foreign languages

When I was young, I thought everyone in the world understood English.

Tia

When I was about 4 or 5 I used to believe that all black people could speak Spanish.

Anon

My father started to teach me English when I was about four or five years old. I could already read and write Finnish - my first language - and I was picking up English quite fast - in the speaking department, that is.

When my father wasn't watching, I tried to write down some English words. I just didn't realize that in English words aren't spelled the way they are spoken (as opposed to Finnish). This is the way I jotted down some of the words:
A bird = ö bööd
A cat = ö khät
A girl = ö gööl

Minna Pöntinen

When I started learning to speak German (it was the only foreign language offered at our high school bvesides Spanish) I got a book from the library the summer before, so I could learn a few words. I told one of my friends, and we decided to tease our other(very gullible) friend. For some reason we started called her 'kugelschreiber' (ball-point pen) and for several weeks she believed that it was some kind of obscenity.

Anon

i used to think everyone in the world spoke english

Me

When I was little I always thought that when my mom made fun of the chinese language that she was actully speaking chinese. So I would talk "chinese" to her.

Anon

When I was 4 or 5 years old, I believed that all black people could speak Spanish.

Alan

i used to belive that English wasa THE frist langudge, and every other country coppied off of us, and that we were the origanal and only ours counted, and no other one was real. they just jibber jabbered...

Olivia

When I was little, I had a friend who was Chinese, and I'm Filipino. When my mother and her mother had a conversation, they spoke the same language. I assumed that people from a certain country could only speak that language and English( because I also thought that English was the primarey language of the world) so I thought Tagalog and Chinese were exactly the same.It turns out that they could just both speak Tagalog! =)

Ciarlene

When I was little I asked my mom whether American babies can understand other American babies, and Mexican babies can understand other Mexican babies. I thought babytalk was like adult languages, but only babies could understand it.

anonymous

I thought there were only 3 languages in the entire world - English, Spanish, and Chinese

Anon

When i was little, i watched sesame street alot, and they would do a number song in spanish. Well, i must have miss understood them, because for the longest time i would sing, Uno, dos, tres, CUATHRO... my mom tried to correct me but i argues with her because thats what i thought i heard!

Diane

I used to believe that because kids in school learned English, then kids in English-speaking countries would be learning my native language.

Anon

I used to believe that when people spoke a foreign language they were just babbling and I wondered how they could possibly understand each other.

Anon

When I was around 5 years old I went to Mexico on a vacation. I was in the pool at our hotel and this little Mexican girl came up to me because she wanted to play. I was trying to talk to her but she kept speaking in Spanish and I couldn't understand her. I thought that she could understand english and that's what it would be in her head, but since she was born in Mexico she HAD to speak Spanish.

Anon

I used to believe that "Auf Weidersen Goodbye" from the Sound of Music number was "Are we to say Goodbye".

Anon

when i was real young and stupid, i used to think that the only reason people spoke different languages is because they couldn't say all of the english words right.

kim

i thought foreign laguages where alien talk.

lizzy

When I was younger, I asked my mom why all of the people in the Japanese restaurant were speaking french, and then asked the waiter for some mashed potatoes.

Kylie

Well my family is Portuguese and one day my grandfather was driving and left his signal light on i said papa " your blinka! your blinka!" he said "heeeyyy dont ever say that again". Comes to find out when i said " blinka " it is almost the same word in Portuguese for a mans private part.

Ur Blinka! Ur Blinka!