I think humor is the hardest thing to translate from one language/culture to another. Not only are there slang and colloquialisms to confuse you, but you've also got no idea what subtle cultural taboos and social mores the comedians are poking fun at...So I realized this afternoon as a husband and wife (I think?) team of street performers had 200 spectators in stiches as they joked about sex, marriage, food, family, and probably lots of other things I didn't follow. They were clearly hilarious, and I found myself laughing at all the right jokes, but only because of the physical cues, not because of what they were saying, barely a single word of which I could understand.
Maybe the correct gauge of fluency in a language is not the ability to talk politics or banter about current events, but to tell a really good joke. By this standard, I'm still light years away.
1 comment:
are you saying I can't speak english?
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