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AuntieMatter
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Location: Ireland

05 Sep 2017, 3:54 pm

Yep, completely straight-faced stony sarcasm is pretty much the only kind of humour there is here too. It's not even always sarcasm (which I think implies some level of cynicism or meanness), it's just saying the opposite of what you mean. Automatically funny, apparently.
I sometime get the sarcasm if it's very obvious, but most of the time I miss it completely. I live in a very rural area, my local pub has no TV or music, and usually fewer than ten people in it. I am always laughed at and ridiculed when I miss the joke, but it's not mean or intended to hurt. Everyone is teased for their eccentricities or flaws or whatever makes them stand out. I mean, one guy used to always have two black eyes as a kid because he got picked on at school - forty years later, everyone still calls him Panda. Can't take yourself too seriously. They're not serious comments.

Hardly anyone around here would know the first thing about AS. They know I 'have' it, that I don't like noise or crowds, and that usually I don't get jokes. But as eccentricities and flaws go, that's mild compared to some people. Having a name for my weirdness doesn't get me any brownie points. :wink:



Benjamin the Donkey
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06 Sep 2017, 10:09 am

I'm in East Asia (Taiwan to be specific) and being introverted is no problem. The problem is that everyone here is obsessed with being indirect and agreeable and not making anyone else "lose face," which drives me nuts and makes me the proverbial bull in the china shop. Since I can't possibly navigate those norms, I just be my bullish self.

Heh heh... "china shop"... unintentional pun.


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Fireblossom
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07 Sep 2017, 8:36 am

Benjamin the Donkey wrote:
I'm in East Asia (Taiwan to be specific) and being introverted is no problem. The problem is that everyone here is obsessed with being indirect and agreeable and not making anyone else "lose face," which drives me nuts and makes me the proverbial bull in the china shop. Since I can't possibly navigate those norms, I just be my bullish self.

Heh heh... "china shop"... unintentional pun.


I've read from many books written by professionals that wanting to protect others along with oneself from losing face is an Asian thing, but from my experience it's like that here where I'm from, too. However when I ask about it from other people they claim our culture has nothing like that... I wonder if the rule of not letting others lose face is here as well, just not as strict as it seems to be in Asia and so no one here really notices it because most count it as "normal behaviour" and think it's only a thing in Asia... or something? Kind of like "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down" is a well known Japanese saying and tends to horrify people, yet they don't realize that the same thing is done here. The only difference I see is that the Japanese are more willing to admit that they don't want people to be too different. (Not all Japanese people of course, this is a generalization.)