Final Reading Post

For my last reading post of the semester I decided to go back and talk about one of my favorite books from this semester. If you had asked at the beginning of the class to predict my favorite book of the course I would have immediately said The 50 Funniest American Writers. Surprisingly the excerpt we read from only joking may have been my favorite and judging from the final presentations I think the rest of the class enjoyed it as well.

The reading refreshed my memory of all the theories of humor we had learned earlier in the semester but in a much more painless and humorous manner than Morreall. The theories of humor were one of the most interesting aspects of the entire class and provided a great base for everything we would look at for the rest of the semester. It was just difficult to get remain interested in the topic while reading Morreall. Only Joking was amusing and informative, exactly what I expected from a book about humor.

Only Joking also reinforced one of the other main points I learned during the semester, that the quickest way to kill a joke is by explaining why it’s funny. The authors of Only Joking pointed this out several times and would even warn the reader before they were going to dissect a joke and inevitably kill its humor. Most of the jokes they dissected were actually pretty funny but after reading about the same joke for several pages I was over it. My favorite part of the book was the jokes located at the bottom of every page. They were almost all hilarious and best of all I did not have to read an obvious explanation of why they were funny. These rare moments in the readings where a joke was left untouched and allowed to speak for itself provided the most genuine humor. While Morreall was still educational, I think it was more entertaining to read about the theories of humor as explained by two comedians.

Final Conversation

                I met with my conversation partner Tiffany for the final time Wednesday in Union Grounds.  I wasn't sure where this particular conversation would go but I had a feeling finals and summer would come up in the conversation somewhere. I was a little worried that these last few conversations would be awkward and a bit repetitive after a whole semester of meeting and exploring most of topics.  Luckily this wasn't the case. For me, the later conversations with Tiffany were actually less awkward than the initial conversations because we knew more about each other and she seemed more comfortable and willing to share about her thoughts.

                Our conversation started out about how thankful we were to have finally reached the last day of classes for the semester. We had also both noticed the semester had gone especially after spring break.  Tiffany took one of her finals this week so besides her ESL classes she only has one final left and is already relieved that she is almost done with everything. I could tell she was very excited about getting back to China to finally see her family and friends. She said as soon as she gets back to China the first thing she is going to do is get some real Chinese food as soon as possible.  Her flight back to China leaves Sunday and her dorm is letting her stay a little bit later so she has a place to stay over the weekend.

We had touched on humor in Chinese culture earlier in the semester but I decided to ask Tiffany about it again to see if any of her opinions had changed since the beginning of the semester. She said that from her observations, humor seems to be pretty universal and the people in America laugh at the same things her friends would laugh at back in China. She cited funny TV shows and movies of examples of humorous thing that are similar in American and Chinese cultures.

After our brief discussion of humor , we started discussing the biggest adjustments we had to make for our first year of college and what we had learned in the past year. Tiffany said the biggest adjustment for her was the independence. In China is she ever had a problem or needed something done she could look to her parents for advice or to help but in college on the other side of the ocean she was really on her own. I agreed that this new found independence was a big change but a good one. Tiffany said that so far college has been a lot less stressful than high school in China was. She explained that in China there was constant pressure from her parents and teachers to do well on her tests and the school days lasted from 7 AM to 5 PM.  She has really enjoyed the more relaxed schedule and lower number of tests.  

After a whole semester of conversations I am glad I got to know Tiffany and I had the opportunity for this unique learning opportunity outside the classroom. It was an eye-opening experience to see how Chinese culture differs from American culture especially compared to what I had previously thought about China. I also have a greater understanding of the challenges that a foreign exchange student faces as they go through on a day to day basis as they not only receive a higher education, but adapt to an entirely new culture.

Mark Twain’s Advice for Finals Week

As finals week lies on the horizon and I already can feel the tension between studying and procrastination setting in, I decided to look to Mark Twain for wisdom on the upcoming week. After reading the wit and wisdom of Mark Twain I was sure he would have something to say about the next week.  Oddly enough Mark seemed to be on both sides of the issue. The first quote I came across that caught my attention was

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

Just as I saw in my first round of reading Twain, he is right on the money with this one. Once I get started on studying or an assignment I usually find it is not that difficult and goes by quickly. Some days this is my attitude on studying and I can get quite a bit accomplished, but I can also put off studying for hours or even days if it does not seem urgent. As I was still pondering this piece of advice I found another quote that seemed to support the opposite opinion.

“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.”

I know for me, most of the time this thought will cross my mind before the first Twain quote and studying will often get pushed back. It is reassuring to see that even Mark Twain valued the practicality of procrastination. Ultimately studying over the next week will be a mix of these two strategies, starting early on all the urgent studying and saving everything else for the day after tomorrow….or maybe the day after that.

The last quote Mark Twain quote I found to get me through finals week was a convenient piece of advice for our final paper in LitCiv,

“Substitute 'd**n' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

I don’t know that I would recommend this exact strategy but it’s apparent Twain likes the four letter word that doesn’t exist just as much as Professor Williams.