Is it 'ku' or 'gu'? That is the question.

The story began with a medical checkup.

Dock or dog? Sometimes I lose track of which is which. I sometimes even say 'human dog' (ningen doggu), but when I think about it, 'human dog' means a human dog. That must be a misuse.

When I looked it up, 'dock' originally refers to a facility for ship repairs and the like. It is the English word 'dock.' So, writing it as 'dog' (doggu) seems to be a misspelling. I feel relieved.

Now, here is another one that I get confused about in the same way:

A bag containing tea leaves. 'Bag' (baggu) is the correct term here. However, if I'm not careful, I might say 'back' (bakku). If I say 'back,' the tea changes too. It becomes a T-back.

Oh my, what a situation. It would be terrible if I blurted out something like brewing tea with a T-back. Even though it should be a casual scene in the kitchen, erotic elements would suddenly get mixed in.

Wikipedia, which explained that 'dog' is a misuse in the explanation of a ship's dock, did not mention the misuse in its explanation of a tea bag. I wonder if they were embarrassed.

I myself was hesitant, too. Whether I should write this story or not.

I imagine there are some people in this world who casually refer to this ↓↓ as a T-back.

Even when I search for 'tea-back' on Google, the first thing that jumps out at me is the tea variety. It's no wonder some people are mistaken.

I was worried that by writing this article, I might end up confronting those people with a harsh reality. Like telling them, 'You're making an embarrassing mistake.'

However, they say that asking is a moment's shame, but not asking is a lifetime's shame. Even though I wasn't asked, I felt it was better for you to know this now.

To those of you who were mistaken, please be careful with the misuse from now on. And to those of you in my generation, this is no time to be thinking about things like 'the ingredients are big' just because you hear the 'gu' sound.

That said, there are times when you might not know which one it is on the spot. I have those moments too. In such cases, let's just mumble something like 'tea-ba...' and gloss over it. Sometimes it's better not to be too clear.