language

I was a very quiet child. That's because I believed I would wear out my vocal cords whenever I talked and I had to save them for when I was older.

I sincerly believed that numbers only went up to ten when i was around 2-3. Yep the next year when we started things like 20 and 100 i was amazed and quite convinced that they had just been invented. yep i was very proud to be around for the invention of numbers over ten.

I used to believe…

My youngest sister was always getting her words mixed up.
She thought 'semolina' meant food poisoning (salmonella), and that the UK celebrity, Cilla Black, was called Silly Plank, and that Mum and Dad banked with the Happy National (Abbey National).

I used to believe that 'hospital' was pronounced hos-pill-til, because that's where you got medicines and pills to make you better!

I also remember seeing the word 'Mom' written in a book, and thinking that it was a mis-spelling (in the UK we say 'Mum'), not realising that Mom is American.

I used to believe…

my former colleague, david neilsen, used to belive that there was a nomadic dwelling - perhaps like a yurt - called a "purpose". he inferred this from a figure of speach which he took to mean "what i'm about to say is so obvious it's known by all nomads". the idiom in question was "to all in tents and purposes...."

I used to believe…

As a child my mother would warn my sister and me that "If you don't stop that I'll spifflicate you". Whe nI was young, I thought spifflicate meant spank or punish. When I got older (in my teens) I thought it was just a word she made up to frighten us. Recently (in my twenties) I actually looked it up (trying to prove to someone it was ont a word) and found that spifflicate IS in the dictionary and it means to KILL!! Now I'll bear psychological scars the rest of my life because I discovered that my mother had been treatening to kill me when I was naughty. I confronted her with this once and she just laughed at me. She KNEW what the word meant!!!!�

I used to believe…

From watching old WW2 movies as a kid I thought Germans (in Germany) spoke English with a German accent, Japanese spoke English with a Japanese accent and so on.�

I used to believe…

When my younger sister was really small (maybe 5), she got in the habit of calling me a 'stupid fuck'. One time, she said that to me and my mom walked in. My mom wasn't exactly happy hearing my sister say that, and to avoid her own embarrassment, she made me tell my sister what 'fuck' meant. Apparently my sister just thought it was another term for a person, but not a 'bad' word. That was the last time she's ever called me that.�

I used to believe…

When I was a kid, it seemed kids knew all the swear words. I thought swear words were a secret code that only kids knew about. I was shocked the first time I heard adults use OUR words, and doubly shocked to find out that these words had correct spellings and even appeared in printed books. �

I used to think certain numbers had personalities.9 was very smart and manipulative, and if other numbers didn't watch it, she'd add herself to them and rob them of their rightful place in the "teens". 4 wouldn't become 14, but only 13, etc. Four and six were nice, but easily fooled (especially 4), 7 was smart and 8 was bossy like my sister. Go figure! ;)

I used to think "so-and-so" was a bad word. My mom would be talking to a friend and say something like, "That guy's a little so-and-so!" She would whisper it so I though "so-and-so" was a bad word. However, she was saying "so-and-so" instead of the bad word she really wanted to say.

I used to believe…

When I was little, a boy at my babysitter's house told me that his mamma wanted him to make straight A's. I tried and tried but I couldn't understand that was possible since two of the lines that made up an "A" were slanted.

I used to believe that the people on magazines and books could see you. (waayy before the Harry Potter moving picture thing) So when in the loo I'd have to turn the faces over or put them in a cupboard so they couldn't see me using the toilet.

I learned a bit of Spanish growing up in Texas. In the fourth grade, I suddenly realized that people who spoke Spanish didn't translate it into English in their heads when they talked. It was a revelation that when they spoke, the words just menat what they meant without being translated back and forth.

I used to believe…

When I was young, up until about third grade, I thought I would NEVER learn how to write in cursive! It looked so hard! Well, I finally learned and I now think that printing is hard! :-)

I used to believe…

When I was learning Spanish in school, I would always remember that Buenos Dias was in the Morning, and then that Buenos Tardes was in the afternoon. At school, the teachers always explained to us that "Buenos Noches is after supper," so that's what I'd remember. To this day, especially during the summer, I get looked at funny when I say Buenos Noches if I'm out somewhere after suppertime and it's still light! I guess I thought that you said "Buenos Noches" only during the hours following supper. Not when it gets dark!