Off topic: One of my favorite jokes Thread poster: Sara Senft
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Sara Senft 
United States
Local time: 13:57
Spanish to English
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Here's a favorite joke of mine. It's very relevant to our jobs.
What do you call a person who speaks three languages?
A trilingual
What do you call a person that speaks two languages?
A bilingual
What do you call a person that speaks one language?
An American.
Supposedly, I'm not an American because I'm not monolingual. HAHA!
| | | | Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:57
Russian to English
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In memoriam | No, not typical | Aug 29, 2008 |
It's not fair to stereotype all Americans in this way.
I once knew somebody (English) who when he first arrived in Germany wondered why so many streets were named "Einbahnstraße".
| | | | | Thanks for the reminder, Jack | Aug 30, 2008 |
I decided to remove my earlier post - the joke is old and not really that funny on repetition.
Driving on the German motorway myself for the first time, I was surprised at how many different routes there were to a place called 'Ausfahrt' ....
One of the items on the agenda at the coming pow-wow in Denmark is our own translating gaffes as a sort of warming up exercise. Most of mine are stupid, not funny, unfortunately.
It's healthy to laugh at yourself, and ... See more I decided to remove my earlier post - the joke is old and not really that funny on repetition.
Driving on the German motorway myself for the first time, I was surprised at how many different routes there were to a place called 'Ausfahrt' ....
One of the items on the agenda at the coming pow-wow in Denmark is our own translating gaffes as a sort of warming up exercise. Most of mine are stupid, not funny, unfortunately.
It's healthy to laugh at yourself, and laugh with others, not at them, and luckily there is still plenty to laugh at.
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Sara Senft
United States
Local time: 13:57
Spanish to English
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TOPIC STARTER | If you must know.. | Aug 30, 2008 |
I was drinking wine when I posted the original message.
I do understand that people could easily find it offensive. I meant no harm by posting it. Even so, I am stunned at how Americentric some people in the USA are.
Get this......I read that 2 out of 3 young adults in the USA can't locate Iraq on a world map. And we've been fighting a war there for only five years.......
Note to self: Don't post on ProZ if you are drunk or even tipsy.
... See more I was drinking wine when I posted the original message.
I do understand that people could easily find it offensive. I meant no harm by posting it. Even so, I am stunned at how Americentric some people in the USA are.
Get this......I read that 2 out of 3 young adults in the USA can't locate Iraq on a world map. And we've been fighting a war there for only five years.......
Note to self: Don't post on ProZ if you are drunk or even tipsy.
--Srta Sara
(Who is sober right now!) ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I don't find this joke offensive at all. | Aug 30, 2008 |
In fact, it is one of my favorite jokes as well.
Face it - this joke represents the reality. Oh, of course there are exceptions - in fact, every American reading this is such an exception; and yet the joke perfectly describes the majority of Americans.
It has many reasons, but one of them might have to do with the American educational system. The great majority of monolingual Americans will tell you that they "took" a few semesters of Spanish or another foreign langua... See more In fact, it is one of my favorite jokes as well.
Face it - this joke represents the reality. Oh, of course there are exceptions - in fact, every American reading this is such an exception; and yet the joke perfectly describes the majority of Americans.
It has many reasons, but one of them might have to do with the American educational system. The great majority of monolingual Americans will tell you that they "took" a few semesters of Spanish or another foreign language in college or high school, and may be even got good grades in it - and yet, they can neither speak nor understand it.
The key to understanding this lies, in my opinion, in "taking" certain subjects, as opposed to studying them. When you "take" a class in languages, geography, math, science, etc., you saturate your short-term memory with stuff that will likely come up on a test, regurgitate it to your teacher's satisfaction on the test day, and then - forget about it.
This is what has been sold to us as "education". This so called "education" does not give you knowledge, or critical thinking skills - instead, it prepares you to take multiple choice tests. This explains, by the way, why so many people cannot find Iraq (or just about any other country, for this matter) on the map, or need a calculator to divide 270 by 10.
Thanks for posting this joke, Srta. Sara. It's not new to me, but I still enjoy it.
[Edited at 2008-08-30 22:17] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Therrien
Canada
Local time: 11:57
English to French
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| Very very right | Sep 24, 2008 |
You're very right Alexandra.
[Edited at 2008-09-24 20:36]
| | | | | Thank you, Therrien! | Sep 24, 2008 |
Therrien wrote:
You're very right Alexandra.
[Edited at 2008-09-24 20:36]
You made my day!
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