erinja:It's true, jokes are hard to translate.

I have a Canadian friend who lived in Israel for a fairly long period. She said that when she went to see movies, the native English speakers in the audience would laugh at completely different times than the native Hebrew speakers. I think it wasn't only due to differences between speech and subtitles, either; the situations they found funny were different.

I've heard about things like that before. Apparently an auxiliary language won't be able to solve all things (especially cultural diversity)

erinja:It's true, jokes are hard to translate.

I have a Canadian friend who lived in Israel for a fairly long period. She said that when she went to see movies, the native English speakers in the audience would laugh at completely different times than the native Hebrew speakers. I think it wasn't only due to differences between speech and subtitles, either; the situations they found funny were different.

I agree jokes are hard to translate! In Mexico we have jokes for almost everything and it becomes really hard to translate and explain to someone from another country wanting an explanation of it. I agree that the jokes showed on this website are not the best... I sometimes have that problem as well, I think I have misunderstood the joke when it is the joke that is not funny!

Sinanthiel:Maybe someone should write an Esperanto joke book, with actual funny jokes that are translated into Esperanto.

HOWEVER, I truly believe that something an american/brit would find funny, someone from Russia, or Africa wouldn't understand what is funny about it. Some jokes might be funny, but many foreigners I've met understand english perfectly, and jokes just go right over their head... It's the same with their jokes, they'll tell me a joke and I don't get it, and it's not funny to me, and the other person is laughing their head off.

The main reason behind this is because humour is essentially cultural. A group of people with a common cultural heritage share a set of references, of common experiences in life, and can therefore more easily relate to each other.

Our cultural heritage plays a big part in teaching us what's funny and what's not, what's tragic and what's trivial, and so forth and so on. The people in certain Inuit tribes in the Canadian North cry when a child is born, and celebrate when a person dies; the reason I was given about this is that life is so harsh in that environment, that the people mourn for the hard life that the child will have to go through, and celebrate for the person who has just passed away because that person's hardships are over.

Culture not only affects our notions of funniness or tragedy, but also teaches us different conceptions of time. I always joke that, for us, Latin Americans (and for Arabs as well), time is elastic. If a Latino tells you that he'll meet you at 4 o'clock, brace yourself because he'll most likely be there at 5 and that will feel perfectly normal for him, while for, say a Canadian, that's just plain rude to show up that "late".

And to conclude, I'd like to tell you a Russian joke. For some reason, I understood it, but I think it'll be funny all over again because chances are most of you won't

Stalin's ghost appears before Vladimir Putin one night. Putin tells him "Joseph, I need your advice. How can I better rule this country?". Stalin tells him "First, round-up all the democrats and have them shot, and then paint the inside of the Kremlin blue." So Putin asks him "But why blue?". Stalin replies "Ah hah!! I knew you wouldn't ask me about the first part!!"

betoxx:

erinja:It's true, jokes are hard to translate.

I have a Canadian friend who lived in Israel for a fairly long period. She said that when she went to see movies, the native English speakers in the audience would laugh at completely different times than the native Hebrew speakers. I think it wasn't only due to differences between speech and subtitles, either; the situations they found funny were different.

I agree jokes are hard to translate! In Mexico we have jokes for almost everything and it becomes really hard to translate and explain to someone from another country wanting an explanation of it. I agree that the jokes showed on this website are not the best... I sometimes have that problem as well, I think I have misunderstood the joke when it is the joke that is not funny!

Especially when it comes to translating the "doble sentido"

Uvi:
Stalin's ghost appears before Vladimir Putin one night. Putin tells him "Joseph, I need your advice. How can I better rule this country?". Stalin tells him "First, round-up all the democrats and have them shot, and then paint the inside of the Kremlin blue." So Putin asks him "But why blue?". Stalin replies "Ah hah!! I knew you wouldn't ask me about the first part!!"

Okay, that was funny to me... I don't know why you would think that it's not funny to most people... I think that was hilarious. I laughed pretty loud. Then again, I have a dark sense of humour. I laugh a lot every time I watch pulp fiction.

Sinanthiel:

Uvi:
Stalin's ghost appears before Vladimir Putin one night. Putin tells him "Joseph, I need your advice. How can I better rule this country?". Stalin tells him "First, round-up all the democrats and have them shot, and then paint the inside of the Kremlin blue." So Putin asks him "But why blue?". Stalin replies "Ah hah!! I knew you wouldn't ask me about the first part!!"

Okay, that was funny to me... I don't know why you would think that it's not funny to most people... I think that was hilarious. I laughed pretty loud. Then again, I have a dark sense of humour. I laugh a lot every time I watch pulp fiction.

That makes you unusual then , perhaps you understand the Russian soul. Most people to whom I've told this joke don't really get it, especially Canadians (where I live) and Americans. I guess a minimum to even get a smurk out of it is to have a notion of who Putin is, and who Stalin was, and about Russian politics.

I'm glad it got you a good laugh

What we need are joke about esperanto and esperanto culture.

For instance:

Junulino revenis de junulara kongreso, kaj la patro ŝoferis ŝin hejmen de la flughaveno.

Filino silentis dum la tuta veturado, kaj ŝia patro demandis, "Filino, kio maltrankviligas vin? Vi povas diri al mi pri io ajn."

"Kara Paĉjo, mi ne plu estas virgulinon."

La patro suspiris kaj diris, "Mi elspezis tiom da mono por sendi vin al esperanta kunveno kaj vi ankoraŭ ne uzas ĝuste la akuzativon."

The only way I can translate this is to substitute an English grammatical point for the Esperanto one.

A young woman returned from a youth educational conference and her father drove her home from the airport.

The daughter was silent during the entire trip, so her father asks, "Daughter, what is bothering you? You know you can talk to me about anything at all."

"Daddy, I ain't a virgin anymore."

The father sighed and said, "I spent all that money to send you to an educational conference and you still say 'ain't'."

Lunombrulino:What we need are joke about esperanto and esperanto culture.

For instance:

Junulino revenis de junulara kongreso, kaj la patro ŝoferis ŝin hejmen de la flughaveno.

Filino silentis dum la tuta veturado, kaj ŝia patro demandis, "Filino, kio maltrankviligas vin? Vi povas diri al mi pri io ajn."

"Kara Paĉjo, mi ne plu estas virgulinon."

La patro suspiris kaj diris, "Mi elspezis tiom da mono por sendi vin al esperanta kunveno kaj vi ankoraŭ ne uzas ĝuste la akuzativon."

The only way I can translate this is to substitute an English grammatical point for the Esperanto one.

A young woman returned from a youth educational conference and her father drove her home from the airport.

The daughter was silent during the entire trip, so her father asks, "Daughter, what is bothering you? You know you can talk to me about anything at all."

"Daddy, I ain't a virgin anymore."

The father sighed and said, "I spent all that money to send you to an educational conference and you still say 'ain't'."

Mdr, that was really good I had to read it twice before I got it, but I found it quite amusing.

I may be wrong, but as I see it, "ain't" is much more of a error than using the accusative wrong. Still, funny

Lunombrulino:What we need are joke about esperanto and esperanto culture.

For instance:

Junulino revenis de junulara kongreso, kaj la patro ŝoferis ŝin hejmen de la flughaveno.

Filino silentis dum la tuta veturado, kaj ŝia patro demandis, "Filino, kio maltrankviligas vin? Vi povas diri al mi pri io ajn."

"Kara Paĉjo, mi ne plu estas virgulinon."

La patro suspiris kaj diris, "Mi elspezis tiom da mono por sendi vin al esperanta kunveno kaj vi ankoraŭ ne uzas ĝuste la akuzativon."

The only way I can translate this is to substitute an English grammatical point for the Esperanto one.

A young woman returned from a youth educational conference and her father drove her home from the airport.

The daughter was silent during the entire trip, so her father asks, "Daughter, what is bothering you? You know you can talk to me about anything at all."

"Daddy, I ain't a virgin anymore."

The father sighed and said, "I spent all that money to send you to an educational conference and you still say 'ain't'."

I find it much more funny in Esperanto, given how many times I have been corrected by more experienced Esperantists about my weak use of the accusative, and how it has taken precedence in some of our conversations. Very nice!!

Sinanthiel:Maybe someone should write an Esperanto joke book, with actual funny jokes that are translated into Esperanto.

I own a book called '1001 anekdotoj en Esperanto', it contains 1001 jokes most of which are funny.

Greyshades:I may be wrong, but as I see it, "ain't" is much more of a error than using the accusative wrong. Still, funny

I disagree. the accusative is an integral part of Esperanto whose correct use carries a lot of information. Also, that English sentence would be correct in certain dialects.