language

I used to believe…

As a young boy, I became possessed of the belief that every person had a hard limit of 3,000 or so on how many times he could use each word. There was a time when I found my communicative faculties greatly diminished by an unwillingness to waste unnecessary uses of "yes" or "no" on what I considered to be trivial matters.

I don't recall believing anything that I've since outgrown. However, I couldn't believe that pronunciations could differ. It was a great concern of mine when I was nine and we were to move from Tennessee to Illinois. I remember repeating "bean" over and over and never believing that it could be pronounced other than the way I's always heard it. Big surprise!

I used to believe…

For some reason, when in Grade 4, i was near one of the kindergarden classrooms and absentmindedly started counting the number of alphabets as the kids were learning the letters loud.. "a,b,c,d...x,y,and,z"..
I was shellshocked to see my 27th finger come up and was deeply upset about not knowing all the alphabets. After several hours of anguish, i fished out the missing link.

I used to think that every word meaning something had the same pronounciation in all languages-the difference was only with the scripts (Example Mom was always called Mother in English, French, Hindi etc). No wonder than that when i wrote my first Hindi exam using English words and Hindi scripts, my score failed to move beyond zero.

I used to believe…

When I was about five or six I remember sitting in the school dinner hall boasting to my friends that I could count all the way to a thousand. Demonstrating I counted 1, 2, 3, ..., 99, 100, 101,... 108, 109, 1000. Incidentally one of the boys to whom I was boasting managed to count to 3000 without cheating when he was sixteen, one boring afternoon.

I thought when I was small that a few people sat and decided what things were going to be called, like when u name a baby, and i didn't agree with some of the names! I used to really confuse my parents! I still don't agree with some of them!!

Who had the right to name a table table anyway?!

I used to believe…

Here in Norway, we have a weekly magazine with Disney comics, called "Donald Duck & Co." When I was a kid, maybe about 8 years old, I used to read it every week. Then, my older sister told me that Donald Duck was dead, and they therefore had ended publishing the magazine. I actually believed her, and started crying!

I used to believe…

When I went to kindergarten, I was very insistent that the alphabet was ..H,I,J,K,elemental P..

I used to believe that people in foreign countries, china for example, made different sounds when then laughed. For instance, we would laugh like Ha Ha Ha and the would say chang chang chang.

I used to believe…

when i was a child, i told my brother that "algebra" was a bad word so he would go around saying "algebra" all the time and sound like a moron...i was a deranged sister.

I used to believe…

We were *not* allowed to say "pee" when I was growing up. My mother told us it was a swear word, and we were to use "piddle." When ever I would hear someone say pee, I would get really embarassed.

i used to think "learning" meant stirring in empty pots and pans with other metallic objects; no idea why. i guess that's what the word "lernen" sounded like to me.

I used to believe…

When I was little, I moved from England to Canada. Before I left, once of my aunts told me that in Canada, everyone spoke a different language, and I'd have to say things like "Keller-eh-teel" (Quelle heur est'il?) and "Bomb sure" (Bonjour)
I was kinda nervous, because I wanted to keep speaking English.

However, years later in French class, I finally figured out what she had been trying to tell me, and it took most of my self-control to keep from laughing. (and showing off my knowledge of a few phrases she'd told me!)

I used to see the signs for Antiques and thought it was pronounced ANTikews.I don't know at what age I finally made the connection between anTEEKes and Antiques. No wonder I went on to major in English in college! :-)

I used to believe that dangerous was pronounced dangaroos. When I seen the sign 'these animals are dangerous' I believed it meant something similar to these animals are mammals.

I used to believe…

When I was little I used to call blue jeans "boondeenies".