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language: reading

304 beliefs

I used to believe…

When I reached the third grade, my family moved to a different state and, threfore, I had to attend a different school. It was larger than my old school, so it was already intimidating. The first day, as I was walking down the hall, I saw a sign that said "Walk on the right side of the hall." I thought it meant walk on the 'correct' side of the hall. I was so scared, because nobody had told me what the correct side was.

— pastrami

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I used to believe…

As a child I read on a sign once "apply within" and at the time I thought it had something to do with apples!

— Lesley

I used to believe…

When I read the phrase "under fire," I thought that "under fire" means there's something burning below us like the White House, ground, etc.

Anon

I used to think that "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" was a story about an awful lot of sports being played under the sea, since there were 20,000 leagues there, in the story.

— Hayley

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I used to believe that "critical acclaim" meant that they liked it, BUT had some major problems with it, too.

— Beth

I used to believe…

When was 6-7 i wasn,t very good at reading big words, and every evening i would sit with my Dad and read to him out of the newspaper, and when i came to a word i couldn,t say, he told me to say Wheelbarrow, and one friday in school we always had reading out load, so when i was asked to read , i kept saying wheelbarrow when i came to a word i didn,t know, so after a while the teacher said Janice why do you keep saying wheelbarrow, and i told her my Dad told me i could always say that word if i came across a word i could not read.


Sadly my Dad died when i was 9years old but i shall never forget my time spent with him while he lay in bed.

— Janice Owen

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i used to believe that 'island' was pronounced 'is-land' instead. I know im not alone on that one! :)

— Da KornMeal

I used to believe…

When I was about 6, I had to take CCD. Well, we were reading about the Pope. Unfortunately, I didn't know the word "Pope" so when I had to read our book out loud in class, I read it as "the holy Poop." Needless to say, I was VERY quickly corrected, and I never made that mistake again!

— Miss Mustard

I used to believe…

When I was younger, I noticed there was a spot on certain forms that said "Sex: -Male -Female" I used to think that I had to mark off which I preferred sex from. It scared me...

— Alias

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I thought the reason no one liked Lady Macbeth because she was cruel and said bad words to her dog (Out, out, damned Spot.)

— Carol

I used to believe…

When I was young I was really baffled by those signs with a map and 'you are here' on them. I had I kind of mental block, that I just could not figure out how a sign knew where I was. When I asked people they just laughed at me so I came to the conclusion that all 'You are Here' signs were personally erected for me to track my progress through the world. Narcissus complex or what?!

— jude

I used to believe…

When I was little I thought that the weight measurement "pounds" were different from "lbs." I thought lbs was pronounced lubs, and got a good laugh when I explained this to my family.

Anon

I used to believe that anything printed in a book had to be true!

— b

I was reading a book when I was about 10 and it was about Greek Myths. There was a character in it called Persephone,And I thought it was pronounced Purse-e-phone. I thought it was really funny

— clo

I used to believe…

When I was about two years old, I would always ask my mom to read me this particular book. I thought it had great stories in it and for a really long time, it was my favorite book.

Come to find out, it was a picture book. No words at all. I guess it's a testament to my mom's great storytelling abilities, but it still makes me feel like I was lied to.

— M

I used to believe…

When I was about 6, our reading book at school had the story "Penelope Gets a New Bike." I thought it was pronounced "Pin-uh-lope", so when the teacher called on me to read, I said, "Pin-a-lope went to the park..." My teacher said, "That's pin-el-o-pe." Nobody laughed or anything, but I was still very embarassed.

Anon

I used to have a subscription to Highlights magazine. Their slogan on the front cover was "Fun with a Purpose" which I thought meant "Fun with a porpoise." Each month I scanned the pages looking for the fun porpoise...

Anon

I used to believe…

When I was young I had a computer game that taught you reading skills. On of the words you could click on was "sax" which I confused with "sex". I was very curious to learn was sex was but didn't want my parents to see me click on it cause I thought it was bad. I was very dissapointed and confused to see a picture of a saxophone!

— Katie

I use to believe that I had written the version of the Three Little Pigs were the wolf was a good guy. I made a big stink about it when I saw the book in the library. I told my parents that they had stolen the idea from me.

— Krissy

I used to believe…

my childhood was complete wreck (due to parents who were still children emotionally). I loved to read. I would read Dick and Jane and all those great books about life. I used to believe that if we would just move to a street named after a tree our lives would be perfect, just like in the books I read. My all time favorite was Maple Street.

— coop