to see who was around and I'd sneakily flip a huge chunk of the pages of the book. I would continue like this, reading little bits and skipping huge chunks until the book ended. I did it because I thought people would be impressed that I had finished the book so quickly. No one was.

I used to believe…

When I was young i mixed the two norwegian words for curious ("nysgjerrig") and shy ("Sjenert"). Come to think of it, I really was both... I guess people said I was both, and both words a "ch"-sound in it..

I thought that if I spent enough time, I could write the biggest number in the world. So I took a piece of chalk and wrote a 1, and then started following it with lots of zeros. (By the way, I was writing on the outside of my house, which didn't make my dad very happy!)

When I had written enough zeros, I proudly showed it to my Dad, who, after calming down from yelling at me about writing on the house, said, "Whatever number you write, I can write a bigger number." I said, "No you can't", and to prove me wrong he took the chalk and drew another zero. Then it dawned on me that there is no largest number!

This led to "infinity" matches with my sister. She would say something involving "infinity", and I would respond with "infinity times infinity" and she would retort with "infinity times infinity plus a googol" and so on ad infinitum!

I used to believe…

When I was 4/5 I switched the meanings of hump (the verb) and
noogie (rubbing someone's head with knucles). I told my dad that
the dog was giving him a noogie by rubbing his leg up and down
and would yell at my brothers to stop humping my head.

I used to believe…

When i was at nursery school i was driving a toy car and drove into someone. The teacher then asked me if i had done it deliberately, i didn't know what this meant, i took a guess at yes and was immediatley smacked.

I used to believe…

When I was about 5, I never knew about the number seven.

I used to count 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10. I remember the shock when, on holiday, my parents told me about sevens.

I still think it was rather a pity; if they'd never told me, I would have been one of the only five-year olds in the UK who could count in base nine...

I used to believe…

When I was younger, my and my (female) cousin used to role play at my nans. Anyway, one day, I decided I should play a criminal. So, I suggested she walk down the hall, and I'll jump out and rape her, and steal her purse!!

I ment I'd 'mug' her, but at the time didn't know the difference between the 2 words...!! oops!

As you can imagine, the our parents and my nan just went silent... :o/

I used to believe that if an american wants to adopt a chinese baby, he got to know how to speak Chinese, in order to communicate with the baby when it grows up.