Lidando com piadas na aula de ESL: uma proposta pedagógica centrada na compreensão

This paper makes a pedagogical proposal to delve into jokes in the ESL classroom and sensitise learners to their complexity. It consists of five instructional phases and is based, on the one hand, on another proposal to teach the pragmatics of speech acts in an L2. On the other hand, this proposal relies on a relevance-theoretic classification of jokes made on the basis of the various linguistic, cultural and cognitive factors that humorists exploit in their production. Since it only centres on how different types of jokes can be distinguished and what their correct comprehension involves, it has a cognitive orientation and does not address issues connected with joke production. The proposal is devised for ESL students with an advanced level of English and ultimately seeks to develop their metalinguistic, meta-cultural and metacognitive abilities as a way of enabling them to grasp the humorousness of funny texts, appraise them and react to them in an appropriate wayEste artigo traz uma proposta pedagógica para aprofundar as piadas na sala de aula de ESL (Inglês como língua estrangeira, na tradução para a língua portuguesa) e sensibilizar os alunos a respeito de sua complexidade. Ela consiste em cinco fases instrucionais que, por um lado, baseia-se em outra proposta de ensino da pragmática dos atos de fala em uma L2 e, por outro lado, baseia-se em uma classificação teórica da relevância das piadas feitas com base nos vários fatores linguísticos, culturais e cognitivos que os humoristas exploram em sua produção. Como a proposta se concentra apenas em como os diferentes tipos de piadas podem ser distinguidos e em qual a correta compreensão envolvida, ela tem uma orientação cognitiva e não aborda questões relacionadas à produção da piada. A proposta é elaborada para estudantes de ESL com um nível avançado de inglês e, por conseguinte, busca desenvolver suas habilidades metalinguísticas, meta-culturais e metacognitivas como uma maneira de permitir-lhes compreender o humor de textos engraçados, avaliá-los e reagir a eles apropriadamenteMinisterio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad. Agencia Estatal de Investigación. FFI2016-76047-

Folktales and Other References in Toriyama's Dragon Ball

The aim of this article is to show the relationship between Japanese folktales and Japanese anime as a genre, especially how the intertextuality with traditional tales and myth subvert its conventional use. To meet this goal, the author examines Toriyama¿s successful Dragon Ball series, which has enjoyed continued popularity right from its first publication in the 1980s. The article analyses the parallelism between Dragon Ball and a classic Chinese novel, Journey to the West, its main source. However, there are many other references present in Dragon Ball that are connected to religion and folktales. The author illustrates this relationship with examples taken from the anime that correspond to traditional Japanese folklore but that are used with a subversive goal, which makes a rich source for analysis and for literary education

Video game localisation : adapting superheroes to different cultures

Aquest article tracta de les estratègies de traducció principals a l’hora de localitzar videojocs de superherois. Com que el gènere parteix dels guions dels còmics, l’argument d’aquests jocs es basa en una història; per tant, recrear mons basats en còmics presenta una sèrie de reptes afegits, perquè de vegades cal tenir en compte les limitacions que imposen les polítiques editorials i les expectatives dels usuaris; és a dir, la necessitat de ser fidel al còmic original. A més d’avaluar l’equilibri entre la fidelitat al còmic i la llibertat pròpia de la localització de jocs, l’article també aborda la traducció de l’humor i la dificultat d’adaptar jocs de paraules i acudits, tot un repte per a les habilitats i la creativitat del traductor. Per il·lustrar aquesta exposició, l’article detalla els resultats d’un estudi de la localització al castellà d’un dels jocs de superherois més lloats: Batman Arkham Asylum.This article addresses the main translation strategies for the localisation of superhero video games into a different culture. This specific genre relies on narrative-driven plots, as the games are based on original scripts from comic books. The adaptation of superhero games therefore presents a series of additional challenges, since the so-called ‘transcreation’ is sometimes restricted by the need to consider editorial policies and user expectations when re-creating comic-based universes. Hence transcreation is confronted with the need to be faithful to the original source inspiring the title. Besides assessing the balance between loyalty to the comic books and the freedom allowed in game localisation, this paper also approaches the translation of humour and the difficulty of adapting puns and jokes into different languages, which can seriously challenge translators’ skills and creativity. In order to shed some light on these issues, this paper presents the results of a case study of the localisation into Spanish of one of the most acclaimed superhero games: Batman Arkham Asylum

Play-on-Wor(l)ds: The Connection Between Language and Culture in Wordplay Use in Italy, Britain, the United States, Germany and Japan

Language and culture are intrinsically connected (Lotman, 1978:212) and this union, along with the universal concept of humour, is what breeds the production of wordplay in almost every community. Subject of this paper will be to explore the nature, production and local perception of wordplay, not only as humorous tool, but also as a protest or, again, as a way to capture the attention of an audience. We will be ‘visiting’ Italy, Britain, the United States, Germany and Japan to see how differently – or similarly – these countries perceive and make use of play-on-words

Using Humor in the English Classroom: The Language Teacher\u27s Perspective

This paper examines how several experienced English language teachers of various nationalities who work at Japanese universities use humor in their classes, according to their own subjective evaluations. We identify a set of characteristic attitudes that these instructors have in relation to classroom humor, as well as the range of humor types and techniques that they typically seem to employ. The discussion pays special attention to humor spontaneity, self-deprecating and personal humor, puns and language play, physical humor, as well as a special case involving use of teasing banter. We show that, while idiosyncratic in their attempts to bring laughter into the classroom, our survey participants have a good overall awareness of the major benefits and potential pitfalls of employing humor in language education; we also include plentiful quotes and examples from their reported in-class strategies involving humor

“I don’t know what’s going on here, but... let’s go, Kasuga!”:localisation of humor in the game Yakuza: Like a Dragon — a transcreative approach

Abstract. Yakuza, domestically known as Ryū Ga Gotoku (龍が如く), has become a globally beloved roleplaying action game series, heralded by many as some of Japan’s most entertaining video game storytelling. This study aims to provide a further look into the latest release in the series, Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2020), to showcase how the game localises its humor to Western audiences in English. The localisation is examined through a comparative analysis of a selection of the game’s dialogues, where the Japanese dub, the English subtitles that accompany the Japanese dub, as well as the fully English dub are compared to find and analyse differences. Due to humor being the focus of the study, the examples chosen for closer analysis have been selected based on humorous content and context. As the method of analysis, a translation approach known as transcreation is used, where the translator not only translates the source text but utilizes completely new solutions to best communicate the original intent of the source language in the target language. The study proposes that the transcreation of humor appears in the dialogues of Like a Dragon through three separate categories: transcreated spoken language forms, transcreated swearing, and transcreated delivery of humor.Huumorin lokalisaatio pelissä Yakuza: Like a Dragon uudelleenkirjoittamisen näkökulmasta. Tiivistelmä. Yakuza, kotimaassaan Japanissa Ryū Ga Gotoku-nimellä tunnettu pelisarja, on viime vuosina saavuttanut globaalia suosiota ja ylistystä, niin uusilta pelaajilta kuin myös roolipelien pitkäaikaisilta ystäviltä. Tämä opinnäytetyö pyrkii tarkastelemaan pelisarjan uusinta julkaisua, Yakuza: Like a Dragonia (2020), ja määrittelemään, millä tavoin peli lokalisoi dialogeissaan esiintyvää huumoria länsimaisille yleisöille englanninkielisten käännöstensä kautta. Tutkimuksen keskeisenä teoriana käytetään ns. uudelleenkirjoittamisen käsitettä (engl. transcreation) jossa kääntäjä sekä kääntää tekstiä että luo uutta sisältöä. Like a Dragonin lokalisaatiota tarkastellaan vertailevan analyysin avulla, jossa alkuperäinen japaninkielinen dubbaus, japaninkielistä dubbausta edustavat englanninkieliset tekstitykset sekä täysin englanninkielinen pelin dubbaus asetetaan rinnakkain eroavaisuuksien poimimista varten. Koska tutkimuksen painopisteenä on huumori, analysoitava sisältö ja tutkimuksessa käytetyt esimerkit on valittu pelin erinäisistä kohdista, joissa huumoria esiintyy. Vertaileva analyysi osoittaa, että uudelleenkirjoittamista esiintyy pelin lokalisoiduissa dialogeissa eri tavoin huumorin viestimiseksi. Tavat, joilla uudelleenkirjoitus esiintyy, on jaoteltu analyysissä kolmeen eri kategoriaan: uudelleenkirjoitettu puhuttu kieli, uudelleenkirjoitettu kiroilu, sekä uudelleenkirjoitettu huumorin välitys

‘That Old Man Making Fun of Me’: Humour in the Writings of Aboriginal and Asian Relationships

This article explores the role of humour in three contemporary Aboriginal texts that document Aboriginal–Asian relationships. Humour in Aboriginal texts has mostly been studied with reference to the ostensible binaries between Aboriginal and European, Black and White, colonised and colonisers. Scant critical attention has been paid to the place of humour in revealing and concealing the dynamic interrelations between Aboriginal people and Asian immigrants living under a colonial regime. This article investigates humour as a textual device that transmits subversive ideas contesting stigma and stereotypes of Aboriginal and Asian peoples regarding their identities, bodies, and inter-racial intimacies. Through close readings of Alexis Wright’s novel Plains of Promise (1997), Tex and Nelly Camfoo’s autobiography Love against the Law (2000) and Anita Heiss’s historical romance Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms (2016), this article considers three specific modes of humour in Aboriginal texts: self-deprecation, puns/wit, and boasting. The article contends that these different forms of humour draw attention to a range of unsettling issues and power relations concerning oppression and resistance, stigmatisation and normalisation, institutional control and surveillance. Further in each of these texts humour works to deconstruct images of discrete and maligned racialised otherness

The Language of Jokes in the Digital Age

In this accessible book, Delia Chiaro provides a fresh overview of the language of jokes in a globalized and digitalized world. The book shows how, while on the one hand the lingua-cultural nuts and bolts of jokes have remained unchanged over time, on the other, the time-space compression brought about by modern technology has generated new settings and new ways of joking and playing with language. The Language of Jokes in the Digital Age covers a wide range of settings from social networks, e-mails and memes, to more traditional fields of film and TV (especially sitcoms and game shows) and advertising. Chiaro’s consideration of the increasingly virtual context of jokes delights with both up-to-date examples and frequent reference to the most central theories of comedy. This lively book will be essential reading for any student or researcher working in the area of language and humour and will be of interest to those in language and media and sociolinguistics

Cultures and Traditions of Wordplay and Wordplay Research

This volume focuses on realisations of wordplay in different cultures and social and historical contexts, and brings together various research traditions of approaching wordplay. Together with the volume DWP 7, it assembles selected papers presented at the interdisciplinary conference The Dynamics of Wordplay / La dynamique du jeu de mots (Trier, 2016) and stresses the inherent dynamicity of wordplay and wordplay research