As a young boy I was always interested in fairy tales. My grandmother would read me bed time stories when I was staying at my grandparents house. She would tuck me into bed and usually read me stories from the Grimm brothers or Hans Christian Anderson.
From a young age I knew I was different then the other kids. I was able to learn myself a different language just by focussing on the subtitles displayed on the television. My parents would tell me all the scary things parents tell their children in order to get them to play outside. ‘Don’t watch the TV too long son, or else you get square eyes’. At six years old this already seemed strange to me. ‘Then why aren’t your eyes or grandma’s eyes square? You watch football all the time’. No answer, because my dad didn’t have an answer, cause its nonsense. I get why he said it. Children need to play outside in order to learn, and understand the world around them. I played outside with friends all the time.
However when Dragonball Z first aired in my country, I was extatic and completely enhammered with everything that the TV showed me. It was dubbed in English, I didn’t want to read the subtitles the rest of my life so I learned the language by linking words. To this day I refuse to watch the original Japanese version, because Goku can only be voiced by Sean Schemmel. So help me God, this man can never die.
When I was eight years old we went to Denmark. The Danes, at least at the camping site where we were, spoke decent English. So my young self, my little brother and sister went to the farm owner. We wanted to help feed the chickens, and play with the young kittens that were sleeping somewhere in a barn. Even though my English wasn’t ready for full length conversations. It was ready to ask at least these questions. I asked the Danish woman if we could these things. She agreed with a look on a face that said, how is this little foreign (non-English) kid able to communicate with me.
Story of my life by the way. Adults not understanding what I am, gifted, able to learn very quickly. I’ve always thought everyone was dumb, like 90% of this world at least. I’ve asked myself the question several times. ‘How can this possibly be difficult for someone?’
03-08-2025 Addition
Elementary school for me was an opportunity to make friends. I hung out with all the boys in my class. I went to their homes to learn what their lives were like. Also how their parents treated them. I found different family dynamics in every different household. It was an interesting learning experience to say the least.
For example: I got punched in the nose once for using cheat codes. I was playing Starcraft at a friends house, and there was a piece of paper next to the mousepad with cheats written on it. Now, any normal person wouldn’t mind you using them. However my friend’s older brother didn’t seem to agree. He saw me using ‘his’ codes, and he went into a rage. “You are not allowed to use them!” I turned around, and received a right hook straight to the nose. Blood was running from my nose. His mother yelled at him, and was sent to his room. I received special treatment, since he shouldn’t have done something like that. Luke warm tea with milk and cookies turned out to be a great medicine, the box of tissues shoved in my nose were probably more helpful, but still.
I grew up in a town where parents, parented other children when straying from what was socially acceptable. I always found this to be strange, since my mother never really did this to other children. To be fair, she didn’t really have to since I wanted to be away from home usually. I was always more interested in how other children in my class lived. What their families were like, what the interior of their houses looked like, what type of entertainment they had. We didn’t have a N64 for instance. Several friends of mine did. I loved to play Super Smash Bros, usually I would play either Captain Falcon, Samus or Link. And of course most of us watched Pokemon on TV, so all of us wanted to have Pokemon cards (if only I saved some of them. My mansion would have been built by now). My generation really grew up with American media. That’s why most people my age are fluent in (American) English. At least that’s what I thought…
06-08-2025 addition
To my surprise, not everybody in my generation was fluent in English. When I got to high school, several class mates of mine weren’t that fluent at all. People would get D grades or C grades. One time there was this girl I liked, her English skills were horrible. I let her cheat of me. She needed a D+ in order to pass the class. She was so happy when the results came back, she hugged me in order to thank me. I kind of froze, cause I didn’t expect it. Mostly because I didn’t expect her to be that joyful for a grade like that. My dad would have been disappointed with a grade like that.
Tales From A Martian 