Safe Territory? The Humorous Narratives of Bilingual Women

Humor in a second language (L2) can present an intimidating linguistic and cultural challenge for L2 speakers, yet it is a crucial means by which friendships are developed. In this article, I report on the humorous narratives constructed by 4 bilingual women in interaction with native English speakers. Unlike previous studies, which have pointed to women's tendencies to tell stories of their own foibles, these women told few first-person narratives, and these often positioned the speaker in a positive manner. The majority of these women's narratives contained third-party protagonists and frequently demonstrated that party's foolishness. The results show an overall pattern of positive self-portrayal of by the narrator. Telling overtly or implicitly self-aggrandizing stories was a way for these women to create solidarity among themselves and deal with the marginalization that many L2 speakers experience by virtue of their nonnative speaker status.