ARW 5/10 Response

ARW 5/10 Response

5/10's Funky Friday was fun yet meaningful lesson. First, Rab gave us instructions about the research paper project by using e-portfolio. Although I have ideas for the topic I am going to write about (either music or psychology) I have not determined. I better decide it as quickly as possible and start writing the first draft of the introduction.

Barna's article was a good introduction for this day's lesson. As the title states, "stumbling blocks" often appear when we think intercultural communication is easy. People from different nationalities have different cultures, thus have different knowledge. One quick example is whether taking off shoes inside the house or not. The example Barna used, which is the comparison of nonverbal behavior, illustrates the difference among students from four respective nations. Although they are all Asian countries, the difference is clear. Barna also gives detailed explanations on language differences and nonverbal misinterpretations; the sense of humor is another interesting topic to bring up.

So the theme of the lesson was how the sense of humor is related to perception of different cultures. First, we watched a video clip about sushi. I've watched this before and found this funny for two reasons. One reason is that we know that we follow certain rules when eating certain foods. Although I think there is barely anyone who follows those rules, they sound possible to exist. The second reason is that two of the actors in this video were one pair of my favorite comedians, "Ramens." Their contes are meticulously created and "foreshadowing and collection" strategy always amazes the audience. The second clip, Sea Shepherd's commercial, effectively conveys the message of anti-whaling but it is quite hard to consider this funny because of bloody scene. The purpose of this commercial is to make viewers feel pathetic to whales by replacing that position with a human being. This also shows sarcasm by shooting this video clip at a sushi restaurant, which is also meaningful. I would like to comment the same thing on the third and fourth video: Dirty Sanchez and Endurance clips. The first impression that most viewers have when watching these videos may be crazy or ridiculous. I felt slightly obnoxious to watch the fourth video because not only it was painful to watch but also there were people who considered this funny few decades ago (and even now probably).

In fact, I am a big fan of Japanese comedy, but not something like this. Modern Japanese comedy is more meticulously planned. Rakugo is a Japanese verbal entertainment. A storyteller sits on stage and tells funny story using only a paper fan and a small cloth as props. This requires high qualities of talking skill and acting skill. After this, manzai, a traditional style of stand-up comedy, became popular in Japan (first made in the Heian period) This usually involves two performers and they tell a story with funny jokes in between, within a time limit of 3-4 minutes. They usually spend a lot of time thinking of the best scenario (called Neta) because the standard of laughing is getting higher and higher and jokes should be logically and intelligent funny in order to be successful comedians. There are even competitions for manzai. There is another type of comedy called conte, which involves more acting. Although there are still some TV programs similar to Endurance aired today, I believe that Japanese comedy has been evolving. Certainly, time is another factor that changes our interpretation or perception.