Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Slip of the Tongue: Tau1 Sik6

As any language student knows, every hint of progress is won by many, many mistakes.  Funnily enough, several of my recent mistakes were actually still workable in the sentence, although I didn't know it at the time.

A few weeks ago, I dropped into a Circle K to pick up some ice cream.  Since it's near my house, I know some of the workers.  This time as I entered, I saw that the two workers, one guy and one girl, were sitting down behind the counter munching some chips.

Ever trying to practice, I wanted to make a comment about "resting a bit" so I said "lei5 dei6 tau1 sik6."  They kind of laughed, and the guy rang me up.  

I wasn't so happy when later I realized that I had totally said the wrong thing.  First of all, instead of saying "tau5"(rest) I said "tau1"(steal)!  My second problem was that instead of saying "ha3" (a bit), I said "sik6" (eat).  So unintentionally I had said they were stealing food!  Which, although it wasn't what I was trying to say, did kind of fit the situation.

Another friend informed me later that my phrase "tau1 sik6" has another meaning also: cheating!  Hopefully they didn't think I was using that meaning!  Live and learn, live and learn.