Link: https://old.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/1vkkepx/tifu_by_mixing_up_languages_while_role_playing/

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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/ahtcs026 on 2026-08-10 13:09:24+00:00.

This is a light hearted one :D

Small bit of context: English is not my first language. My first language is Ukrainian.

A week ago or so my friends and I were playing our final session of a mini campaign for Daggerheart. If you haven’t heard of that game, it’s another tabletop role playing game similar to DnD. As it was the concluding session I had it planned where the villain was going to take over the world using a special artefact so and so. Not only that but I also planned a reveal where the villain is the father of one of my players’ character. What I had in mind was that (as this is a long distance player group) the previously mentioned player will stay on call with me while the others will be in a separate one so it would be a bit more dramatic and then the player that stayed on call with me would tell the others what had occurred. The session was going nicely and then it was time for the reveal. I was a bit nervous as it was basically my first time being the game master and I haven’t really made any twists for any previous games before this. My heart was honestly kinda pounding, but nonetheless I did a small monologue and it turned out well. I was really excited to see my player’s reaction too and they were really keen on role playing so this was awesome. Then, my player’s character had asked the villain if he’d actually known how the artefact worked. And what I was about to say was: “You see he looks at you as he says ‘Ohh you don’t even know how much I’ve researched about it! I’ve got it all here-‘ as he points to his temple”. Sounds simple enough, right? Well. Prior to this I’ve been listening to a song called «Юніті» by хейтспіч (that’s Unity by hatespeech). In said song I heard the Ukrainian word for “temple” (as in the side of one’s head) which is скроня (basically pronounced as “skron’a” with the n being a bit bore nasal sounding). I heard it there for the first time and was really excited to use it in any shape or form like an excited middle schooler who had just learned another curse word. So as I was about to do it while saying that line, right in that moment I realised that I’m playing this game with only English speakers so I have to say it in English. Except my brain decided not to translate the word, but instead use the most similar sounding word. Guess which word I said? That’s right! Scrotum. I said that the main villain of my mini campaign who turned out to be the father of the player character he’s speaking to right now and had researched everything about a magical artefact, had the research in his scrotum. The person I was speaking to at that moment proceeded to burst out cry laughing until the end of the session which had like 2 hours left of it while I was just giggling to myself the entire time and the other players didn’t even get to hear that thing go down which, in my opinion makes it even funnier.

TL;DR I said scrotum instead of temple while trying to build tension amidst a role play.