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Using rude jokes as a context for teaching.
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biffinbridge



Joined: 05 May 2003
Posts: 701
Location: Frank's Wild Years

PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:43 am    Post subject: Using rude jokes as a context for teaching. Reply with quote

In the past few months,stranded in the Libyan desert,I've dsigned loads of communcative activities,which I'm going to use in Poland.One of the lessons is a joke about the size of a woman's mammaries and is basically a dialogue beween a man and his wife,which they have to turn into reported speech. Now the joke's really funny but I'm a bit hesitant about the subject matter despite the fact that Poles love rude jokes and the task is a good one.To do or not to do?....umm....what do you lot think?
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Guy Courchesne



Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City

PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 12:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'll use some off-color jokes with one-on-one classes, only after I've gotten to know the student well enough to know that he wouldn't be put off. I say 'he' because such a joke would be inappropriate in front of female students, culturally speaking, in Mexico.
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dmb



Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 8397

PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 4:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mt students tell me rude jokes Shocked But I have been teaching them for a while. As Guy says, know your students first.

Biff, I've heard some of your jokes so I wouldn't advise it Wink
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Guy Courchesne



Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City

PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 5:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You ever hear the one about the blind man and the naked nuns? I tried that in a small business class once. There's nothing better to kill a joke than to have to explain it.
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ls650



Joined: 10 May 2003
Posts: 3484
Location: British Columbia

PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 5:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Guy Courchesne wrote:
I'll use some off-color jokes with one-on-one classes, only after I've gotten to know the student well enough to know that he wouldn't be put off.
I agree.

I've found that once I get to know the students, they tend to be the ones who take something I've said that's perfectly innocent, and pervert it into something more.
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Guy Courchesne



Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City

PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
they tend to be the ones who take something I've said that's perfectly innocent, and pervert it into something more


I get that too, but mostly from Q. Roo teachers...
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Glenski



Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Look at it this way. Would you use rude jokes in your home country to teach a subject? Probably not, even if you felt the people in that area "love" them.
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ls650



Joined: 10 May 2003
Posts: 3484
Location: British Columbia

PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Glenski wrote:
Would you use rude jokes in your home country to teach a subject?

Sure I would. If I had taught the students for a period of time and knew they would appreciate the joke, I wouldn't hesitate.
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Glenski



Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 3:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maybe I should have stated that a little differently. The OP's situation is NOT knowing his students that intimately.

Would you use rude jokes as a new teacher? Not a very sensitive way to test the waters.
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rogan



Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Posts: 416
Location: at home, in France

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 5:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Somebody will always complain and then your PC correct manager will use the complaint against you.

Why provide ammunition to the opposition ?
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Chris_Crossley



Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 1797
Location: Still in the centre of Furnace City, PRC, after eight years!!!

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:43 pm    Post subject: Manager = opposition. No laughing matter! Reply with quote

rogan wrote:
Somebody will always complain and then your PC correct manager will use the complaint against you. Why provide ammunition to the opposition?


Your own manager is your opposition?

That just about sums up TEFL for many people, including myself based on past personal experience, and that truly does make it a joke. Sad
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Ben Round de Bloc



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1946

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 1:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

rogan wrote:
Somebody will always complain and then your PC correct manager will use the complaint against you.

What is considered politically correct or incorrect in one country/culture is not necessarily the same in another country/culture. I think knowing one's audience is important. If I thought a particular joke might be offensive to anyone in the class, I wouldn't use it, whatever country I was teaching in.

Here in Yucatan, bombas (off-color jokes often based on double meanings of words) are quite popular. Locals for the most part are not prudes about off-color jokes. However, I personally wouldn't use something similar in English as part of a lesson plan.
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dmb



Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 8397

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 1:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

^Agreed. If I told some of my 'jokes' here. Dave would ban me. You have to know the time and place to tell them. Know your audience.
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Justin Trullinger



Joined: 28 Jan 2005
Posts: 3110
Location: Seoul, South Korea and Myanmar for a bit

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 9:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Knowing your audience is key, and there are some kinds of rude jokes that I wouldn't use in any audience, classroom or otherwise.

But many of my students are not children, and I think that using language in a realistic context is important. Jokes, rude and otherwise, are part of culture, and should be looked at. They can also be great for introducing all kinds of topics, and what's more, students get a real feeling of accomplishment when they laugh at something, having found it funny in English.

Here's my favourite. Is it offensive? Hasn't been yet, but I'm careful where I tell it. Good choice for starting discussion on gender roles, though.




A man is talking to God, and he asks, "Why did you make women so beautiful?"

God pauses gravely, and responds, "So you would love them."

The man thinks about this, realizes the wisdom of this response, and asks his second question. "Why did you make them so stupid?"

And God pauses again, and says,
















"So they would love you."
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Boy Wonder



Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Posts: 453
Location: Clacton on sea

PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 8:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A 'blue comedian' is usually the funniest.
Nothing worse than tame christmas cracker jokes.
Bin them and put sellotape over the mouths of people who tell them.

When was Eddie Murphy at his funniest? In his 'Raw' phase..that's when.
All the mainstream TV comedians release live DVD performances littered with offensive or blue jokes.

Say rollox to political correctness and let the blue flow.

After all most of the counties i have taught in are as politically correct as a Bernard Manning monologue!!
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