A Play on words.
Ever wonder if other languages have the luxury of built-in humor in them?
I mean a crowbar is a tool. And a crow bar is a bar where crows get drunk.
At least the redneck crows get drunk.
I’m sure there are some cigar smoking, skirt chasing, “gentleman” crows that don’t exactly get drunk.
On second thought…they probably do get drunk but don’t let on.
They would be the lawyer crows naturally.
And then you would have the ravens that frequent Crow’s Place. They would be the politician, judge, doctor, professor, poet and artist crows of course. They aren’t going to be satisfied being called a crow. And they are going to drink expensive wine and talk about it a lot. Most likely they won’t get drunk though. Ravens are too sophisticated for that.
But I digress…
The language thing. I know zero about other languages so I do wonder if they have words that are the same but can be used in different contexts so as to make a pun or play on words…like crowbar and crow bar.
I’ve tried making plays on words with various foreigners whom I’ve met. That’s how I test their knowledge of the language. Most often they look at me oddly. Of course they smile politely, but that look is a dead give away that they didn’t get it.
I get the same result from them if I use colloquialisms in talking to them.
For Example:
I recently had a concrete block retaining wall built here at my house. Naturally, the four guys doing the work were Mexicans and the one supervisor (read translator) was an evil white Anglo Saxon male.
The wall was going along fine until I stood on the property in such a way that I could see it was leaning a teeny bit. Not good. Better to have them fix it early in the process.
So, I said to the four Mexicans working on the wall…”hey, that wall is leanin’ towards Miss Jones’es” as I swung my hand and arm in the appropriate direction.
They all looked at each other for support, then they all looked at me, and in unison said, “¿Que?”.
I went and got the translator. Obviously they didn’t know Southern.
See? Colloquialisms are a great test of whether a foreigner knows the language. Try it.
Now, if any one of you dear readers knows whether other languages are set up and ripe for puns, colloquialisms and plays on words, I’d like to know.
And if you don’t want to participate in educating the author, you might enjoy bidding on the illustration over at eBay if you think you’d like to have it as a souvenir.
