Warning, absolutely gratuitous image below, inserted only to pick your attention, and because it was handy.
Internet is as a huge worldwide community, where we have a lot in common: we all are computer users, often talking about computer matters, and often talking in english… which very, very often isn’t our native language.
While years ago I managed to communicate pretty well by knowing only a bit of English, now I felt like I’ve reached a kind of uncanny valley: not good enough to avoid (huge) misunderstandings, but good enough to feel like a zombie if I don’t push the language a bit. And it seems to be a typical problem around Internet.
Some interesting comments about at the pre-previous post (which also linked to the comments of the pre-pre-previous one. Mmmm… this is starting to look like a self inflicted chain letter :-p) showed me that maybe English isn’t the problem but, strangely enough, our national sense of humour.
One of Larry Niven’s characters in “Ringworld” defines humour as the interruption of a self-defence mechanism; while the description can be challenged, it gives us an interesting idea… how should we push, and how far, to start a defence mechanism we can interrupt? Do different countries have different pushing limits?
We surely do; there is a kind of behavioural personal space, a national limit that defines the things we can touch and the ones we don’t, some things you don’t make fun at. When talking with people from other countries we may push too much, and be annoying, or too little, and they don’t get the joke.
But don’t worry, there is hope for us, and it is called globalization. I grew seeing sitcoms like Man About the House, and I think it gave my sense of humour an ironic, British touch, with a liking for word play; if you are a sitcom addict, we can probably communicate.
Of course, there may be some problems, like the funny looks I get, so many times, when trying to be fun at RL… I wonder, did I alienate myself from my own country sense of humour?
I found that humour (and song lyrics) are the hardest for me. In a RL conversation I am completely lost, since humour usually happens very fast and in the blink of a moment. In text based communication I usually do a little better since I have more time to think and “get” what gets said. Still a lot of humour and puns go unnoticed by me. On the other hand I am rather careful trying humour myself since – as you describe it – it often goes horribly wrong (despite my humour often being described as British).
Let me share a funny misunderstanding. Many years ago I visited a British company who had two people with the name of Richard and one person with the name of Dick. During lunchbreak, when an awkward pause happened, I broke the silence saying “So, you have two Richards but only one Dick”. The people’s faces froze for a moment, until one of the Richard’s replied “Yes, we share him”.
Oh my! Not even I would had dared to try that one!
Don’t you hate when something like that happens by itself? At least the answer showed they tried to ease it *laughs and hugs you*
It was not intended to be a filthy joke. I did not realize what I said until I said it and it was too late to take it back.
Yes, I got it, that’s why I said “hate when happens by itself”.
I admit the “I wouldn’t dare to try” was open to confusion; I was talking about daring to try the answer they gave you, accepting that it could be a joke, and completing it.
See? Another confusion, and this time I wasn’t even trying to be funny :-p
Mmmh… Weird, I see often humour as a self-defence mechanism, joking with things puts distance and it helps reaching serious topics without getting too… sentimental.
Maybe that’s also a national difference…
No, you are right, Izo, I generalized too much. It is true that humour also works as you just said, and as weapon, and in so many other ways; humour is too complex to label it.
Still, it doesn’t matter if it is being triggered as self-defense to avoid being sad, or as a reaction against menace than doesn’t is so serious at the end, like the typical sit-com situations; we are still talking of it happening when we get close to our tolerance limit, don’t you think?