Ying Dan Translation Studio 颖丹传译工作室

My answer is simple—don’t interpret itJ

But if conditions allow, I will tell the speaker that I won’t interpret the joke because it will be offensive to the listener.

Once I accompanied two American clients to inspect a factory in city G. During the lunch, the factory owner, a 50 something male who can’t speak English, ordered a black chicken, which interested my two American clients. They had never seen a black chicken before. Then the factory owner said: “Obama”. I didn’t under-stand his point and asked what? He continued: “It’s black, like Obama.” I was shocked and told him that this joke would be offensive to these two Americans so that I wouldn’t translate it. (If he was an American em-ployer, he could be accused of racial discrimination. But this is another story.) And then I just told the two Americans that the factory owner said the black chicken was very delicious.