I Make a Funny

Humor in a new language is always tricky. While some humor is immediately transferable, i.e. وين شهاتي؟ Where are my sandals?
انت شهاتة\ ابوك شهاتة You are a sandal/ Your father is a sandal*
a lot of the funny takes some practice and lots of failed, lame jokes.

My friends here tell me I am funny. Mostly on accident. For example, saying "I execute" أعدم rather than "I support" أدعم my mother in her attempt to make the Olympics this summer. This statement was met with laughter as no one present thought I actually meant to kill my mother. Other times, like when I mixed up "patience" and "boob" the matter took a few minutes to sort out. ("Why are you talking about her boob?" "Because I like her boob. She never gets exasperated and always corrects my mistakes in speaking." "What?")

The first joke I made on purpose was back the first week I arrived in Syria. I ate dinner at Ra'id's house, and when I complimented his mother on the deliciousness of the food, she replied "Health!". This is the normal thing to say with food, with the meaning "may it give you health." The proper reply, I had learned the day before, is "On your heart." Um Ra'id continuted to wish me good health throughout the meal, throwing in a "sahatayn!" (two healths - the dual is often used as as intensifier) so I replied "3ala 'albaynik" (on your two hearts). Ok, so kind of a lame joke, but the effort was applauded.

Lately, things have been getting better. A few puns here and there. My friend Manar asked me if "the cultural things" are ever hard on my friendships with Syrians. No, I replied, for I am an open girl (بنت مفتوحة). Open in the sense of open-minded is more correctly mutafatteha, not maftouha, which implies that I am a slut (which, as we all know, and overcome any cultural misunderstanding). She thought it was funny, but told me never ever to repeat it again in front of anyone, as they would "get the wrong idea." She made me promise.

Yesterday I also made a pun. In Syrian, "womanizer" is نسوانجي (niswanji). My friend Tariq's brother Tarif hogs the sobia (see: how fucking cold Damascus is right now) of whatever room he is in, so I christened him a sobianji (sobia-izer) yesterday. "That's clever. I'm going to use that," said Tariq. Go me!

*Proceed cautiously with "your mother" jokes, unless you know the person extremely well and insulting one another's family members is no big deal, or you can take them in a fight.