nationalities

When I was about five or so, I saw a beer commercial on tv. It was two guys having a beer, watching a football game. and at the end the announcer said " The American Beer". Well see I'm Canadian, and I thought that an American was what you called someone who drinks beer and watches football today. I believed that for a couple of years, till i finally asked my parents.

krissie

I used to beileve that all men with brown hair and glasses were from england, and were freaks. I also used to believe that they probably were plotting to kill me.

Anon

I am Chinese but I moved to a foreign 3rd world country(even more 3rd world than china) with very limited information resources at early age, I went to school with a japanese and a korean. And the only information I got was from reading dictionaries and the pictures on it and I read about 2nd world war and japanese carriers and since I grew up in the 80s jap products have become very popular there and i thought they were ruling the world and since they attacked china i thought they were better, but later i read on magazine that china had largest army in the world and I couldn't believe it since I only kno china thru chinese kung fu movies which showed very backward people, and this jap used to tease me and look down on me, But I now know better that china has developped nuclear weapons and space programs to kill all japs if we wanted...what a relieve japs are not ruling the world whew

confused chinese boy

When I was little and I saw Indian, Hindu etc. people with little red Bindi dots on their foreheads I would marvel at how those people all got 'pimples' in the same place.

Emily

When I was young, I thought lesbians were citizens from Lebabanon. I remember seeing an episode of Night Court in which some character says "Christine, I'm a lesbian!" and begins to kiss the surprised Christine and for a few years after that I thought that people from Lebanon had some rather interesting social customs. I found it a bit strange,but I knew that Mongolians stick out their tongues in greeting and it seemed to just be one of those things...

Anon

Growing up in Sweden in the 1960's I wasn't exposed to a lot of foreign influence and didn't quite understand racial differences. Someone had told me that "negroes" (the proper term used in Sweden for black people) originated in Africa. So for me, this became a nationality rather than a race. I refused to see black people from any other continent as black. You could only be black if you came from Africa. My parents had also given my a black doll (Ada, my favorite) and it never occured to me that she was of a different race than my friends dolls. I just thought she was prettier then theirs because she had more colour and beautiful brown eyes.

Anneli

I had beliefs about The Netherlands, even though I never had Dutch friends as a child. They stemmed from a traditional song that you might have sung yourself about a mouse wearing clogs in a windmill and from cartoons. I believed that all Dutch people wore clogs, lived in windmills, made cheese and grew tulips. I didn't think many of them had bikes nor horses and walked everywhere-It was flat so it didn't matter. I also thought when I was a bit older that hamsters came from Amsterdam and I imagined them around the streets (I knew that Dutch people didn't all live in windmills etc. by then :-). I thought they dropped the "h" to make the Amster- part sound a bit less like the cute critters. Oh and the age-old belief that all Egyptians “walked like an Egyptian” and still dressed as they did in the days of the Pharaohs. :)

Ocean-Sirius

I used to believe the Egyptians lives in appalling squalor because they lived next to the Sewage Canal (Suez - get it?)

John the Finn

I used to think Indian women had scabs on their foreheads, but it was bindi!

Emily

I used to belive, that USSR is the best country in the World...:(

Iryna