Do we need a fairy godmother's magic stick to communicate our humour to other cultures? : addressing the barriers of translating jokes among students of English

Abstract EN

This article aims at shedding light on the linguistic side of humorous practices among students of English by means of exchanging jokes, a linguistic practice that can be hindered by means of various linguistic and cultural barriers.

The failure of joking is a common experience that can be attributed to certain justified reasons which seem to be paradoxical, when the case of Algerian master students of English is put under scrutiny.

“Humour, jokes, anecdotes, puns, are similar”, the fallacy that certain Algerian learners of English take for granted.

This failure of achieving the humorous intent along telling jokes is intensified as the field of translation intervenes in the debated process.

The anomaly resides in the fact that the learners, though they know the significance of cultural knowledge in communicating jokes to different cultures, inadequately translate foreign jokes, as they rely merely on their cultural national repertoires and their insufficient linguistic competency in English as a foreign language.

Consequently, the joke is stripped from its substance of making people laugh.