Saying what you mean to say requires intention and attention. Choose your words carefully, for they can be spoken wrong or received wrong. Thinking before speaking can be the difference between saying what you mean or having it all come out differently than you intended. I learned first-hand the truth of the importance of saying what you mean to say.
While visiting friends in Spain as a teenager, I was recounting an embarrassing story about myself. My Spanish was good, but I had a bad habit of making up words if I didn’t know the translation. I would alter an English term into something that, by sound, resembled the word I wanted to say. Many times, the trick worked. On this particular occasion, it did not. I was trying to say I was “very embarrassed.” I changed embarrassed into embarazada. To my horror, as soon as the words left my mouth, a look of shock came over everyone listening. I had accidentally announced to everyone that I was very pregnant!
Declaring I was with child was not at all what I meant to say! The difficulty of the situation was then in how to correct what I had stated. Had I asked for help in coming up with the right word to begin with, I could have avoided further embarrassing myself. Thankfully, my statement was quickly corrected. We all had a good and much-deserved laugh at my expense.
The point is to be impeccable with your words. Choose what you say carefully. Don’t risk it coming out with consequences. Try to time the delivery correctly. Words come out wrong; when they do, it isn’t always a laughing matter. Pausing before speaking can avoid causing unnecessary hurt to others. Saying what you mean to say is the best way of communicating.
