Things That Make You Feel Like a Foreigner (part II)

2. Sport. Is it just me or can no one else get excited about football or basketball games in a new country? I tried to watch some of the local footy games but it just didn’t get me going at all. I actually passed the time listening to the comments from the crowd rather than watching the game. This is a good way to learn Spanish swear words if nothing else. Local sports are also baffling. Here in the south of Bolivia they like to throw a bone – I think it is a cow’s knee joint but can’t be sure – at a pile of mud. If you were born here then that probably sounds like great fun and a real test of skill. If you weren’t then sitting in a darkened room probably appeals more. But then, would the traditional British sport of tiddlywinks go down well here?
3. The humour. I am actually quite partial to the South American humour and when I went back to the UK I found that I was a bit of out of tune with the jokes there. Learning jokes is a great way to learn Spanish as well but there are some things which just don’t translate at all well. When I think about it, the problem isn’t that I don’t like the humour from here. The real issue is that no one here laughs at my jokes. I think I have now been caught in a no man’s land where my ¬attempts to be funny are a bit too British for the South Americans but not British enough for the British. Maybe I should try Canada or New Zealand?