Walter Higbee

A lot of our humor comes from language that is used inappropriately. Sometimes, this language is foreign. I will try to give some examples of this language confusion. The first comes from the time several years ago when my wife was in a play.

The play had a bit part for a man to appear on stage and deliver one line. The man picked for this part assumed he didn't need to practice in order to deliver this one line. He played the part of a Frenchman named Henri and his role called for him to appear on stage and say, "Oui, oui," when asked if he were coming. The man appeared on stage, all by himself, and answered when he was asked, "Are you coming, Henri?" by saying, "Oy! Oy!" The resulting laughter didn't subside until the third act.

My next example dates from my time when I was a graduate student at the University of Minnesota. I was enrolled in a course in statistics along with several foreign students, many from the Middle East. These students were each equipped with dictionaries so they could check on statistical terms, such as "analysis of variance," "split-half reliability" and "chi-square test" that were not familiar to them.

One class period, the instructor, Dr. Raymond Collier, was working a long, involved correlation problem on the board. When he finished the problem, which covered half the board, he stepped back and exclaimed, "That is one lousy correlation coefficient!" The foreign students, all in the first row, scrambled for their dictionaries to find out what kind of correlation coefficient a "lousy" one was.

Those of us who live in the northern Black Hills can all relate to this bit of language confusion. This has happened to me more than once. It will probably happen to me again this summer. I will be walking along when a tourist car pulls up and the driver rolls down the window and calls to me, "How do you get to the road that leads to "Belly Four-shay?"

My question is always whether or not to correct the tourist on the proper pronunciation of Belle Fourche.

My last example goes back to my undergraduate days at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. While there, I took a course in Spanish taught by a very prim and proper lady named Dr. Roberta Reigel. Dr. Reigel also had the job of tutoring the Spanish speaking students who attended Simpson. Many of these students had limited mastery of the English language.

One day, Dr. Reigel came to class, and it was obvious she wanted to tell us something but was a little hesitant because she was afraid that it might appear to be a bit naughty. Finally, she got the courage to tell us. She said that one of her Spanish students came to her to report on his progress in learning English. Dr. Reigel said, "Juan, how are you doing in your study of English?"

Juan replied, "Well, I'm doing all right with my consonants, but I am having trouble with my bowel sounds."

Dr. Reigel's face turned bright red as she related this incident. Some 60 years later, I still remember it. I consider it to be the funniest thing I ever heard.

Walter Higbee is a retired college educator living in Spearfish. Write him at the Rapid City Journal, Box 450, Rapid City, SD 57709.