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The Pitfalls of Telling Jokes to Non-native English Speakers Part 2
By Heejeong Haas | July 21, 2007
Did you finally find any humor in the story? No matter how hard you think about it, there was nothing funny about it, right?
Having a sense of humor is always a good thing. It certainly makes things easier and our world a better place, as everybody can laugh. It also means you can laugh with things and make the process a lot easier than those who are always so serious and stiff. However, having a sense of humor and telling jokes are two completely different stories in any given cross-cultural settings.
Having a sense of humor is always a positive quality no matter what.
Telling jokes can be fatal or can kill your deal if mishandled.
Here are the least of reasons why.
- Jokes “almost never” translate word for word and culture to culture.
- Depending on a culture, there are certain jokes that can only be made by social status, gender, or cultural background.
- Jokes carry and reflect cultural nuance and social background.
What Man-deuk’s thief said was to shut up and not to move. And Man-deuk did all these crazy stuff. In Korean, if you play with the punctuation of the wording, it can literally mean that the thief said “go and hit the chickens to death and put the rice bag over your head.” But there is no way that it can be hilarious to any English audience when it is translated into English.
When jokes get interpreted, they get completely lost in translation. You are a lot better off just to be humorous but not telling jokes. On top of that, one should have a good understanding of the cultural background or even trendy pop culture to appreciate jokes. Your Korean business partners will very likely not have that understanding unless they speak fluent English as a result of living in America for a long period of time and know the cultural background where that joke comes from. And in some countries or even in Korea, there are certain jokes that “women” are not supposed to say in public or that were not supposed to be told in front of women.
See the huge difference?
You may feel like you spent enough time in Korea and know these people, or that you have been dealing with your Korean business partners for long enough that you know the culture. However it is very easy for you to miss that important step of what is going on recently and what their thoughts are. You feel good, everybody feels good at the very closing of the deal, so you decide to make a joke. And out of all, you choose a big no-no subject not knowing that is a big no-no. Imagine that embarrassment and waste of time and effort. And sure enough, Koreans will make sure that their pride is kept intact even if it means not dealing with you.
Remember this rule: “Humor yes…jokes no.”
Heejeong Haas
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Topics: Communication | 3 Comments »
July 21st, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Ya know… the concept of “commonsense” presents similar challenges.
July 22nd, 2007 at 10:51 pm
It is nice to see you here!
You are so right about that. See, now you know why I don’t have much of the concept of common sense!!
I like your blog.
I hope to see you here often.
Best,
HJ, QOS.
January 22nd, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Ms Haas;
All very informative – thank you. However, most of your information seems to be male to male relationships. I am a female doing business with Korean men. How does that change the dynamics – especially in the “interpersonal skills.” I also wanted to purchase a gift to take to them – they are in New York and I in California. Any helpful hints?
Thank you in advance for your words of wisdom,
Michele Smith