Laughter as a Second Language

Hello Everyone,

This quarter, I am continuing to work as an ESL (English as a Second Language) tutor for the international students at SCAD, and the tutoring sessions have become the highlight of my week. In general, the students are bright and eager to learn. They are also HILARIOUS, but only sometimes intentionally. I was made to realize the other day that though we spend lots of time laughing, very rarely if ever is it because someone has told a joke.

The subject of jokes came up because one of the Chinese students asked me to explain what English speakers mean when they say “Knock, knock.” I described how this is one of the classic formats for jokes in English. I gave the few mediocre examples I could remember which garnered a correspondingly mediocre response. We discussed other common joke formats, like the Lightbulb or my personal favorite (if only because of its ridiculousness): the Yo Mama. The students listened politely and offered the occasional light giggle, but having been in enough situations where I was trying to understand someone in another language, I recognized this as an oral indication that they were following what I was saying rather than guffawing heartily because they found what I was saying funny. I felt myself wanting to adapt a well known proverb: You can lead an ESL student to a joke but you can’t make him laugh.

Part of the problem was that I am not a stellar joke-teller. (If stand-up comedy is genetic, I think it is clear which sibling ended up with that gene. My humor is probably better described as sit-down comedy -- maybe it’s the height difference.) But mostly, I realized, the students simply didn’t have the range of knowledge required to understand even the most elementary joke. It wasn’t just an issue of vocabulary. They have to understand that what I am saying is intended to be humorous. In order to do this, they have to be aware of a number of cultural cues (everything from the classic setup: “Hey, did you hear about . . .” to the more subtle preparation we give through intonation and body language). To make matters worse, many jokes rely on sarcasm or wordplay of one sort or another. ESL students tend to be rather literal, a trait which is both charming and apt to massacre most jokes you can think of. It’s no wonder that people often say you know you are fluent in a language when you can make and understand jokes with native speakers.

However, just because we don’t tell jokes doesn’t mean we don’t laugh during our sessions. In fact, I think the funniest moments in life are never planned, and I certainly couldn’t plan for the hilarity that comes up each week! The highlight this week was when two students and I were talking about age and the various stages of life. I was acting out some of the vocabulary to make it more interactive and I got to the word “toddler.” I said, “Ok, it’s someone who walks like this,” and I toddled around the room a bit. One student said, “A fat man!” I said, “No . . . someone younger.” And the other student’s eyes lit up excitedly. She said, “Oh! A disabilities child!” (Politically correct language is not their forte.) Clearly I need to work on my toddler impression, but when they finally guessed it, we all had a good laugh.

One of my favorite memories from when I was in France was when a friend and I were at a cafe. She and I began laughing a bit about something or other -- I think it involved a Werther’s Original, if I’m not mistaken. A lady sitting nearby heard us giggling and began to laugh as well. I’m positive she had no idea what was so funny, but it soon turned into one of those moments when the why is completely irrelevant and the laughter itself is self-perpetuating. When it comes to communicating in another language, you get so used to not understanding and not being understood that laughter is a bit of a conversational oasis. It acts as a lingua franca, allowing you to connect with someone when you might not be able to otherwise. I’m becoming increasingly aware of how laughter not only arises from communication, it also leads to it.

Have a good week,
Sarah/Mouse

ps: As a final reminder, this will be the last week I’ll be sending out these mass emails unless you’ve let me know that you’d like to continue receiving them. I’ll be posting them online on a weblog if that would be a more convenient way of viewing them. The link is http://www.mouseinthesouth.blogspot.com/.