Finglish puns

One of the most interesting things about living in another country is the experience of trying to make jokes. In short, they usually don’t work. For example, all of the Finns we know are fluent in English, but when the kids try to tell them knock-knock jokes, it’s as if we’re from a different planet. There are no knock-knock jokes in Finnish, and if you have to stop to explain the premise of a knock-knock joke, you find yourself both killing the joke and considering how the knock-knock joke came to be. In the U.S., you can go up to pretty much anyone and say “Knock knock,” and they’ll know what to do. It makes you marvel at the kinds of cultural knowledge we share without even realizing it.

So I’m proud to say that in my nearly two years of living in Finland, I have come up with two Finglish jokes.

Joke 1: I’m looking for mushrooms. Sieni? (Sieni means mushroom, and sort of sounds like see-any.)

Joke 2: How hot is it when it’s a thousand degrees? Tuhat! (Tuhat means a thousand, and sort of sounds like too-hot.)

I realize that any joke you need to explain this much is probably not that great a joke. But in the past few months, I’ve seen evidence that I’m onto something: the Finnish ferry service Silja Line is also into the Finglish pun.

(Paatti is an informal word for boat.)