|
Hi Students,
Sorry, I’ve been busy preparing to start a new job and moving into a new, though temporary, apartment. I’ve been doing a lot of cleaning and shopping and other boring stuff. How has your English been during my absence? Still learning? I hope so. Below you can find links to some stories I made. Vocabulary is explained on the side, so it may be useful for some of you. Let me know if you like these.
This joke is an example of “black humor” - it is about a dying woman. I thought it was funny, but some people will disagree. If you do not like this kind of humor, please do not watch it! You will see the joke two times. The first time is straight through with no stopping. The second time the joke is stopped after every sentence and the vocabulary is explained. Let me know if you find this helpful or not. Also, be sure to give the video a rating and add comments!
Hi Everybody!
I am trying to reorganize my website a bit and have put some of my humor pages together on one page. I call it “Laugh and Learn English“. Besides my jokes (with audio), you can read some funny stories I wrote a long time ago about my experiences while travelling. I’ve also included a variety of funny things I’ve found in newspapers or magazines. Let me know what you think…
Congratulations to Nafis and Chichi who had the courage to post their views on the ONN report from the Department of Transportation! I hope others at least tried to watch the video. Double congratulations to Chichi for correctly identifying the real meaning of the video. Yes, this is a joke. ONN stands for Onion News Network. “The Onion” is quite a famous newspaper in the U.S. (see http://www.theonion.com) in which 100% of the news is fake.
This news story (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxgkHQp8Pds if you missed it before) is, as Chichi pointed out, making fun of people who think they can drive faster by honking a lot in traffic. It is also making fun of many Americans who easily get angry at other drivers. Two of my sisters are like this! They often use “swearing and fist shaking” as a preferred method of getting through traffic. (I hate being in the car when they drive!) The word “fist”, by the way, is what you make with your hand when you want to punch somebody. The announcer did not say “fish shaking”, although that would be a pretty funny idea, wouldn’t it?
In my opinion, this video is also making fun of both CNN and some government workers. The graphics on this video are so simple. Do we really need to see a dummy pushing its hand against the car horn? Sometimes it seems TV stations think viewers are stupid and so use very simple stories with simple graphics. The Onion takes this attitude to an extreme. As for the government worker, the great line that Chichi mentioned - “Honk! Honk! Honk! It’s that simple”, is totally ridiculous! For me, the funny thing is looking at the people standing around him, with serious looks on their faces. I think politicians often DO make ridiculouse statements, but many people take them seriously.
Go back now and watch the video again. Even if you don’t think it is so funny, see if you can at least understand the intention of the video. And again, leave your comments here!
Hi Everybody!
I just made my first “video joke”. Although it was a fast production, it should be useful to some learners. I am STILL trying to find better video editing software, so the quality is low. And I KNOW I should have shaved first but it was a holiday in China and my face needed a rest!
Click here to watch the video. As always, let me know what you think.
