i18n for jokes

I was watching a Japanese TV show called “Eigo de Shabera Night”. It’s a talk show and the main topic is about English. At the show, a professional simultaneous interpreter was participating as a guest. It was a very interesting topic that she spoke about the pain of the simultaneous interpreter. I will note it here.

Translating jokes

Shinoda Akiko is a simultaneous interpreter specializing in politics and the environment. She interpreted the inauguration of presidents Clinton and Mandela. 26 years of simultaneous interpreting, she’s communicated many historic moments.

MC: I imagine one of the hardest areas for you to translate. It’s a humour.

Akiko: Yes

MC: At Japanese press conferences, maybe the interpreter can’t translate a joke. So they say,

“The speaker just told a joke. Please laugh!”

Akiko: That’s a well-known story in the profession. When we say “Apparently that was a joke but I don’t get it. Please laugh!”, it cracked all people up. Then the speaker says,

“You must be a great interpreter. People have never laughed that much before!”

MC: It’s that hard to interpret foreigners’ joke?

Akiko: It’s very difficult. I only get them from time to time. Jokes are funny because they’re unexpected. In the simultaneous interpreting you try to guess what’s coming. So anything unexpected makes you think you misheard!

At a conference, someone said, “I like to talk about commitment and involvement.” and he was talking about in-house research and development. Right after that, he said, “Well, see, if you’re going to a restaurant for breakfast. And you ordered an egg and a bacon”. Egg? Bacon!? What’s the link with R&D?? I tensed up. He said,

“The egg is an environment, but the bacon, that’s commitment.”

Do you have any idea where the subtle humor is going?

Akiko: The hen is involved in laying the egg. But the pig dies to provide the bacon. That’s what commitment means. That was his point.

Reads between the lines, and a joke out of left field can be tough to get right.

Akiko: So we always ask about in preparatory meetings,

” Are you going to tell any jokes today? They’re hard to interpret, so tell me now!”

MC: That’s your first question?

Akiko: Yes. They don’t seem to like it. People don’t like to reveal their jokes, you know? But if they hesitate, I say, “So no jokes then? If you’d like to let people get your joke right, you should tell me now.” Then they always say, “Well, I was thinking of this joke…”

MC: Have you ever told them it was a bad joke?

Akiko: No, I haven’t! XD

Universal jokes

Akiko: Puns are incredibly hard. I beg people not to use them at international meetings.

MC: Because they have to be interpreted into so many languages.

Akiko: But some people are great with humor. I have two examples. One was at Kyoto Protocol conference. We worked through the night twice in a row. People had to leave. The chairman was this very tubby Latin gentleman. He had a waist this big. He looked around and said, “Well, let’s break for a few minutes, because I have to eat to keep my beautiful body line.” The whole room roared with laugher.

MC: That’s translatable.

Akiko: Exactly, yes.

MC: So that’s universal humor.

Akiko: Yes, and here’s the second one. A conference was winding up.But delegates still had comments they had to make. They were squeezing in all kinds of last-minute statements. Someone said, “Please don’t kill me, but I have some comments..”, then the chairperson said “No, not in public.” That sort of jokes makes international conferences fun!

Self-deprecation

MC: Are some people just good at jokes?

Akiko: People who aren’t too self-conscious. People with sparking self-image might be bad at jokes. You have to be able to laugh at yourself.

MC: Self-deprecation

Akiko: Exactly. It’s linked to self-confidence. Confident jokes are funny.

MC: Self-deprecation is like you use your bad habits or personal weaknesses as material. Sadly, I can’t find anything wrong with myself xD

Not to mention that the last joke left them cold…