At the Slip of My Tongue

Earlier this evening, something happened that was so embarrassing, so compelling, that I could not resist the urge to talk about it here and make light of the situation. (poor me...) It also reminded me of a similar incident that happened exactly about this time of last year.

First, about what happened last year.

I used to be an active member of my university's Japanese Conversation Club for a while. One day, after the usual weekly meeting was over, I headed over to my friends to discuss where we were going to drink that night. Suddenly I found myself getting asked the same question by two others simultaneously. That's when my unforgettable slip of the tongue happened.





In response to two people talking to me at the same time, I said,

"I can't, fuck, two people at the same time."

What I thought I said was, 

"I can't fucking talk to two people at the same time."

Needless to say, a whole group of people turned around and gave me a funny look, until everyone burst into a roar of laughter.

"Why, you don't like threesomes?" They jeered at me.

I tried to explain myself (to no avail), but of course, no one paid any attention to what I said... Goddamn it.

Now onto today's episode.

I was casually playing badminton with a Japanese friend when she asked me to show her how to hit properly. I'm not very good at badminton either, but I had learned a couple of basics from another good friend.

After I asked her to show me her swing a couple of times, I wanted to tell her that she shouldn't put so much force into her wrist. She was grabbing the racket too hard.

So what I wanted to say was,

「手首に力を入れちゃダメ」, or in Romaji only, "tekubi ni chikara wo irecha dame", for which a direct translation would be, "don't put force into your wrist."

Instead, what came out of my mouth was,

「ちくびに手を入れちゃダメ」(chikubi ni te wo irecha dame) 

Now, for those of you who don't understand, I had mixed up the word, "tekubi," which means "wrist," for "chikubi," which means "nipple." On top of that, the word "te(手)" means "hand." Therefore, what I ended up saying to her really meant this;

"Don't put your hand inside your nipple."