Saturday, April 5, 2014

April Fools' Day, German style

Monday was April Fools' Day and of course jokes and pranks were rampant, even though Germany is often seen as a place not full of humor (which is not exactly true though people are rather serious here often).

My colleague told me that this year's prank on the local radio station was that the US's security administration was recruiting Hessisch dialect speakers to translate their dialect (from the state of Hesse, which includes Frankfurt) into German. People were actually calling in to inquire about the job!

I got the joke on this one and had a giggle. There is such a huge variation to the German language that even native speakers of German sometimes can't understand the regional dialects of other areas.

My colleague said that the previous year, the radio station really got her. They were saying that individuals wouldn't be allowed to smoke in their own cars. That made a lot of people angry until they realized that it was a joke.


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