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韓Sir 資深英語教師
說一個笑話給您聽：
Mr. Chan went to his doctor to have his brain examined. After an electro-encephalogram, his doctor told him , “Mr. Chan, on the left side of your brain, there is nothing right. And on the right side of your brain, there is nothing left. ”
陳先生到醫生處驗腦。做了腦電圖測試後，醫生說：「陳先生，在您的左腦裡，沒有一樣是妥當的。在您的右腦裡，已經沒有剩餘的東西。」
譯成中文 失去幽默
笑話翻譯成中文後，失去了當中的幽默。問題是英語世界內很多字有不只一個意思，“Right” 可解作右邊或妥當；“left” 可解作左邊或剩餘，文首的笑話便是因為這二字有不同意思而構成的，所以中文譯本便不覺有趣了。
再看下列舉例：
1. John likes ball games.
2. John went to the ball.
3. John injured his balls in the ball game.
4. She's got balls to challenge her boss !
“Ball”：是「球」(1) ，也是舞會(2)；複數 “balls” 便是「睾丸」(3)或「勇氣」(4)。
5. Peter always pays his bill on time.
6. I found a ten-dollar bill on the pavement.
7. They posted a bill to advertise the event.
8. That bird has a long bill.
“Bill”：是「賬單」(5)，是「鈔票」(6)，也是「招貼」(7)，或是「鳥嘴」(8)。
“pretty ugly”是說「相當醜」
9.“How are you ?” “Fine, thanks.”
10.“We'd like some Chinese food today.”“That's fine by me.”
11. She has fine blond hair.
12. He paid a fine for his traffic offense.
“Fine”：可解作「好」(9)，或「沒有問題」(10)，又可解作「纖細」(11)，或是「罰款」(12)。
再說一個笑話給您聽：
A six-year-old boy came home after his first day in his primary school. His mother asked, “ How's your new teacher? ”
“Well,” the young boy replied, “she's not ugly…and I can't say she's pretty. She's kind of in between ：pretty ugly. ”
笑話也是利用 “pretty” 的兩個意思來發揮的， “Pretty” 除了解作「美貌」外，也可解作「相當」。小男孩幽默地說老師 “ in between ：“pretty ugly”，好像說「不美也不醜」，其實是說她「相當醜」的！
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