nationalities

When I was about 5 and just grasping the notion of there being other countries besides England, I somehow became convinced that France was the exact opposite of Germany. I don't know what I thought that meant though!

Maz

I used to believe when I was little that it was well known that after a certain period of time, the British would invade. I even had dreams about their military marching, millions of them, but all they did was march, nothing else happened. I don't know where the idea came from, probably something sarcastic my dad told me.

cdw_almosthero

My little brother once asked me,
"Erin, if Samuri Jack is Japanese, why isn't he black and speak Spanish?"

ErinM

As a child I first heard about Americans going to Mexico and getting "Montezuma's revenge" from drinking the water. And then somewhat later I heard how it doesn't effect the Mexicans who live there. I later learned that that is because the develop a resistence to the germs in the water. But for a long time I thought that Mexicans don't poop and that's why they can't get "Montezuma's revenge" like Americans can from drinking the water there.

Julia

Until I was almost 18 I believed that Hungarians were black. My logic, they were hungry, therefore it was a third world country where people ate nothing but twigs, 3rd world countries are full of black people.

Emma

I was reading about the Phillipines in class one day, and they kept referring to the Filipinos (people from the Phillipines), but my eyes skipped the first I and I kept referring to people from the Phillipines as being Flipino.

Anon

Last summer some of my friends and I (Canadians) were in England and we ran into a group of Americans, probably about 15 or 16. They asked if we were Americans, and we said no. So they asked if were from Canadia, in reply we asked if they were from Americana.

Cassiandy

When I was a kid,(about 5 or 6), my mother was driving somewhere and she told me,"Look, there's an Indian man walking down the street." I looked, expecting to see a Native American chief complete with feathered headdress and war paint, like I'd seen in movies. When I saw an ordinary-looking man with a dot on his forehead, I said "That's not an Indian!" My mother had to explain the difference between people from India and Native Americans.

OpheliaHoss

When I was little, my sister told me that there were a bunch of different people exactly like me, doing everything I was doing, at that time, in every country. But I thought they were doing it in French in France, and Chinese in China. Like that Brown commercial.

Sonia

When we tuned in to Americana music, I thought that the word "Americana" means a woman is of an American descent.

Anon

I used to believe Saddam Hussein was Uncle Sam.

M

I used to have a stuffed globe I used as a pillow when I was first learning to read. Phonetically sounding out the countries, I used to believe that Niger and Nigeria, were pronounced with a hard G, and proudly announced their names to my mother as Nigger and Niggeria. She VERY quickly corrected me.

Anon

I used to tell my mom that i never want to be turkish, when she finally asked me why, i replied saying because everyyear at thanksgiving we always eat the turkeys!!

Anna