[QUOTE=Sunrazor]
My mother was in her 40s when she learned that Spain was not right next to Mexico, and that the Spaniards had to sail across the Atlantic to explore the Americas.
[/QUOTE]
At least she learned it. The geography teacher of a friend of mine refused to believe him when he said Spain is not “right beside Colombia.” He claims he didn’t bother listen to her for the whole rest of the year.
I can clearly recall the day (in a ninth grade English class) when I gave an example of a “false friends” pair of words: “The two words MISLED (“MY-zled”) and MISLED (“Miss-led”) are pronounced differently, yet are spelled the same and even mean the same thing!”
(Insert sound of mental defrag operation kicking in)
“Ah… Never mind.”
Somehow I had read the word “misled” before hearing it, pronounced it “MY-zled” in my whatever-year-old head, and subsequently acknowledged the existence of the word “mis-led” without ever realizing they were the same until then.
[QUOTE=Nava]
If a friend of mine with a PhD in Art is to be believed, that’s a traditional convention in Western art, the kind of thing that’s so common most people don’t even think about it. Movement is usually represented left to right; movement right-to-left is most commonly found when you have two opposing or simmetrical movements (two armies running to the field of battle, two parties joining); movement right-to-left by itself is often interpreted as violent movement even if nothing else in the picture indicates violence. Often when you see in a comic book a fist punching and a K-POW, the fist is coming up-and-left from the bottom-right corner… a whole figure punching will follow that same diagonal (the “primary” diagonal) rather than its opposite. This is after all the position you get if you’re drawing a punching rightie (most people) from behind - a punching leftie will follow the secondary diagonal.
[/QUOTE]
That’s fascinating, Nava. You’re right: it’s one of those things people never think about. I still think that my reaction is related to the direction in which English text is read, though.
I had a similar “why didn’t I ever notice this” reaction when I first encountered Japanese comics and discovered that the artwork went right-to-left, because that’s how the columns of text went…
[QUOTE=robardin]
Somehow I had read the word “misled” before hearing it, pronounced it “MY-zled” in my whatever-year-old head, and subsequently acknowledged the existence of the word “mis-led” without ever realizing they were the same until then.
[/QUOTE]
That’s exactly how I thought the word was pronounced as well.
For the longest time, I believed that Flushing Meadows, NY, got its name from a local toilet manufacturer! 
I was like 8 years old before I realized my teachers didn’t sleep at the school, and the people who worked at the Safeway didn’t live there. :o
I thought until I was in my 40s that “vapid” was related to "vapor’, and so I pronounced it “vay-pid” in my head. I think I’ve only said the word out loud to my wife, who corrected me. And for a long time, never having heard it spoken, I thought “flaccid” was pronounced as though the two Cs were S - “flassid” rather than the first C as an X - “flaxid.” That’s what it looks like, doesn’t it?
[QUOTE=fishbicycle]
I thought until I was in my 40s that “vapid” was related to "vapor’, and so I pronounced it “vay-pid” in my head. I think I’ve only said the word out loud to my wife, who corrected me. And for a long time, never having heard it spoken, I thought “flaccid” was pronounced as though the two Cs were S - “flassid” rather than the first C as an X - “flaxid.” That’s what it looks like, doesn’t it?
[/QUOTE]
What? Vapid isn’t pronounced “vay-pid”?
[QUOTE=Staggerlee]
I thought ‘awry’ as pronounced ‘ore-ree’, until last year. Glad I had never used it in conversation.
And the pineapple thing…
[/QUOTE]
I just found out the pineapple thing this thread.
I knew how to say ‘awry.’ I knew what it meant. But when I saw it in print, for the longest time, I pronounced it in my head ‘AHH-ree.’ It just clicked one day that ‘ah-RYE’ and ‘awry’ were the same words.
It doesn’t? How do you restart the heart then?
Re: “vapid” - Nope. The first syllable rhymes with “crap.”
[QUOTE=fishbicycle]
And for a long time, never having heard it spoken, I thought “flaccid” was pronounced as though the two Cs were S - “flassid” rather than the first C as an X - “flaxid.” That’s what it looks like, doesn’t it?
[/QUOTE]
Both are correct. You can hear both pronunciations here:
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/flaccid
[QUOTE=Licentious Ectomorph]
I’m another one who didn’t realize that the vagina and urethra were two separate holes until the Anatomy & Physiology class I took as a pre-requisite for nursing school at the age of 33. My excuse is that I’m a gay guy.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, it’s amazing how much female anatomy we gay guys don’t get. I didn’t understand this till I was in my ***forties!!! ***And a few years later, I was shocked to learn that a lot of women still think they pee out of their vaginas. I know it’s hard to see down there, but don’t they wonder how they can still pee when wearing a tampon?
[QUOTE=delphica]
Until two years ago, I thought the Mississippi Delta was the delta of the Mississippi River. I don’t know why I believed that, except maybe possibly because they call it the Mississippi Delta.
Anyway, I thought it was the delta of the Mississippi River in the same way the Nile Delta is the delta of the Nile.
[/QUOTE]
Up until about 30 seconds ago, I thought the same thing for exactly the same reason.
[QUOTE=DeadlyAccurate]
I just found out the pineapple thing this thread.
I knew how to say ‘awry.’ I knew what it meant. But when I saw it in print, for the longest time, I pronounced it in my head ‘AHH-ree.’ It just clicked one day that ‘ah-RYE’ and ‘awry’ were the same words.
It doesn’t? How do you restart the heart then?
[/QUOTE]
There we go, my first one. I thought Awry was AHH rie. I hope I haven’t said it like that yet.
One day, well into my adult years, my dad asked me if I could paint the back fence at his townhouse. The condo association provided the paint store name as well as the brand and color of the paint.
I remember driving to the store thinking to myself “I hope they’re not out of this color…”
Of course, for those who have never bought paint, it’s almost all white and they color it to order when you buy it :smack:.
Another –
When I was young, my brother had a fancy switchblade knife that his friend had smuggled home from Germany. The blade was stamped “Rostfrei” in the same fashion that Swiss Army Knives bear the Victorinox name. My brother went on to tell me about the high quality of knives made by Rostfrei and that they were a prestigious German knifemaking firm.
I believed this for decades, until I saw the fine Rostfrei name showing up in one too many low-quality places. In case you don’t speak German: “rostfrei” = “stainless”
[QUOTE=friedo]
Due to the elliptical nature of the earth’s orbit, the earth, including the north pole, is actually farther from the sun during summer (in the northern hemisphere) than winter. What matters is that the north pole is angled towards the sun during the summer months, and away from the sun in the winter. The southern hemisphere experiences opposite seasons for the same reason.
[/QUOTE]
I was going to correct this, until I saw that you actually did say that it was the angle that matters, not the distance from the sun; even if the northern hemisphere were closer during the summer, the distance involved is so minuscule compared to the distance to the sun that it would (and does) make no difference.
I told my wife about this thread, and she said I should tell you that when she was a kid, she thought “melancholy” was pronounced as it’s spelled, with the soft “ch” sound - she thought it was “me-LAN-cho-ly” until she saw the Smashing Pumpkins album called “Melon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” and put the two together.
[QUOTE=alphaboi867]
I too thought that babies came out of a woman’s anus (mainly due to an episode of Star Trek: TNG). Was was 11 before I learned otherwise.
[/QUOTE]
Okay, I’ll bite. Which episode of TNG was this, and why did it give you this impression?
(Because I can’t remember a Trek episode where a woman crapped out a kid! :eek: )
[QUOTE=panache45]
Yeah, it’s amazing how much female anatomy we gay guys don’t get. I didn’t understand this till I was in my ***forties!!! ***And a few years later, I was shocked to learn that a lot of women still think they pee out of their vaginas. I know it’s hard to see down there, but don’t they wonder how they can still pee when wearing a tampon?
[/QUOTE]
I was going to answer earlier but got interrupted. In my case at least it’s because I didn’t use a tampon until I was sexually active. My mother would have flipped if I was using tampons before that. Anything inserted into you takes your virginity away, after all. :rolleyes: We won’t think about the stuff that twelve years of professional dance does to you!
[QUOTE=Captain Carrot]
I was going to correct this, until I saw that you actually did say that it was the angle that matters, not the distance from the sun; even if the northern hemisphere were closer during the summer, the distance involved is so minuscule compared to the distance to the sun that it would (and does) make no difference.
[/QUOTE]
IOne of my solar power books says that the variation in the Earth’s distance from the sun only results in about a 5% variation in received power on a surface at right-angles to the sun’s rays at the distance of the Earth.
Given the way that the incoming solar power is spread out at different angles across the surface of the Earth at different seasons and times of day, a 5% variation in the incoming intensity would be swallowed up by the variations at ground level.