At the beginning of the session we presented the books of the Window on America Centre that illustrate the importance of the American Independence Day celebrated on July, 04.
The topic of the session was “International Jokes Day” celebrated on July, 1. To start the conversation we answered a number of questions about the nature and typology of jokes. The tricky questions were about understanding of jokes in foreign language or in a foreign culture.
Our foreign guests admitted that they do not understand Ukrainian jokes. We decided to help them to understand it and started with very simple examples of “kindergarten” jokes. But even these simple jokes needed a lot of explanation. The next stage was introducing of the cult Ukrainian satirical magazine “PERETS” to the foreigners. The task was to explain the editorial cartoons to the foreigners, and some of them even to the young generations of Ukrainians. We all agreed that a lot of joke is lost in translation.
As learners of English we tried to see the difference between the American and British jokes. We watched the You tube video with Robin Williams’s standing comedy about the arms bearing right in the USA. Only one person was laughing – a guest from Nigeria, for the rest of the group it was very difficult to understand the text, but some people managed to guess the keywords . For the illustration of the British jokes we have chosen the video “Mr. Bean in the Library”. Everybody was laughing at the stupidity of the character, but not all people were able to comment the video in good English. The self study is still a priority for all club members who wish to improve their language skills.
Number of participants – 25 persons.
Have a look at more pictures, please
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