Musings from an overworked translator

SNL Japanese game show January 9, 2010

My friend and I were watching Saturday Night Live’s The Best of Chris Farley the other night, and I saw this skit for the very first time in which a man from America goes to Japan and ends up on a game show that he didn’t he plan to be on. I had to share it with all of you as well. It is hilarious. Probably not at all linguistically accurate, but you don’t need the language skills to appreciate it.

For those of you who don’t know him, Chris Farley was a comedian and actor who died at age 33 (way too soon if you ask me). Farley was a member of Chicago’s Second City improv group and a cast member of the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live. He also starred some successful movies in the 1990s like Tommy Boy and Beverly Hills Ninja. He never failed to make me laugh.

TGIF: A doggy Christmas surprise – Karácsonyi kutyás meglepetés December 18, 2009

Since I won’t be posting on Christmas Day, this will be the last TGIF video for the year. I wish you all a happy holiday, whatever you are celebrating, be it Hanukkah, Christmas, the Winter Solstice or Kwanzaa.

This is just too precious! A dog school in Hungary made this video. These dogs are amazing.

TGIF: Hanukkah Song December 11, 2009

Hanukkah begins tonight at sundown, so in honor of those of you who celebrate Hanukkah this video is for you. Even if you aren’t Jewish I promise you’ll enjoy the song. Everyone knows Adam Sandler from his movies, but this was one of the songs that shot him into the stratosphere of fame on Saturday Night Live. It’s one of my favorite songs that is played on the radio this time of year. For those of you who have difficulty understanding him singing, here are the words to the song.

So drink your gin-and-tonic-ah, and smoke your mara-juanic-ah,
If you really, really wanna-kah, have a happy, happy, happy, happy Hanukkah!

TGIF: This is Norway December 4, 2009

The days are starting to run together and I almost missed posting this Friday video this week too! You all need to start reminding me 😉

I happen to have a very fond place in my heart for Norway. I had a huge crush on an AFS student who lived a town over back when I was in high school. I also dated a guy who lived abroad in Norway. I spent an enjoyable week in Trondheim in February 1989 and visited my AFS friend. I learned to love bread with Swiss cheese with jam here and drank moonshine. My friend got so trashed on moonshine that she started speaking with a British accent. It was hilarious. Norwegian is also very similar to German, so it didn’t take me long to pick up what they were saying. I wanted to share this fun little video about Norway with you all.

TGIF: Once Upon A Time November 13, 2009

It’s Friday the 13th! To counteract the supposed bad joo-joo I thought I would share this video clip of an adorable little French girl named Capucine. This is just about the cutest thing I have seen in a while. Have a great weekend, everyone!

TGIF: Hugh Laurie on American slang versus British slang November 6, 2009

After a couple weeks’ break I am going to continue displaying my love for Hugh Laurie. He is without a doubt my favorite British comedian (and there are some really good ones like Eddie Izzard and Rowan Atkinson). His shows Jeeves and Wooster and Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry are a total scream. Their ability to play with language is simply wonderful. If you haven’t seen them, I suggest you head on over to YouTube or borrow the DVDs from your local library. Have a great weekend, all!

TGIF: The power of a good story October 22, 2009

I’m home for a couple days before heading to the ATA conference. I couldn’t leave you all hanging without a TGIF video. I’m not going to give away the punchline, so all I’m going to say is “Enjoy”!

TGIF: Hugh Laurie speaks French at the Emmys October 9, 2009

I think Hugh Laurie is awesome and love his humor (as well as his skits on language with Stephen Fry). In this clip Hugh Laurie is speaking French at the Emmys. Enjoy! And have a great weekend.

TGIF: Monty Python in a Language Lab October 2, 2009

When I was studying languages in college we had to spend lots of time in the language lab, which facilitated the learning of languages using headphones and cassette tapes. After listening to the tapes we were supposed to repeat what was said. This was apparently supposed to help eliminate accents when speaking in the foreign language. Things could get a little crazy in the language lab, since so many different languages were spoken at the same time. You really needed those headphones to concentrate. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like to work as a language lab assistant. My head hurts just thinking about it. I’m sure things have changed since then (kids probably download MP3s to their MP3 players), but I thought some of you might appreciate this little throw-back to the days of styrofoam walls and bulky headphones – and who doesn’t love Monty Python?

TGIF: What if? September 25, 2009

Twatif? As many of you know, Twitter limits its messages to 140 characters. That isn’t a problem online, but what if it happened in the real world? This video from FromBogotaWithLove shows what might happen if the conversation cut off in the middle of a word and led to some awkward misunderstandings.

Warning: contains some really funny sexual connotations.