Attitudes, Values, Beliefs (eighth meeting)

            Monique and I met for the last time at our usual meeting spot, Union Grounds. It was the last day of classes for both of us. She told me how excited she was to be going home to Brazil at the end of the week. I was surprised, because I thought that she, like myself, would also have finals after classes were done. However, she told me that she had already had her finals and that her semester was officially complete. Still, there was an end-of-semester party for her entire class. But she wasn’t planning on attending because she had to prepare to go home. Also, she didn’t have many close friends in her course.

She realized that she didn’t have many close friends in her course because she found that many of her classmates had different values and beliefs to her, as they were of different cultures. For example, she had an experience at the beginning of the semester. When it was still hot, she had worn a tank top to class and one of her classmates confronted her and told her that she needed to put a jacket on. This was because, in his culture, women do not reveal so much skin. She was a little irritated by this but she didn’t want to start any commotion so she just put on a jacket. However, she reassured me that, even though she may disagree with her classmates’ values, she still respected her classmates; she just gets irritated when people, in general, try to force their beliefs and values on her.

This led to a discussion on differing values and attitudes across the globe. She said that, in Brazil, people are relatively open-minded but this is why she is always worried she may unintentionally offend others. For instance, during her presentation on Brazil that she gave last week, she had included pictures of Carnival, a Brazilian festival analogous to Mardi Gras. These pictures consisted of topless women in bright colors, which was a typical scene during Carnival. However, during Monique’s presentation, one of her classmates reacted to this image by leaving the class. Initially, Monique was confused but after, she realized that she had unintentionally opposed one of this classmate’s values.

In turn, I told her that having been raised in an international environment, I understood where she was coming from. I have had many experiences in which my values and beliefs were challenged. However, I told her that I am glad that my values have been challenged because it has given me the opportunity to strengthen my own values, as I have had to justify my values with each challenge. Moreover, I told her that my international experience has allowed me to become more open-minded and accepting towards others’ beliefs but still stand firmly on my beliefs. In response, she told me that she thought that I had adopted the exact attitude that is needed in our world today, because norms are constantly changing with advances in society and technology. Nonetheless, we came to the conclusion that there is still a need to be cautious when dealing with controversial issues in order to keep a civil environment.

This has, by far, been my favorite conversation I have had with Monique all semester. It was an honest conversation in which we both presented our own values and respected each other while doing so. I feel that I gained further insight on the changing norms across the globe. Moreover, it was interesting to see that we had adopted similar behaviors when interacting with others of different values, even though we had different backgrounds. Unfortunately, our meeting was cut short because Monique had to go and buy gifts for her family in Brazil. It was sad when we bid each other good-bye. But assured each other that we would continue to keep in touch. We already hope to meet again at the beginning of next semester when we return. 

Our near-future plans at TCU (seventh meeting)

Once again, Monique and I met over some coffee at Union Grounds. Monique had just got out of her class. She had just done a presentation so I asked her how her presentation went. As she was able to choose the topic of the presentation, she had done her presentation on Brazil, her home country because she was familiar with it. She told me that though she was nervous, she requested to present first because seeing other presentations would have made her even more nervous than she already was. She wanted to, so-to-say, “rip the Band-Aid off.” She was glad that it was finally over but there was still much to do; she told me that she to prepare for a writing exam the next day. I told her, with finals coming up, it really felt like it was one thing after another but as we established at our last meeting, there were only a few weeks to power through until we would have a much-deserved break.

She then told me how excited she was to be going back to Brazil for the holidays and in turn, I told her how equally excited I was for my parents to be coming here for the holidays. I told her that this is my favorite time of the year. This brought up the Christmas tree lighting. Monique wasn’t able to go so I told her all about it. She then commented on how it must be to be living on-campus because I can easily get to class and go to different events. With this, I realized that I probably take living on-campus for granted. Nevertheless, I told her I was looking for a place for myself as well since I am planning to move off-campus for next year. And she told me that she was looking for a place nearer to TCU so that she wouldn’t have to commute as far. We talked about the off-campus housing in the area. I told her that I was nervous since I had never lived on my own but she reassured me saying that it is the best experience and you get to cook all your food. With this, she told me about all the Brazilian cooking she does, typically just rice, beans and meat. We discussed my current food options and I told her about my opinion about the food at Market Square.

Just then, Monique pulls her phone out and I made a comment saying that she got her phone back. She was very excited that finally, her cousin had returned and even more, he had got her a nice phone case. Being girls, we admired the phone case for a while. She told me how glad she was to have her phone back because she can now be in contact with everybody; she didn’t feel as lost anymore. The weird thing was that I didn’t find this comment weird. In fact, I sympathized with her; I would feel lost without my phone too. It’s interesting to notice the role of technology in our daily routines. This reminds me of Twain’s quote on civilization, “Civilization: A limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessaries.” With the advancement of technology within civilization, it seems as though we’ve created a need for devices that we don’t actually need.

Monique then asked me about the courses I plan to take next semester. I told her that I was only planning to take four classes but I had been rethinking what classes I actually want to take. She told me exciting news that she was going to begin her undergraduate career at TCU next semester as she completes her English course. She told me about all the trouble she has to apply to any school in the US. With this, I realized how much more there was for her to do because she had many documents to submit and even more, she had to get them all translated through a certain company.  Moreover, it was frustrating since some of her classes didn’t transfer over so she is required to retake certain classes. I asked her all about the application process for her and in turn, I told her what I did when I was applying for college. It was interesting to see how different the process was, even though we were applying to the same school. 

Shopaholics? (sixth meeting)

After a busy few weeks, Monique and I finally met another time. I hadn’t heard from Monique for a while and it turns out she had left her phone with her cousin who has been out of town for the past few weeks, and that she hadn’t been checking her email as frequently as she should have been. She kept apologizing even after I told her that it was fine. After all the apologizing, she asked me about my Thanksgiving break. I told her about my spontaneous decision to take a trip down to Houston with my friends and how I got to see some of my family there.

She then noticed the new boots that I was wearing. I told her that I got them on Black Friday. I told her it was my first Black Friday experience. She's never had the experience but she knew what it was so I just continued to tell her about the deals that the different stores had. She told me that Brazil attempted to do something like Black Friday but she believed that it would never work because clothes are really expensive in Brazil so even when they’re on sale, they’re still really expensive. For example, she said a pair of jeans could cost up to $500. I couldn’t imagine paying that much just for a pair of jeans. I told her it was similar in Vietnam, that all the American brands and European brands are overpriced, which is quite ironic considering many of the clothes are “Made in Vietnam.” We examined how international brands, however, still did well in our respective countries.

We then started talking about our shopping habits, for example about what we like to buy, where we shop and the different brands we liked. We talked about the different malls in the area. Since she lived in Dallas, she recommended places where I could find good shopping in Dallas and in turn, I told her what malls were around here. It was interesting to see that we liked the same brands such as Zara. H&M and Forever 21. We talked about how much we enjoyed Forever 21 because it’s affordable even though the clothes aren’t the best quality. However, we established that it’s a good strategy on Forever 21's part, because trends go out of style and once they do, us girls have the mentality to go shopping again anyways. This is why I was intrigued, however, because we were attracted to the same brands and followed the same trends despite our upbringing on opposite sides of the world. As I said earlier, international brands had a presence in the countries we grew up in and I realized that this is probably why we had similar tastes, as the same transnational brands influenced us. It brought to mind the idea homogenization of global cultures due to globalization. Even if it might just be fashion taste, the expansion of these transnational brands had impacted our perceptions. We enjoyed talking about shopping but even then, she asked me about the coming weeks as the semester ends.

We talked a lot about finals and she was surprised about the number of finals I had. We were both ready for the holidays but we both agreed that we just needed to work hard in these next few weeks to have a much deserved holiday.

The Greater Purpose of Humor (Response to Tales of Juha 45 – 92)

I really enjoyed these next few sections of “Tales of Juha.” I felt that these embodied how humor could be used as a means to make a comment on something that isn’t socially acceptable. Nowadays, in our society, there are sensitive issues that we don’t talk about bluntly and I feel that humor can be a way to do so that would avoid uncomfortable situations. In other words, humor could be an innuendo technique. Maybe I’m just speculating a little too much but I thought that the sections on Social Satire and Naïveté and Stupidity consisted of jokes that did just that, indirectly commented on unconventional issues without creating an uncomfortable, awkward atmosphere.

Take for example the Social Satire section in which there were jokes pertaining to controversial subjects like religion and politics. For example, the following joke resonated with the idea that people only turn to faith in times of desperation: One day there was a strong wind raging. People started praying to God and reciting parts of the Quran. “All right, all right,” Juha told them. “Don’t be in too much of hurry to repent. It’s only a storm. It’ll pass.” This idea is commonly seen in life where people tend to noticeably turn to religion when they are at low times and take religion or faith for granted at other times. Or it could also people interpreted that people tend to be to quick to give in in times of desperation, instead of thinking things through.

There were also multiple anecdotes that pertained to the recurring theme of being superficial. There was the anecdote where a man asked Juha, who was wearing a turban and a scholar’s cloak, to read something for him. He had assumed Juha was able to read just because of Juha’s attire. There was also an anecdote where Juha attended a banquet in tattered clothes and then he returned with some fine clothes, and only then was he respected. By this, he draped his sleeve over his food and called to his sleeve to eat, suggesting that the other people only cared for his appearance instead of him as a person. Moreover, there was the anecdote that directly followed, where Juha, wearing unappealing clothes, went to a public bath and was given poor service yet he paid a large amount so when he returned, he was treated with greater service. I thought that these anecdotes commented on the superficiality of society and this was a common theme throughout. As noted, this theme wouldn’t be something one would conventionally blurt out in public as it could be offensive. But by putting it in a joke or anecdote, it could be lightly brought to attention. This serves as an example of the critical function, as mentioned as one of the positive effects of laughter in Morreall’s Comic Relief.

I also found the section on Naïveté and Stupidity interesting because it highlighted “stupid” character. One joke that really amused me was the one where Juha’s wife of three months believed that she was pregnant. Juha had pointed out that it hadn’t been nine months yet his wife still convinced him that she could be pregnant even though they had only been married for three months. Another one that amused me was: One day, Juha was asked about the remedy for a bad eye. “I had a painful toothache once,” he said. “And the only way I found of easing the pain was to have it taken out.” These anecdotes, in addition to the others in the same section, seemed to be a way to make light of people’s misinterpretation. Moreover, this reminded me of another argument presented in Morreall’s Comic Relief that humor could be used as a means to correct social behavior. These jokes could be a way of doing just that.  

            I found that these sections were exemplar of humor’s greater purpose other than to simply amuse. It has a purpose to comment on society and other serious issues. 

Universal Humor (Response to Tales of Juha, 1 - 41)

I had been studying all weekend to prepare for an exam and I was beginning to panic so none of the content was sticking, no matter how long I sat in front of my notes. I was definitely in need of a study break. I realized I had my reading from “Tales of Juha,” so I decided that I should use it as a “productive study break.” I opened the book and realized that the assigned reading was the section on “Wit and Wisdom,” so I anticipated clever jokes that may require a bit of thinking and in the state I was in, I was in no mood for thinking but I continued to read anyway. And to my surprise, I actually enjoyed the jokes. I liked how the jokes and found that it was an easy read and that it quickly lightened up my mood. I giggled and even laughed out loud at a few of the jokes and before I knew it, panic mode began to dissipate. I can’t list all the jokes that made me laugh but here are a few of the short ones that did:

• Juha met a friend of his father’s. “Son!” the fellow exclaimed. “Your father had a great beard. Why don’t you have any hair on your chin?” I take after my mother,” Juha exclaimed.   
• A punctilious person asked Juha what was the best position to take in a funeral procession. Was it ahead of the coffin or behind it? As long as you’re not in the coffin,” Juha said, “you can walk wherever you like.”   
• Juha dropped in on a family while they were eating. Who are you?” they asked. "I’m the rude fellow,” he answered, “who saves you the bother of sending a messenger to invite him.”

I found Juha’s character relatable. I continuously associated Juha’s character with somebody I knew. I was intrigued to realize that I could relate to a character from a different culture to my own. Moreover, I could still enjoy the jokes even though they were translated from Arabic. I realized this was possible through means of humor. As seen in the jokes above, I noticed that the jokes and anecdotes of Juha, at least within this section of “Wit and Wisdom,” were dependent on the comic technique of cognitive shift, for the most part. It played on context and the audience’s mental framework. The jokes used a punch line at the end in order to create the cognitive shift. By the end of the section, I was just awaiting the punch line before I even started reading a joke but even though I was expecting the shift, I was still amused by the punch line at the end of the joke.

Most of these jokes relied on sarcasm as a means to create humor, and were based on context, as opposed to play with language. I think this is why the jokes could be universal. There are differences in humor across different cultures, but humor is a universal theme. Though people laugh at different things, there are some common aspects of humor across various cultures. I have noticed that there are common techniques used such as cognitive shift. This brings me to question, yet again, are humor and amusement innate or does it depend on personal background? It’s a question of nature vs. nurture. Using my reading experience of “Tales of Juha” as an example, I find that humor is innate because it showed that despite my different background, I was still amused. I was even amused by the jokes involving a donkey. The donkey seems to be a significant animal in Arab culture since it appeared in many of the jokes. I couldn’t personally relate to the significance of the donkey yet I was still amused. However, I do believe that understanding the donkey’s significance would have certainly made the joke more amusing.

Overall, I found that this universality of humor emphasizes the claim arguing the cohesive function of humor. Having grown up abroad, I realized this in my life when I have met people from different cultures. Initially, it would be awkward until there was that “ice breaker” moment when we would both find the same thing funny despite our cultural differences.