What happens when someone makes a joke during an interpreting session? It’s a seemingly harmless and playful situation, right?  But without the help of a professional and focused interpreter, it can quickly escalate into an awkward and uncomfortable situation. Professional interpreters need a unique set of skills and tools to navigate these tricky situations. And they also need to practice interpreting humor across cultures to help eliminate the formation of any language barriers.

Before we get to the tips and tricks, let’s start with saying  interpreting humor is a culturally-sensitive topic. Culture is a critical component to interpreting. And it’s not just for  humor, but pretty much any message. It’s always crucial to understand basic themes in the culture you interpret to best translate the humor at hand. Conducting independent research to understand what makes something funny in the target and source languages is also important. Why? Because you working with and understand the similarities those two languages and cultures share.

Whether you’re new to interpreting or an experienced professional linguist, the following tools and tips should help you better prepare to interpret humor in the future!

Tips for Interpreting Humor Across Cultures

Find Similarities in the Target Language

It’s not that hard to tweak jokes to a certain extent. This ensures the cultural reference still makes sense without losing the joke’s meaning. If, say, the source joke is a pun, try to find something similar in the target language that still captures the essence of the joke without the pun falling away.

Use Literal Translations When Possible

Literal translations aren’t generally the best path to follow. And this is why we recommend doing it “when possible”.  Depending on the cultural references and languages you’re interpreting, you might just be able to translate the joke directly. Just remember to maintain the joke’s delivery. You do this by focusing on your timing, rate of speech, and tone.

If All Else Fails, Explain the Humor in the Joke

When you interpret in more formal settings, like a medical environment, for example, you don’t summarize ideas. But jokes can sometimes get too complicated to interpret. And cultural references might not be applicable in every setting. This is why you explain and summarize the joke instead of translating it. Although it might not offer the same comic relief, it’ll ensure the meaning is conveyed.

Always Explain Your Laughter

Our natural response to hearing a funny joke is to laugh. As an interpreter, you must explain the reason why you laughed at what was said by summarizing the joke or interpreting it to the best of your abilities. Everyone in the session must be aware of all communication, so if you can’t accurately interpret the humor at hand, rather clarify the reason for laughter, so everyone is in the loop on what’s going on.

Unless You Can End it, Don’t Start it

If you tackle the task of interpreting a joke instead of summarizing it, make sure you can translate every aspect of the joke. Only attempt to translate jokes if you’re confident in your abilities or have experience with translating the joke in question.

Joke About it

Instead of focusing on whether or not the humor is received accurately, you can always try and turn the situation into a joke. Here’s an example (which may or may not be fictional). President Jimmy Carter gave a speech in Japan and made a joke which would have been impossible to interpret. Instead of trying to interpret the humor, the interpreter merely said, “President Carter told a funny story. Please laugh.” The tactic was well received, and the crowd burst into laughter, leaving everyone happy. And this example just highlights the fact that the intention behind humor can often be much more important than the joke itself.

Final Thoughts

As you consider ways of implementing these tips into your professional career, always keep in mind that cultural references behind humor are critical. Instead of dwelling too much on literal translations, it’s important to ensure the humor’s intent is conveyed. For more tools, tips, and tricks, be sure to follow the Day Interpreting blog!

Seldean Smith

Seldean is a multi-skilled content wizard that dedicates herself to writing content that goes beyond merely sparking interest in the audience.