foreign languages

I used to believe when I was 5 or 6 that if you kept talking with a stronger and stronger accent that eventually your words would come out in a different language.

sadly disappointed

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 would speak in gidderish, convinced that it was some foreign language I had never heard of

Molly

When i was about 6 or 7 i went on holiday to Greece and met a friend from london (im from wales) and i was forever saying "go on, say somthink in london language" and she would say "i speak english the same as you" and i would say "wow..... thats amazing!!!!teach it to me"

hannah (imbarassed at myself)

I used to believe that once you learned a foreign language that when you heard it, it would translate into english. For anyone who didn't know the language it would just sound like weird words.

Anon

When I was little i used to belive that other languages have to have the same mouth movements as english and rhyme and stuff. so when we were at the mall one day I overheard a woman speaking in spanish to her husband, I said "i know what you are saying" in "spanish" but it came out as "y go but poo far playing" sadly they could speak english 2. oopsies

Stephie

I used to think it was really cool, after visiting France when I was younger, that they all spoke in code (French) so suggested to my cousin that we make our own up! He was 4 years older than me and I think he realised it was French but he still played along, we still use it today- about 15 years later!

Jen

My mother is Dutch and when I was little she would occasionally teach me words. For some reason, I was convinced she had told me that "perpendicular" was Dutch for dinosaur. I even had my own little song for it.

Maya

I used to believe, that I am able to speak every foreign language only by learning "their" alphabet.

matej

I used to believe that a foreign language just had a different alphabet, so that all you had to do was learn the new alphabet and translate it from english one letter at a time...

serious kid

when I was little, I thought that all the states were different Islands or countries. I thought that countries had differnt languages. One day, I heard about New Jersey, For a while i was thinkins what language people spoke in New Jersey

jimmy joe

I remember when I was about 6 or 7, my older sister was in the process of committing the United States' capitals to memory for school. She asked my dad if he would help her, and so I watched and listened as they listed off what sounded like far and distant lands. I believe it was when they came to Raleigh, the capital of... one of the Carolinas?... when I asked, "Dad, what language do they speak in Raleigh?"

Lydia

When I was about 5, My mom and dad took me to my grandmother's house (she only speaks spanish), So I asked my mom "How do you laugh in spanish?"

Jezibela

I was an exchange student in America from Germany, and in Germany they taught us that the word you use for an eraser was also called a rubber. So you can imagine my surprise when I found out another meaning for a rubber when I asked the boy behind me in my math class if I could borrow his!

Anon

When i was little, I was so jealous of people who could speak a different language. Even though i had enough with my own, I decided i was going to learn one. However, after watching tv and not being able to follow along with people and not far enough along to read sub-titles, I decided I was going to find a language most people didnt know and pretend i could speak it. I still think this is a clever idea even though i did make one mistake. I waited to hear a languge on tv and then went to my mom and said, "Mommy, I can speak ENGLISH!" Of course, she laughed and said, "I know." I kept insisting she didnt until finally i broke out in jibber jabber then saying, "There. See? There's english!"

Hannah

I used to believe that to speak Spanish all you had to do was a an "o" to the end of each word.

!!.-ariel-.!!

I used to think that even people who spoke something other than English, thought in English

Peaches