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What Were YOUR Erroneous Childhood Beliefs?

That reminds me of 'Pedagogical Pop', a 15 minute show I used to catch sometimes on the BBC World Service, where the lyrics to current chart songs were dissected & explained for the benefit of foreign listeners. All done in a very dry BBC way.

I remember it from the 70s/80s where they'd pick a song such as Every Breath You Take by Police. It could be a bit comical depending on what song was the subject - "he's expressing his love for her & appreciation of her shapely body using fruit as a metaphor. A metaphor is.."

In my first teaching job I had to help a non-native English teacher break down scenes from Toy Story with particular emphasis on idiom. She seemed a bit shocked when I explained that 'Son of a building block' was a corruption of something... non-family friendly.
 
That reminds me of 'Pedagogical Pop', a 15 minute show I used to catch sometimes on the BBC World Service, where the lyrics to current chart songs were dissected & explained for the benefit of foreign listeners. All done in a very dry BBC way.

I remember it from the 70s/80s where they'd pick a song such as Every Breath You Take by Police. It could be a bit comical depending on what song was the subject - "he's expressing his love for her & appreciation of her shapely body using fruit as a metaphor. A metaphor is.."

That's just the sort of thing I look out for on 4 Extra. Reminds me of the Joseph Ducreux meme:

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As a voracious reader of comics in my childhood, one of the things that happened to a lot of characters at one time or another was that they would be blinded in battle with some villain or other but then get their sight back a couple of issues later.

So often did comics use this plot device that I just assumed it was something that could happen to anyone, like breaking an arm or getting toothache.

I then saw the video for Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love in which Brian May, unusually, was wearing sunglasses and I casually assumed that he'd just gone blind. Not long after this I saw him in another video, sans shades, and noted that he'd apparently regained his sight.
 
On the old Glasgow buses, circa early 1960s, there were leather loops on a rope, attached to a metal bar above, which were intended for holding onto if it was standing room only.

Never having seen them used previously, I remember asking my dad, to his great amusement, 'Are they for hanging bad people on the bus?'.
 
I still remember how devastated I was as a young child, to discover they weren't real at all.


'Watch with Mother'! Had quite forgotten about that!

And don't mention, 'Sooty & Sweep'; that was traumatic.
 
We sang in Primary School
"There is a green hill far away,
Without a city wall ..."

I was of mature years before it twigged that 'without' meant the opposite of 'within'.
Oh. My. Word. All these years, and me a linguist.

It's a dreary hymn, as so many of them are, but there was a mash-up I think I heard at school (although probably not actually in assembly) which raises the mood a little. I'll take it up from where BB left off:
"... Where our dear lord was crucified,
He died to save us all.
Two. Three.
He died to save us all.
He died to save us all.
For he's a jolly good fellow.
He died to save us all."
 
That's better than the extraneous "of Kings!"
 
I still remember how devastated I was as a young child, to discover they weren't real at all.


'Watch with Mother'! Had quite forgotten about that!

And don't mention, 'Sooty & Sweep'; that was traumatic.

We listened to 'Listen with Mother' when I was a kid. No telly.
 
'Are you sitting comfortably ? Good; then we'll begin'.

My brother and I used to call it 'ding ger dong' due to the introduction tune.
 
Not trying to brag, but honestly I can’t think of anything. Pretty sure I had Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny figured out by age 5 or so. Of course it was as few years later before I admitted it.
 
When I was in Secondary School (yes, I was that prole) we had a music teacher (Mrs Forster, RIP) who did her best to get the class to sing, or at least to make musical sounds to) 'Who is Sylvia'.

The version we had to sing began 'Who is Sylvia, what is she. That all our swains commend her ?.

The problem was that it had something like an eight bar intro, and every time we goofed it up, she would have to start all over again on the piano. Plus, although we all knew what swine were, we were not so sure of 'swain'.

Just out of curiosity I Googled it. Never knew it was by Schubert.

And the translation is (Google Translate)..

Was ist Sylvia, saget an,
Das sie die weite Flur preist?
Schön und zart sech' ich sie nanh'n,
Auf Himmels Gunts und Spur weis't,
Dass ihr alles unterthan

What is Sylvia, says
That she praises the wide corridor?
Beautiful and tender, I do not nail her,
On the sky Gunts and Spur knows,
That you subdue everything.

Make what you can of that.

INT21.
 
In the spirit of the original post that started this thread, as a young boy I did actually believe there was a little man in the fridge who turned the light on when you opened the door! Ah! Innocence.
 
As a child, when our old cat's kittens 'disappeared', I was told they had gone to the farm.
 
When I was in Secondary School (yes, I was that prole) we had a music teacher (Mrs Forster, RIP) who did her best to get the class to sing, or at least to make musical sounds to) 'Who is Sylvia'.

The version we had to sing began 'Who is Sylvia, what is she. That all our swains commend her ?.

The problem was that it had something like an eight bar intro, and every time we goofed it up, she would have to start all over again on the piano. Plus, although we all knew what swine were, we were not so sure of 'swain'.

Just out of curiosity I Googled it. Never knew it was by Schubert.

And the translation is (Google Translate)..

Was ist Sylvia, saget an,
Das sie die weite Flur preist?
Schön und zart sech' ich sie nanh'n,
Auf Himmels Gunts und Spur weis't,
Dass ihr alles unterthan

What is Sylvia, says
That she praises the wide corridor?
Beautiful and tender, I do not nail her,
On the sky Gunts and Spur knows,
That you subdue everything.

Make what you can of that.

INT21.

I know what a 'gunt' is, if it helps.
 
Just checking my Concise Oxford German Dictionary (Yes, folks: real paper).

'Gunts' appear to be favorites.

So Himmel' gunts are Heavens favorites.

And 'Spur' means track

I need to do more work on this.
 
I believed that all the events in the Bible happened in Britain.

A friend of mine believed Phil Collins was in Darts.

Don't laugh but ...I believed Olivia Newton John and Elton John were brother and sister now THAT would have been a really odd family :)
 
In the spirit of the original post that started this thread, as a young boy I did actually believe there was a little man in the fridge who turned the light on when you opened the door! Ah! Innocence.

Maybe you were exposed to Tommy Steele at a tender age?
 
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