Oct 3, 2007 Discussion "characteristic/trait from my native culture"
Submitted by Sabine Reljic on Tue, 10/02/2007 - 20:52.
I could not resist sharing this paper.
"A crystal seen from each of its vertices: European views of European national characters" by James Shilts Boster and Kateryna Maltseva, Cross-Cultural Research 2006; 40; 47. (19 pages). The online version of this article can be found at http://ccr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/40/1/47
It starts as:
"In heaven, all the policeman are English, all the car mechanics are German, all the cooks are French, all the hotel keepers are Swiss, and all the lovers are Italian.
In hell, all the policeman are German, all the car mechanics are French, all the cooks are English, all the hotel keepers are Italian, and all the lovers are Swiss."
In general, jokes that depend on national stereotypes are in bad taste, but we submit that the one above is an instructive exception. It does not choose a stigmatized group and heap further abuse on it; instead, it targets a number of the most economically powerful nations on the planet and attributes both the best and worst of traits to each of them. But for our purposes, what is most interesting about the joke is that its humor depends on teh audience's knolwedge of a great deal about each of the nations; heaven adn hell are distinguished by whether the assginment of occupations takes advantage of the nations' envisioned best traits or exposes their worst ones. In other words, the joke aligns a collection of nations in a field of attributes. The research reported here has similar purpose: We explore adn describe what it is that Europeans know (or think they know) about the placement of their own and other nations on a number of attribute dimensions. We also describe patterns in how these beliefs aredistributed. Note that "nation" in our usage is not equivalent to teh nation-state.....
Funny joke
I read the joke. it smiles me very little. It is better to say it didnot sense me much. Especially jokes are highle culture senstive. A joke that is funny in one country is not funny in other country.
Let me add one Ethiopian joke- I am not sure to what extent I translated the joke to maintain its original meaning. The joke starts by saying. God wants to work more hard to make all people satisfied and first he listens the compint three persons: one from US, Italy and Ethiopia. As you know Ethiopean people are poor.
When these three persns go to bed, each of them says:
Ethiopian. he didnot eat satisfactorily.Before sleeping he always says Thank you God! Please don't forget me not to loose what I have.
Italian: after eating too much spagetti. oh shit Gad!
US: I don't know exactly the slang but says like the Italian.
Lastly God says I am doing nice for the Ethiopian but I have too much work to satisfy the people of US and Italian.
Irony as one of the universal principles in humor?
Temtim, I'm so glad to have your perspective on things like this. A couple thoughts come to me after reading your entry.
It is interesting that it is hard for me to initially see the thing that is funny in the joke. Correct me if I am wrong, but the funny part is intended to be the irony of God thinking He has done so much of a better job with Ethiopians - and Ethiopians would think that was funny because there is so much more poverty there, so it strikes them as funny? Am I understanding it right?
I wonder in this case if one universal principle in humor might be the use of irony - but that it is different in different cultures what people would find as ironic?
Any thoughts about that from anyone?
I also noticed that the joke was related to something very pertinent to the context: about having enough to eat.
I also think it would be very interesting to study allusions to God in humor in different cultures: #1 the frequency of it depending on where you are?, and #2 the type of humor in which references to God are used?
Thanks Temtim, I'm very interested in hearing any more jokes from Ethiopia if you can think of them.
italy vs europe
Mr. Marcus Duveskog
Italians seems to find this one funny so I think we can too :-)
http://www.sallyahmed.com/GoodStuff/Movies/Italy.zip
I wish I had a collection of
I wish I had a collection of funny videos like that!
As far as Italians finding it funny, I noticed that it looked like two Italians are the ones that created it. I think in general, most people like to laugh at themselves when they see their own peculiarities in light of others, don't you?
Perhaps there is a big difference when something is created on the inside vs. by someone else?
I know in America, for instance, we have a lot of TV programs, satires, etc... that make fun of ourselves, but I wonder how the general reaction is when others are pointing the fun? I guess it depends on what spirit it is done in. I can think of some British things that made fun of American culture and I laughed, but I could tell it was not malicious.
Perhaps I just took something that was purely funny and made it too deep? :)
But I did create a reflection wiki about "What is funny?" I'm curious how things like this video strike people from Africa, Asia, or Latin America, for instance.
Thanks for posting that Marcus. Let me know if you have any more like that or come across them in the future. I'm assuming you saw the Finnish one about capturing a Father Christmas?
Hilarious.
Hilarious.
Nice contribution
Mr. Marcus Duveskog
had also heard it before but think it was a nice contribution and it probably aligns quite well with our stereotypes. will try to see if I can get hold of an other funny animation on stereotypes on europeans within the union.
Funny
:) Ha! The funny thing is that after having lived in England for almost 3 years, I am kind of addicted to some of the food there. Perhaps that gives you an indication of how not-picky I am when it comes to food. I don't need gourmet food, I just want it to be pretty tasty and for there to be a lot of it. Maybe that is the American in me (although surprisingly not overweight).
Funny joke though. I had heard it once before and I tried to remember it a couple weeks ago but couldn't reconstruct it. Thanks for posting it!
Nationals / Expatriates reactions?
I showed the joke to a friend of mine who's from the British islands and has been in the States for over 40 years now. I was curious to know if the fact that I was not bothered by the joke -actually, I was rather tickled funny by it- was an expected reaction (which would confirm that the joke was not threatening) or just my personal choice to find it funny vs insulting (the individual uniqueness we've been talking about). She actually finished the joke before I did. Not that she had heard the joke before, but she guessed (or is it due to a certain self-deprecating humor to ones own national shortcomings...) how the English would fare in the second part of the joke.
My other reaction was to wonder if there would be a difference of reaction between the nationals who are still in the respective countries, and the expatriates. I have been involved, lately, in a conversation about first generation expatriates and their sense of belonging. The general consensus is that "we don't really belong here (as in the new country), but we don't belong there (the native country) anymore." So it appears that even with a strong feeling of pride/identity related to own background/pedigree/history/heritage AND the strong will/desire/choice to participate fully to the culture (work, family, school, community) of the new country, the expatriates are feeling a slight identity crisis.
Some identified reasons were:
1) the native country: fellow "compatriotes" explicitly point to the differences (usually the national characteristics and stereotypes) between them and the expatriates ("you are not like us anymore")
2) the expatriates: themselves know or become aware of certain changes in their world view/belief system/etc. that came upon due to their extended stay in the new country and the distance away from the native one.
Do you have other ideas, suggestions?
Questions for Expats...
I think your question is if any of us have ideas or suggestions for why expats might feel a type of identity crisis, not really "fitting" either at home or in their new residence?
Since quite a few of us either currently are or have been expats for a significant period of time, I think that is a good question.
Has anyone in this group felt either confused or challenged with regards to identity (specifically identifying with a particular national culture) after having lived for a significant time abroad?
If so, why?
PS I also created another reflection wiki entry about this joke, as humor seems to vary significantly between cultures: http://www.whatiamlearning.com/drupaled/wiki/what-funny