Misconceptions that I had !!

[Sriman Dutta]

Hi friends,

 

When we were kids and young, we all had some kind of misconceptions about the world around us that we see.

I had several of such odd thoughts that I want to share with you all.

When I studied in class 4/5, I was introduced to the concept how a electric energy lights a bulb (don't think it to be in detail, for we had only a simple diagram of a DC circuit). In the picture given in my book, there was a battery which was connected to a small bulb through two wires. As a convention two signs were given overhead the battery terminals ( + and - ). At that time, I presumed that + and - denotes the two charge types flowing through the wires. I guessed that protons flowed through the positive wire and electrons flowed through the negative wire.

 

I would like to know if anyone else had such ugly childish misconceptions.

 

 

 

[jimmydasaint]

Until the age of about, oh...36 yrs old, I had the misconception that the sky was blue due to filtering out of other parts of the spectrum. I was totally wrong. I am sure that, even at 54, some of my misconceptions remain to be cleared up. Maybe we are all a collection of partly understood ideas and concepts.

[Function]

Tell you what - as a small child, I always thought physicians couldn't get sick.

[imatfaal]

I remember not understanding how young foreign children could speak a foreign language so well

[StringJunky]

I remember not understanding how young foreign children could speak a foreign language so well

LOL. The arrogance of the English, eh?

[Function]

I remember not understanding how young foreign children could speak a foreign language so well

 

Tbt, I still find it remarkable of just thinking in another language .. Even writing here in English is a consequence of Belgian-Dutch thinking.

[imatfaal]

 

Tbt, I still find it remarkable of just thinking in another language .. Even writing here in English is a consequence of Belgian-Dutch thinking.

 

I am shamefully aware of being a monoglot. I do remember when working for an elderly Egyptian gentleman (who was more a mentor than an employer) that he started addressing me regularly in Arabic - once whilst the pair of us were trying to find the angle within a recondite shipping dispute I said to him "Mr. Amir you are talking to me in Arabic again" and he replied with a twinkle of laughter "That's because you are thinking more and more like an Egyptian"

[Tampitump]

I grew up with a father who was a small plane pilot. The plane's pitot tube (instrument that measures airspeeed) had a device that covered it when in storage to prevent things like insects from getting into it. The cover was a little plug that went over the opening with a ribbon hanging from it that read "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT". Of course, I did not know how to read yet, and I thought the lettering on the ribbon was a warning to the insects telling them to stay out. As a kid, the way I thought this device worked was that the insects read the sign and knew to stay out of there.

Edited November 2, 2016 by Tampitump

[Function]

I grew up with a father who was a small plane pilot. The plane's pitot tube (instrument that measures airspeeed) had a device that covered it when in storage to prevent things like insects from getting into it. The cover was a little plug that went over the opening with a ribbon hanging from it that read "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT". Of course, I did not know how to read yet, and I thought the lettering on the ribbon was a warning to the insects telling them to stay out. As a kid, the way I thought this device worked was that the insects read the sign and knew to stay out of there.

 

Oh so THAT's where the famous "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT" ribbon comes from! I always wondered but it never came to me of looking it up ... Thank you for this fun fact!

[StringJunky]

 

I am shamefully aware of being a monoglot.

My vocabulary just increased by one word.

I grew up with a father who was a small plane pilot. The plane's pitot tube (instrument that measures airspeeed) had a device that covered it when in storage to prevent things like insects from getting into it. The cover was a little plug that went over the opening with a ribbon hanging from it that read "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT". Of course, I did not know how to read yet, and I thought the lettering on the ribbon was a warning to the insects telling them to stay out. As a kid, the way I thought this device worked was that the insects read the sign and knew to stay out of there.

[Delta1212]

I remember not understanding how young foreign children could speak a foreign language so well

In a similar vein, I thought maybe all languages sounded like English to native speakers, but then I wondered what English sounded like to other people, and if we all heard the same thing when other people spoke their own languages depending on what your native language was.

 

Like, did Spanish speakers here what we thought of as Spanish when they heard English speakers talk? But then what did a French speaker hear when an English speaker and a Spanish speaker were both talking in their native languages? I was fascinated in kindergarten when I learned our principal spoke fluent Spanish.

 

I find this especially amusing now as someone who speaks passable German, very rusty Spanish and can read a smattering of other Romance and Germanic languages on a very basic level, mostly using one of those other two as a crutch for more advanced vocabulary.

[Ophiolite]

As a small child I asked my parents why we always went by bus and never in a taxi. They explained that "taxis are for rich people". At around the same time I had heard them discussing taxes, which phonetically is almost indistinguishable from taxis. Putting two and two together and making 7 3/4 I concluded that we paid taxes so that rich people could ride around in taxis.

 

Socialists continue to believe this when they are adults.

[Delta1212]

Oh, I just thought of a good one.

 

Both of my parents are the babies of their family by a pretty fair few years and I was born when they were in their early thirties. As a result, I have cousins with children who are pretty close to my age.

 

There was a time around elementary school, maybe 10-years-old give or take, when I worried that, because I was a generation "behind" that my peers were more evolved than me.

 

Around the same time, I think I saw some signs for that Indigo child nonsense (posted in a Barnes & Noble of all places, I believe), and that didn't help things any.

[EdEarl]

I was about twelve when I realized I was alone; it was later when I realized we are all alone. I'm sure I had many more, but none come to mind.

[dimreepr]

As a child 8/9ish I had 4 teeth removed, all I remember is a mask that smelt funny and then I had two pieces of paper in my mouth that when removed had 4 blood stains on them, I was convinced the paper had dissolved the 4 teeth.

[zapatos]

I used to think that cats were the 'girls' and that dogs were the 'boys'.

 

-----------

 

Early in my marriage, my wife and I were in the kitchen and I wanted her to hand me the tongs so that I could turn over the meat in the skillet. The word 'tongs' didn't immediately come to mind and I instead asked for the 'turner'. Joking around she handed them to me saying "here is the Ike and Tina (Turner)". It stuck. From then on we only referred to the kitchen tongs as the 'Ike and Tina'.

 

Fast forward 25 years, my son is away at college and cooking for a group of people in his girlfriend's apartment when he asks her to hand him the "Ike and Tina", or as he pictured it in his mind, the "ikentina". To him that word was no more unusual than "spatula".

Naturally a big discussion ensues as he is trying to explain what he is talking about, and finally the laughter as someone makes the connection to "Ike and Tina Turner".

He then calls home, flummoxed, embarrassed, wondering if we perpetuated a 23 year long gag on him.

 

Still makes me laugh out loud.

[imatfaal]

...Still makes me laugh out loud.

 

Me too

 

 

Even at 23 my thought was "poor kid!" - I think we all have moments at University / away from home for first time when we slip back into a comfortably usage that suddenly makes us look like a 9 year old to our peers. My father at age 18 had joined up with the Fleet Air Arm (ie Royal Navy flying) and never lived it down that he once called his NCO "Dad" in front of the whole squadron (? not sure of the right term)

[zapatos]

 

Me too

 

 

Even at 23 my thought was "poor kid!" - I think we all have moments at University / away from home for first time when we slip back into a comfortably usage that suddenly makes us look like a 9 year old to our peers. My father at age 18 had joined up with the Fleet Air Arm (ie Royal Navy flying) and never lived it down that he once called his NCO "Dad" in front of the whole squadron (? not sure of the right term)

 

Oh my God. Could only have been worse if he had said "Mom". Haha.

[DrP]

"ikentina" - lol awesome.

 

The correct term for an NCO would be just their rank or abbreviation of it. Corporal, Corp, Sargent, Sarge or Sargent Major I think... calling him Dad is so funny too.. lol. If you call them "sir" their standard reply is "Don't call me sir - I WORK for a living!"

[Ophiolite]

Until quite recently I believed that the British public were smart enough to vote to remain in Europe. What a misconception!

[StringJunky]

Until quite recently I believed that the British public were smart enough to vote to remain in Europe. What a misconception!

Just as we may think America is not stupid enough to vote for Trump.

[Raider5678]

I learned that people flew to the moon and back, that the sun was a ball of hot gas, and that car's require combustion to turn the wheels. Sadly, I didn't learn until I was 4-5 that we no longer fought wars with bows and swords, but with guns instead. *facepalm* I had wanted to ride a horse.

Just as we may think America is not stupid enough to vote for Trump.

Cheers.

[Function]

You might want to consider sending in "ikentina" to Oxford's.

[imatfaal]

You might want to consider sending in "ikentina" to Oxford's.

 

Agreed - I am going to try to remember to use it in future

[StringJunky]

At about 5 years old my mother told me babies "Came out of Mummies tummy" and at some point my mother showed me a programme of just that; a Caeserean section. I believed this for about 6 years until I was 12... and then found out. I was quite upset that my mother lied to that extent.