Shaking Laughter Swim Ship

Laughter happens when the unexpected happens. Is that happening for you?

You have to know what the expected is, to share laughter. The pictured quote shakes out smiles when you understand the full meaning behind 'when your ship comes in'. If this were translated to another language, and read by a non-English speaker, it could be understood as ship passenger instructions. Envision foreign exchange students diving off ports, trampling over one another, clinging to floating suitcases, swimming out to their ship to get home. Could be drownings.

It would have to be explained that it means your dream has come true, lottery has been won, hidden treasure discovered.

After that, 'swim out to meet it' is easy to follow: you probably need to work to fulfill that dream.

Another of my favorites is by the highly philosophical, Yogi Bear. 'If you come to a fork in the road, pick it up.' U.S. talkers think first of road directions. The unexpected of it being a three pronged piece of metal, is the clincher. But English as a second languagers, may think first of a fork as an eating utensil. The poetic irony would be lost.

This is how it goes with humor. If two people don't both understand what a phrase or idea means, then any humor posted onto it will be meaningless. You have to have a common ground to what the norm is. Without that, anything that pokes toward humor will have nothing to stick into.

This helps to explain why groups with similar backgrounds and world views tend to stick together. We all want to laugh and connect. What greater thing than a chuckling chat with friends? Better than wine, or even chocolate covered caramels. The three things together? Bliss extraordinaire.

It takes extra work to explain why something is funny. So, I get the hanging out with your own crowd thing. To relax and simply enjoy a good joke is an enviable state to be in. There should always be time in our lives for easy breezy lemon squeezy chortles.

But, attempting to understand the views, languages and backgrounds of other people, opens up a whole new universe of guffaw connections. You can add to your bag of memory smiles by understanding jests from another language. And, watch as your explanation of g-rated slang to a non-native speaker is suddenly understood. Yummy gummy on both sides.

'Like water for chocolate' is a Spanish saying that relates to love and passion. As an English speaker, I only know this because a Mexican explained it to me. I'm glad he did--I love that phrase. Can't you just feel the water simmering as it waits anxiously to be mixed with the cacao beans? The new thoughts of brewing love is exciting.

A German exchange student used the expression 'the person who does not value the penny, does not deserve the pound'. I understood the superficial meaning, but a few words of deeper explanation from him, really made the punch. Now I think about that each time I pick up a penny. And, of course, I had to know that the pound is an object of money in Europe, not a weight value as in the States.

Oh, and I remember the incredible confusion, and finally laughter, when a British friend asked me how my 'tricks' were. I had to explain that the American meaning is the actions taken by prostitutes to get their money. On her English side, it means 'how are things going with you?'. A tad bit of a difference. But an extremely funny one.

When we crawl out from behind our bubbles of same view, shared history friends, we widen our cracking up platform. It adds fun to the goal of world peace. Takes a bit more work, may mean getting out of our comfort zone. But worth the damned hilarious work.

Damned hilarious debut novel of mine:

Click to purchase

Read it, laugh, translate to everyone.

Dolphin Divine,

Laughing with international, jet-setting dolphins

P.S. Any persons out there living on a tropical island, wanting to learn U.S. jokes, feel free to fly me out to your warm sands. I'll supply the chocolates and show you how to appreciate chewy caramels. All in an effort to promote world peace, of course.