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TIFU by telling my friend to writhe in agony

A week ago, there was a sakura festival that happened in my city, so me & a group of friends decided to visit the event. After walking around as a group, we decided to go do our own thing, then rendezvous to a certain place before heading back. I went to my own adventure to an area where they did culinary, tea ceremony, and arts & crafts. I'm always interested in calligraphy, so seeing a different arts & crafts happening, including bouquet making, fascinates me.

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After walking around trying to see what's going on in each corner, I stumbled upon a booth where they draw free calligraphy for the guests in the form of a bookmark. The bookmark can contain a name, an idiom, or a combination of both. Since I don't know Kanji, I looked into the catalog of idioms they have to offer, and I picked one that says 七転罵倒, which has the meaning of "never give up". It says something along the line of "no matter how much you fall, keep trying, again and again, until you succeed." I think that was beautiful, so I chose the idiom, and the guy drew it for me. From the looks of it, I don't think the guy knew the actual meaning either, just have a really good artistic skill. Nevertheless, it looks great, I decorated it, and brought it home.

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Yesterday it was one of my friend's birthday and while I was buying his gift, I remembered that he is a bookworm. After I prepared his actual gift, I also put the bookmark I got from last week's event to give to him as well. When I gave it to him, he loved it, especially the fact that the bookmark was homemade (well, kind of). We celebrated, partied, and we all went home, until this morning when he asked me about the bookmark.

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I told him the story, that I got it from an event, thinking it looks cool, has a strong meaning, and that he could use it for his books. Then he proceed to ask me if I knew what it means, in which I replied "to never give up" or something like that. He laughed a bit, which makes me think that something is definitely suspicious. Finally, he sent me the picture, told me to do a little research on it, and to call him back once I discovered something. My curiosity is through the roof, so I proceed to research mode.

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So here's my discovery. The Kanji for the idioms of "never give up" is 七転八起, which pronounced SHICHITEN-HAKKI. The bookmark I gave my friend is 七転八倒, which pronounced SHICHITEN-BATTOU, which is "writhing in agony" or "unbearable suffering" or "utter chaos". The literal meaning for the first 3 Kanji characters 七転八 is "7 falls, 8..." followed by either 起 which means "rise" or 倒 means "to fall or break down". So, instead of giving my friend a motivation to never give up, I gave him a cursed bookmark that literally says to continue falling until he breaks down!

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I called him again and immediately, my first sentence is a straight up apologize. However, the moment I apologized, he just went bursting with laughter. Probably a good solid 30 seconds before he composed himself and started talking about the bookmark again. We decided to do something similar to tattoo in One Piece where the character is crossed out and rewrite the new Kanji underneath it and it's all good, instead of throwing it away. He said that from time to time, he will call me BATTOU to remind me of this incident. I guess I deserved it...

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Now it got me thinking, who else got the cursed idioms besides me in that event...

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TL;DR: I gave my friend a Japanese idiom bookmark without doing proper research on it first. My friend later discovered that the meaning is not what I thought it meant.

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