| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] | Poll: Can you make jokes in your second language? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Julian Holmes 
Japan
Local time: 06:12
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
| Blonde jokes | Jan 20, 2014 |
Mario Chavez wrote:
Do they have blonde jokes in Japan?
Please tell us!
No, Mario. Only suicide blondes.
| | | | Julian Holmes
Japan
Local time: 06:12
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
| Didn't fall flat | Jan 20, 2014 |
Helen Hagon wrote:
This did remind me of a terrible joke I once heard at a translators' gathering (apologies in advance!):
Q: How many translators does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Well, it depends on the context...
Nice [bad] joke, Helen.
Try this one.
Q: What do penguins get from sitting on the ice too long?
A: Polaroids
BTW, did you know the answer to my light bulb joke above?
| | | | Julian Holmes
Japan
Local time: 06:12
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
Texte Style wrote:
Right well to answer Julian's unbutchered poll:
...
So to make up for it, just for Julian, a story that is incomprehensible to anyone who hasn't been to a corny English wedding:
I don't know if any of you heard about the guy who wrote the "Hokey Cokey"? So he passed away recently.
His funeral, of course, was a blast, until they tried to put the corpse in the coffin. First they put the left leg in. And then the trouble started.
@Texte Style
Thanks for the thumbs up!
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha Great funeral joke. I belly-laughed on that one.
I wonder what happened when they started singing, "Knees up, mother Brown"? 
P.S.
Noone, absolutely noone in Japan would get these jokes even if I plucked up the courage to translate them into the local lingo. As someone said in this pole, "no cultural reference." AND the concept of sarcasm and black jokes doesn't exist in Japan. Sigh. Woe is me.....
| | | | | Not really but | Jan 20, 2014 |
I can’t tell jokes even in my first language. Of course I can’t tell jokes in my second language =P
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Jacob Njagi
Kenya
Local time: 00:12
Swahili to English
+ ...
| Second language? Which is my second language? | Jan 20, 2014 |
I speak so many 'second languages' fluently making it hard for me to really tell which is my second language. To some of us in Africa, the phrase second language is not very meaningful
| | | | Al Zaid
United States
English to Spanish
+ ...
| I love to... | Jan 24, 2014 |
I've made some good puns...
Once when I was working in an Engineering Project, there was a meeting on the design of some Marine Facilities needed as support for construction. Those facilities were particularly a pain in the...neck because they demanded a lot of permits and technical constraints and there were lots of disagreements among the parties...
On a coffee break I was thinking to myself very absent-minded and without realizing I said out loud:
'We should call them Marine... See more I've made some good puns...
Once when I was working in an Engineering Project, there was a meeting on the design of some Marine Facilities needed as support for construction. Those facilities were particularly a pain in the...neck because they demanded a lot of permits and technical constraints and there were lots of disagreements among the parties...
On a coffee break I was thinking to myself very absent-minded and without realizing I said out loud:
'We should call them Marine "Difficulties" instead.'
Everybody in the room burst out laughing, I was a little scared, since this was a touchy subject and I wasn't supposed to express any opinions (I was the interpreter, for God's sake!!!). But it caught on very quickly and even the Project Manager called them Marine Difficulties now and then. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Chris Ellison
Spain
Local time: 23:12
Member (2013)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Make or tell | Jan 28, 2014 |
I'm all up for the unedited poll, but I reckon there's a huge difference between making a joke and telling one! ;o)
It reminds me of the joke about the jail inmates:
A guy gets sent down, and at his first lunchtime in the prison refectory he experiences a really weird phenomenon. Every now and then one of the other inmates stands up and shouts out a number making the rest of them collapse in stitches.
Bemused, the bloke turns to his neighbour, who is wiping... See more I'm all up for the unedited poll, but I reckon there's a huge difference between making a joke and telling one! ;o)
It reminds me of the joke about the jail inmates:
A guy gets sent down, and at his first lunchtime in the prison refectory he experiences a really weird phenomenon. Every now and then one of the other inmates stands up and shouts out a number making the rest of them collapse in stitches.
Bemused, the bloke turns to his neighbour, who is wiping tears from his eyes, and says "What's goin' on?". The man replies "They're telling jokes. Thing is, we've all been here so long that we know 'em all so well that we decided to give 'em all a number. Saves time. You know, the chicken crossing the road is number 3 and so on."
The new guy, thinking it would be a good way to ingratiate himself, decides to try it out. He stands up and shouts "53!". The room goes silent as the metaphorical tumbleweed rolls past and the inmates look at him stony-faced. He sits back down, crimson-cheeked, and asks his neighbour "What happened? Aren't there that many jokes?". The bloke slowly turns to look at him and shrugs. "It's the way you tell 'em."
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