Tuesday, 17 November 2015

Cracking a Joke and a Dialogue


As Alex says in the YouTube video, understanding jokes is the last barrier for learners of English to break through. Jokes usually play with double meanings of words and that's the main reason why they are hard to understand. However, another important aspect lies in the cultural background which differs from one country to another. 

So, let's have some practice on double meanings. Why do you think this joke is funny?Please , send me your comments ;)


One of your last tasks this term is podcasting a joke which may be either a translation from a Catalan joke or an English one. Be careful when translating since the meaning might be lost! 

Watch Alex' video to learn more about English jokes. 


Along with the joke, you should podcast a dialogue with a classmate in which you discuss about some adverts of your choice. Upload the photographs you talk about in your post. 
(Note: follow the guidelines on page 29 in your Student Book.Don't forget to use the phrases and target vocabulary from the Speaking section.)

30 comments:

  1. The joke is not much funny because at the beginning I don't understand but then with your help I grasp the idea.
    Only It's funny when the boy confused bean with human bean. But is difficult to foreigners because they don't know the double meaning and then they lose funny of the joke.

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  2. Judith: It's funny because instead of saying "we're human beings" the kid says "we're human beans" because they sound the same way.

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  3. Marc: This joke is funny beacuse the third person confused the word beings with beans. The first and the second used correctly the word beans.

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  4. Roger Armela: he joke of the beans is "funny" cause this joke play with the double meaning of bean and beings, and the first and second said bean (seed), and the third said being, but it have the same pronuntation of bean.

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  5. Esme: In this joke the girl say that his father is grows beans. The boy say that her mother cook beans and the third doesn't understand that the second refers at the product of food and say that the two are persons, because bean significate jewish. The funny of the joke is that the fird undersand that the second's mother cook beans.

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  6. Anna Cordón: This joke it's funny because "beans" and "beings" sound the same and the child confuses each other even the meaning is so different.

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  7. In my opinion this joke is not funny. I think the funny of the joke is in the third phrase because the kid says that all of the humans are beans. Finally I understand it.

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  8. At first I have thought that this joke wasn't very funny but I think that it was because I didn't understand the joke, therefore you explained the joke and I have understood this but I still thinking that this joke is not very funny.

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  9. The joke is funny because the child confused beans with human beans. Their parents were speaking for beans to eat not human beans.

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  10. I think that the joke is about the similtudes betwen "beans" and " beings" because the third kid get confused and thinks that they're refering to "beings".
    Its not so funny but is not so sad. :/

    <(")

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  11. The joke is funny because of the doble meaning of the word 'beans'.
    The kid confused the word 'being' with 'beans' due to their similar sounds.

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  12. This joke is funny because the last child confused the word bean with the word being. It happens because both sounds alike. The first girl and the first boy refer to the vegetable, however, the last child refer the fact of existing.

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  13. The joke is the similitud of the phrase beans with the word beings. In the beggining of the joke, the teachers asked for sentences using beans, but one of the childs, confused the world with being, and he says: We're all of humans beings.

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  14. I find this joke quite entertaining as it uses the double meaning of "beans" and "being". At first I did not understand the real meaning because I had never heard the expression "human being" but now I see it is a funny an original joke.

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  15. This joke pretend to be funny because the third child confuses the word "beans" with the word "being". In my opinion the joke isn't funny.

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  16. The funny part of the joke is that the third person confuses "being" and "beans" because they sound alike. I don't find this joke particularly funny, still the image of all humans being beans is trully amusing.

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  17. I am not really keen on this sort of jokes and at the beginning I couldn't understand why was it funny. However, this way of playing with the double significance of words can be interesting and funny!:)

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  18. At the first time I've read this joke I did'n't get it, but reading for a second time I understood. I think it's funny because the third person interprets "beans" as little humans, I mean, when we appear in this world for the fisrt time we are as a seed.

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  19. This joke is supposedly funny because of the similarities between the pronunciation of the word "being" and "beans", so the last child says we are all human beans instead of human beings.

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  20. At the first time I did'nt get it, but when my classmate explained me the meaning of the phrase, i though that it's a funny joke. I like the way that the creator of the joke uses the inteligent humour to show the similarities between the word "being" and "beans".

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  21. This joke its difficult to understand because you have to understand that the third person who talks confused the word bean with the Human being.

    I think that this joke is to difficult for a foreign people because they don't know the doble meaning.

    I have found that this joke isn't funny although you understand it.

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  22. At first, I can't found the sense in this joke. Finally, I have got the meaning of the expression "human being", and undestand the joke. The third child is counfusing "bens" to "being"!! Good joke!

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  23. The joke it's funny because it plays with the meaning of "bean" and "being" because their pronunciation is the same. I didn't think this joke was funny, it's no the best one I have heard.

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  24. In my opinion this joke isn't funny. I understand the joke (the third child confused the word that the teacher says, "beans" with "being", because both words have the same pronunciation), but I didn't find it funny.

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  25. Natàlia: In this joke there is a misunderstanding with the word beans. The girl says that his father grows beans, and the boy says that her mother coocks beans. There is a third child that understand that the mother of the boy coock a people who believe in Judaism. He says that everyone are human. it's funny that only one word can drive to a big confusion.

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  26. Ariana: OK, it was not funny, but I understand the jotke, the child confuses the word beins with beings.

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  27. At the first time, this joke wasn't funny by me because I didn't understand it. But then, when I saw the meaning it became more interesting. The boy confused bean for being, so he said that we are a vegetable. At least, is a funny joke.

    I think people, me included, want more jokes like that.

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  28. I suppose that this joke is quite funny just because the boy mix up meaning and pronounce of two words, he uses the word "beans" instead of "being". It's silly but makes you laugh, just a bit!

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  29. Firstly I didn't understand the joke, but after I listened it twice, I think that it's funny, because he confused the words that the teacher says, beans for being, because those have the same pronunciation.

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  30. This joke is funny because it uses two words that are pronounced the same way. The third child confuses "beans" with "beings".

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