Expert advice
PEDAGOGICAL DIFFICULTY: HUMOUR
Why does humour represent a difficulty in interpreting?
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Humour relies on language and often consists of wordplay – when interpreting
between Latin languages it may sometimes be possible to repeat the pun.
Humour often refers to the source culture: cultural references such as books,
music, cinema, advertising, etc.
Humour can rely on innuendo, irony, and a subtle level of communication: there
is nothing more difficult than telling a joke in a foreign language!
It requires perfect command of aspects of the language, for example in the
formulation of the punch line.
It requires the speaker to be able to take a step back from a situation and have a
certain distance from it in order to be able to joke about it. The interpreter does
not have a lot of time to think about how to do this.
Humour is an essential weapon for speakers, therefore including the jokes they
make is important.
How to deal with the difficulty?
In general:
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Listen carefully and use visual cues to better understand the true meaning and
intent of the joke.
Non-lexical cues and gestures are crucial.
Be subtle, work on nuances.
Rely on rhetorical pauses, emphasis and intonation.
Annotate humour and irony with symbols (e.g. a smiley), capital letters,
exclamation marks, etc., so that you know how to deliver that section of the
speech during your interpretation.
Collections of jokes exist for various languages – as an interpreter you need to be
familiar with such discourse.
Humour is an endless domain, so focus on what is relevant. However, there are
also a number of commonly used jokes or forms of humour for which it is good to
have a solution to hand.
The stronger your general knowledge and linguistic skills, the better equipped
you will be to interpret jokes.
Expert advice
Humour
Last updated 15.09.2016
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There are certain cultural references that everyone should be familiar with. For
example, if you have French in your language combination you should most
certainly have read Asterix.
When studying with classmates or friends, tell each other about popular culture
in your country of origin, items that appear in the media, etc.
Some practical advice
- The following anecdote often told in interpreting schools: the speaker makes a
joke and the interpreter says into the microphone, “The speaker is making a joke
that is completely untranslatable, but it would make him very happy if you
laughed now.” This is not, however, a tactic you can resort to very often.
- Just like with proverbs, it is better to know 50 jokes that you can use in just the
right place, than to know 5,000 but use them incorrectly.
- Technique: sometimes it is possible to say “there is a Chinese proverb that says
…” or “there’s a joke in Polish that is difficult to translate but …” If what follows is
not entirely idiomatic it’s okay, as long as your audience has understood the
intention/meaning of the joke or proverb. Also, remember to use your voice to
reflect the humour even if you can’t find the perfect words!
- After having taken a step back you may also decide to leave the joke out entirely.
However, if the audience listening to the original bursts into laughter you need to
explain to your listeners what is happening.
Expert advice
Humour
Last updated 15.09.2016