A language teacher shares a mildly amusing comment with the class and the room erupts in a fit of laughter . ‘Wow,’ she thinks, ‘I had no idea how funny I was. I should pursue a career on the stage .’ Later, head swollen with pride and confidence in her comedic abilities, she makes another joke around friends, but it falls flat . Somehow, this teacher is not quite as funny with friends as she is in class. It seems the more you struggle to understand a language, the funnier you perceive a joke in it to be. It doesn’t have to be a very witty joke, your garden-variety amusing comment will do. You may find yourself laughing harder than usual at jokes in the language you’re learning. When this happens, you might be thinking that you wouldn’t have laughed if the joke had been in your own language. Basically, you’re laughing simply because you understood it! Even as an Absolute Beginner of German on the brink of beco...
What the teacher notices when she becomes the student.