Use jokes and humour to improve your English
Jokes are often short, ubiquitous, and full of plays on words and false friends, etc. Some very, very short jokes have just one line. They're called "one-liners". Some short jokes have a question and answer form. They're called Q&A jokes. And then there are jokes that tell or recount a story. Any of them can be used to learn.
Here's a one-liner: Where there’s a will, there’s a relative.
A will = Un testament | Une volonté
A relative = De la famille (l'oncle, la nièce, etc)
Proverb: "Where there's a will there's a way" = Quand on veut on peut | Vouloir c'est pouvoir
And the joke: Quand ll y a un testament, il y a de la famille.
Here's a Q&A joke:
Q: What do you call the soft flesh between a shark's teeth?
A: A slow swimmer.
Once you've learned a joke, understood it and laughed, share it with someone. The more you tell the joke around you, the more you learn the word or words or idiomatic expression(s) it uses. A language is to be spoken and not just to be understood.
- Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until they open their mouths.
- There are three kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.
- This is my step ladder. I never knew my real ladder.
(step ladder = escabeau | step father = nouveau conjoint de sa mère) - A sandwich walks into a bar. The barman says 'Sorry, we don't serve food here'.
- My grandfather died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming and cursing like the passengers in his car.
Always look for why a joke is funny, or why it is supposed to be funny. That's where real language learning begins.
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(Bidouillé par Ret)
