Childhood Misconceptions

[Kiyeri]

OT: Thought of another one! I used to think that animals could actually understand English! I saw people talking to their pets and just assumed their pets knew English but were mute.

yeah, I wondered if animals can unterstand their names...can they understand the rest of what we say? I once tried to get my dog to talk 0_0..

I'd still like to believe so, it'd make life so much more fun. Especially since where I live we have a shit-ton of squirrels around. I can just imagine the squirrels remembering who calls them stupid or rodents and planning some sort of devious revenge plan. Probably involving pouncing on their heads when they walk under trees. I saw that happen with a ninja squirrel once, it was amazing XD

 

[Creator002]

I used to think people lived in the traffic lights and watched the cars go by in order to control the lights effectively. I also used to think that people who knew more than one language were superhuman and lived longer than regular humans (seeing as how I thought it look your whole life to learn another language).

 

[Veylon]

I saw "Soft Drink" on the overhead menu at a fast food place as a kid. I wondered what a "Hard Drink" was. So I asked for one. My mom was appalled, especially that I asked several times where everyone could hear in a crowded area.

 

[Little Woodsman]

When I was very *very* young King Kong Escapes was my favorite movie.
For a *long* time, I believed that the ocean is about 40 feet deep, because Kong
is about 50 feet tall and wades back to Skull Island at the end of the movie.

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

When I was young, my mother used to always tell me, "Don't eat so much, your stomach is only as big as your eye." I took the phrase literally, and from then on I was worried if I ate too much my tiny eyeball-sized stomach would burst from all the food.

 

[frizzlebyte]

I used to think that when you went to the bank there was a special vault that they kept your money in, and that when you deposited money in the bank, the drawer they put the cash in was your special drawer. I thought there were just tons of little drawers behind the teller's counter.

EDIT: Ohh, I also thought for several years that apples were actually poisonous. I really shouldn't have watched Snow White, to be honest.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

snip

[i/]"today the self proclaimed "girl gamer" group protested on the front lawn of parliement, campagning for the legalisation of Females playing Videogames..the Prime Minister declined to comment, representivite of the "Family first" party commented "Legalisation of women playing games is a serious issue, exposing women to the addicting and corrupting nature of videogames would no about pose a serious threat to the traditional "family" as we know it, when women would rather play "world of warcraft:black ops" rather than raise their children"[/i]

yeah...still seems odd to me XD

Oh no, I could actually imagine someone saying that. Along with "As video games are a well-known and proven cause of violent behavior, murder, death, cancer, and crying puppies, we should not let the delicate and sensitive minds of our womenfolk see such horrors." Yikes.

That's why men have to keep these evil video games at bay by playing them and suffering from the consequences! Like Drinking and cigarettes. They must be destroyed, so they cannot do anymore harm.
...sad, sad world.

 

[RADIALTHRONE1]

Right up until a couple of weeks ago (im 16) i thought that (btw still not entirely sure) britian, the UK, and the other countries in that area were all seperate countries. i didnt realize that britian and the UK were a collection of those countries.

 

[JagermanXcell]

I always thought horses had 5 legs. No, go on laugh its actually pretty funny when I bring it up.
I always thought you NEEDED to have a girlfriend and to use swear words to be cool in elementary school. I was an idiot, a huge one. Haha
I always believed zombies exist or will exist. I'm proud of this one.
I always thought Samus was a dude, first Metroid game I played was Prime and it took me forever to realize the feminine "ugh"s when I took damage. I look back at this one and think its adorable. I guess you can call it the birth of an early gamer misconception.
I didn't know what 9/11 was. I kid you not, I thought it was like a National Police Day for the longest time. XD
I always though Christmas was the best holiday ever and that Santa existed. The truth hurts man... oh well Halloween is cooler when your older.

 

[Aris Khandr]

I didn't know what 9/11 was. I kid you not, I thought it was like a National Police Day for the longest time. XD

And now I feel bloody old, thank you. I was in college when 9/11 happened.

 

[kurokotetsu]

Right up until a couple of weeks ago (im 16) i thought that (btw still not entirely sure) britian, the UK, and the other countries in that area were all seperate countries. i didnt realize that britian and the UK were a collection of those countries.

Actually, Great Britain is the main isalnd, where ENgland Wales and Scotland are in Great Britan, but the UK includes Northern Ireland, so they aren't exactly synonyms.

Misconceptions. I called 0% alcohol beer, beer. I quite liked the alcohol free variant during a period in my childhood. I confused the motehr of a friend when I asked her "for a beer" while staying for the night.

I thought I could ride my dog as a horse, because they had the same basic shape.

I took me longer than I want to admit that songs in English were also saying things (I'm a native SPanish speaker, but went to bilingual school since my early years).

I believed quite a lot of lies my father told me for his amusement.

 

[Evil Cabbage]

I used to think that if a country didn't have the death penalty, they just extradited criminals to countries which did.

 

[Ieyke]

I saw "Soft Drink" on the overhead menu at a fast food place as a kid. I wondered what a "Hard Drink" was. So I asked for one. My mom was appalled, especially that I asked several times where everyone could hear in a crowded area.

I've gone through this entire thread with not a single thing occurring to me. Nothing...
Until you said this.
It's not really a childhood misconception or anything, but it had just simply never occurred to me that "soft drinks" and "hard drinks" are opposites, but that's probably because no one says "hard drink" around here. We have "liquor", "hard liquor", "alcohol", "drinks", but the specific combination of "hard" and "drink" is so rare that I've never given it any consideration.

Well played, Veylon. I've learned something.

 

[elvor0]

Until just a few months ago, right before turning 21, I thought that the slogan for Kay's Jewelers was just extremely fucking retarded.

"Every Kiss begins with K(ay)." I had never seen it on paper before, and it isn't a phrase, so I never, in my entire life, realized that it is just a really stupid pun. Every kiss literally begins with the letter K, and not Kay.

I truly believed that the fifty+ different commercials that I had seen thousands of times in my life were all saying that every kiss began specifically with their jewelry, and I despised them for having such a stupid slogan. And then it finally clicked at age twenty. Boy did I feel stupid.

To be fair, your conception of it could be true, it's a play on words, where not only does kiss start with a K, but the company are saying "by virtue of buying Kays jewlery you will get teh womenz". I'm willing to bet they conciously made the connection between Kay and K in the advertising boardroom. It's like the Lynx adverts where merely putting it on attracts every woman in a 20 mile radius to your cock, selling power through brand.

This is the first I've even heard of Kay's Jewellers, and that's what I'd assume rather than the K/iss thing.

 

[MakerofMysteries]

Childhood misconceptions? Oh boy, here we go...

I guess the most prominent one (that kinda almost persisted until I was thirteen or fourteen) was, well, the reiteration of some of my mother's certain points of view. She's of the sort that would say "I'm not a racist, BUT Irishmen are drunks/terrorists, all Arabs are evil, you can't trust southerners, all Englishmen are prejudiced (ha), Americans are jerks, etc. We here in the North, however, we are more trustworthy, oh yes."

So, my mindless reiteration of such statements until said age is something for which I'm naturally ashamed. I guess my brain finally started working around then and my own opinions did a 180.

Finally, me ol' mum isn't really a bad person. All right, maybe she is, but she's real kind and loves animals. Although, come to think of it, so did Hitler... (No, no Godwin here, shush, away!)

 

[Padwolf]

My mum used to tell me that if I sit so close to the TV my eyes will turn square. Every night before I went to bed I would run my fingers over my eyes to make sure they were still round.

 

[K84]

A boy at school said to me not to keep my eyes open when running, or i'd go blind.
So, during gymclass i'd run into many a thing until my gym coach asked me why i always closed my eyes and set me right.

Turns out the kid wanted the be the fastest in the class....

 

[Lady Lucky]

Uhg, when I was a kid my grandma told me that if I ate uncooked spaghetti, my breastezez would grow.
If it was true, plastic surgeons would be in big trouble.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

My parents explained to me how Halloween came to be when I was 5. Basically people dress up to fool evil spirits. I thought if I didn't dress up for Halloween I'd turn into a monster.

I also though monarch butterflies had a defensive ability to set themselves on fire. I blame "David the Gnome"

 

[RADIALTHRONE1]

Spoiler: snip

Right up until a couple of weeks ago (im 16) i thought that (btw still not entirely sure) britian, the UK, and the other countries in that area were all seperate countries. i didnt realize that britian and the UK were a collection of those countries.

Actually, Great Britain is the main isalnd, where ENgland Wales and Scotland are in Great Britan, but the UK includes Northern Ireland, so they aren't exactly synonyms.

Misconceptions. I called 0% alcohol beer, beer. I quite liked the alcohol free variant during a period in my childhood. I confused the motehr of a friend when I asked her "for a beer" while staying for the night.

I thought I could ride my dog as a horse, because they had the same basic shape.

I took me longer than I want to admit that songs in English were also saying things (I'm a native SPanish speaker, but went to bilingual school since my early years).

I believed quite a lot of lies my father told me for his amusement.

I just meant that i didnt know that britian and the uk were a collection of countries; i thought they were countries themselves.