nationalities

I was afraid of my grandma because i thought she had germs because she was german!

Anon

Up until I was about 10, I used to think that all italians lived in huge house, had mistashes(like mario), ate spagettie every night for dinner, were always joyful and sang italian songs all day and night, lol.

anon

Until I was about 16 I thought that Palestinians were actually called "Palaced Indians."

Anon

One time I heard that 1 in 4 people in the world was Chinese. I thought that meant one out of every four. For weeks, I would look around my class of predominantly caucasian students figure out which of them were really Chinese.

nicole

I used to believe that a racist is something like a person who loves to race on the racetrack.

Anon

I used to believe that "euthenasia" was "youth in Asia", and I couldn't figure why that was A Bad Thing.

Kellye

I used to believe all Italian women were named Mia because of the phrase "Mamma Mia!"

Anon

I used to think that Hebrews came from the Hebrides.

Anon

When you are little the world fills up bit by bit with foreign countries. At the time I'm thinking of I at least knew there was America, Germany, Poland and Eskimoland, with just that minimum image of each to be going on with (never mind how crazy with hindsight). But there was also Switzerland which maybe wasn't a proper country, you never saw it in newsreels or heard it mentioned in news bulletins or newsreels for instance, but on the other hand every day I saw our 'Made in Switzerland' clock so it had to be a half-real country at least. But frustratingly I knew two and only two things associated with the Swiss to construct an image with, Swiss mountains which were big hills and Swiss rolls. Putting this scanty material together I guessed a good way of moving around in mountains would be to roll down them. I formed this image which has never quite abandoned me, of lots of Swiss people rolling bumpily down these vast slopes. That raised an obvious problem - not even knowing of ski-lifts I just lived with the idea they never went uphill, they started life at the top and never went back.
I disagreed with the philistine way adults ate Swiss rolls, cutting a slice and just eating it like an ordinary piece of cake; I insisted on eating them as they were meant to be, from the outside in. I vaguely remember this being tolerated while a parental line was drawn at my eating them from the inside out. One day with my parents on a shopping expedition I discovered carpet rolls in which they were taking an great interest. These obviously suggested Swiss rolls, and I also realised it would be a more comfortable ride to roll down a mountain inside one. I imagined Swiss people, more often than wrapping them around, climbing into the middle of one of these rolls when they had to go somewhere.


At some point though I knew more words of Swiss than I did of any other foreign language. I remember the words were yodeledi yodeledi yedi ledidee. Not an encouraging start for language learning: not only I didn't know what any of those words meant, but I thought I couldn't hope to master the difficult pronunciation of this language. Still, the rhythm of those words was just right for Swiss to sing them in their outlandish tongue in synch with the rotations as they rolled down the mountains in their carpets.

eppenguin

I used to think that Psy and Kim Jong-Un were the same person

Anon

I used to beleive that the people in Australia had sticky feet. That way they wouldn't fall off the earth.

Bradda J

when i was little my dad and i watched a show and there was a line on it where the main charectar kept shouting "The British are Coming, The British are Coming" like in the indapendance war, i didnt understand and asked him who the british were and why the were coming, and he said big men in red suits would come and get me if i didnt wash the dishes...i obediantly washed the dishes until i was 13.

Anon

I thought people in Hungary were always very hungry and the people living in Turkey always stuffed themselves...

Anon

My best friend told me that when germans say nein, they are meaning the number nine. I believed this until I was 12

Anon

When i was about 5 years old my parents would say not to drop the flag or well have to burn it soo until i was like nine i used to beleive that if a flag touched the ground it would simeltaniously combust

dsl

i used to believe i was native american because i was a native of america!!!

rachel

I was super anxious the first time my family went to a Chinese restaurant, because I thought they'd throw you out if you weren't Chinese.

Carol

When I was young, I would listen to people talk about "foreigners" and think they were referring to the inhabitants of some specific country. So, one beautiful day, my dad asked me "Do you know where foreigners come from, dear?", to which I hesitantly replied: "Uh... From Foreign?..."

rcguim

I used to think that Germans were men that had germs...hey, I could read when I was like 3 so the word itself made sense...

Amanda

One of my classmates in kindergarten told me that Germans were filthy people and that Germany was a place filled with germs and you can get sick if you come in contact with a German. I believed this for a very long time and started to be scared of other people, because they might be german and i didn't want to get sick!

Mariana