foreign languages

I used to believe that all foreign languages are actually German, just pronounced backwards...wow.

Kat

When my older sister was learning French at secondary school, she would practice numbers and verbs etc. Somehow I got it into my head that it went un, deux, trois etc up to 13, when I thought it went quatorze, cans, tins, and then I couldnt remember any more numbers! I was repeatedly told by my family this was incorrect, but it wasn't until I got to school was taught the numbers that I had to work really hard to forget cans and tins and continue on to vingt and beyond!

Gemz

When i was a child I used to believe that English was Spanish, but written backwards. So I thought that blue was said "luza" (azul). I used to speak like that all the time.

Natalia-Colombia

I once asked a teacher why a song that rhymed in French and Spanish also rhymed in English. He said they all did that. I thought he meant that everything that rhymed in one language rhymed in every language...which seemed very weird.

Rick

In order to learn another language, one must first learn English. Since both of my parents spoke 2 different native languages and spoke English to each other. They had originally met each other in yet another country and my sister learned that language and translated for them.

Rock and Roll could only be sung in American English. I had never heard R'nR in any other language and further evidenced by the Brits who didn't have their accents when they sang.

This came down like the 'Wall' when at the age of 10 I saw a German-Russian translation book on my grandmother's shelf. I commented that it was a stupid publication because one would still need German-to-English and then English-to-Russian books to use it.

Even 8 years later, with some conversational grasp of 3 languages, I was still amazed to meet people that themselves spoke 3 or 4 languages but we couldn't converse because none of the 7 languages were the same! {How ethnocentric!!! (not in superiority, but can only relation to self)}
Maybe all we do in America _is_ sleep all the time! ;-)---see entry by Sandy (Sydney Australia)

Umami

I used to tell my brother I spoke this foreing language which was very hard (I made it up as I went) and he actually believed me for a long time!

Anon

when i was younger, I U T B (i used to belive) that english was the first spoken languedge, and ours was the "right" one to speak. everone else took ours and messed it up. when ever i heard someone talking another languede i used to get really mad, and mumble " u stole our languge "

olivia

When I was a kid, I believed everyone thought in my native language. How else could people possibly understand their own thoughts?

Anon

Ok. When I was 3 or 4 I used to believe I could speak Indian when I moved my head to right and left with a lot of rrarrbrrnrr

ejee_110_220

I used to think that because English is "universal", it was the most highly spoken language in the world. At 11 years of age, I was surprised to learn that the language spoken by the most people is Chinese, not English. I did not understand how that was so, until I learned that the population in China is huge.

Anon

I once asked a classmate whose mother is Irish, "So, do you know how to speak Irish?".
She gave me a funny look & said, "They speak English".
Cripes! I had mixed up the Welsh & Irish!
That moment has always been one I wish had never happened.

N.A.

my brother thinks that every foreign language he hears is spanish

Ryan

I used to believe speaking other languages than english we just because people were to stupid to speak english.

Anon

I used to believe that everyone spoke English and that they just used translator devices in their ears.

Anon

Until recently, I used to believe that the American English and the UK English were the same language.

Federico

When i was younger i used to believe that when people spoke a foriegn language it was just like they were speaking english to each other, and that if we had subtittles for a forieng language the n they would too...cause they were talking in english to each other...

Anon

when i was an innocent youth, i thought that foreign lagnguages all sounded enlish to forieners. so when french people spoke to eachother, wat sounded like forien to me, sounded like english to them.

charl

I used to believe that the spanish was spoken in the whole world.

Marce

I used to believe that "trois" was spelled "twa."

Anon

When I was really little, just learning to write letters and read I used to think I was very very privelaged. This was because I always saw people of other colors or cultures talking other languages and I thought they were too stupid to speak English. I used to pride myself in being smarter than the foreign people that only spoke gibberish.

Emily