People also struggle to “do” English humor, because it is part of acculturation.  Just as Western cultures are used to the octave as a basis for music, so it takes time to hear and reproduce English humor. For instance:

• There are three types of people in this world… Those who can count, and those who can’t.
• “Give me an alligator sandwich and make it quick.” (from Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett.)

You should say these kinds of things with a completely straight face in a conversation, and then move on, without explaining yourself. It is also important not to wait for a laugh or acknowledgment. The listener should, however, pick up on the humour and respond, but not by laughing. The correct response is a groan, or rolling one’s eyes, or saying “oh my God” (in a disgusted voice), or some other apparently negative (but actually playful) comeback.

It’s even better if you can repeat this in a sequence. For instance, in Witches Abroad, Pratchett has a whole lot of similar comments, including “give me an alligator sandwich and make it immediately/right away/on the double etc. He NEVER says “and make it snappy” of course. The pun can only be implied.

In Watching the English (by Kate Fox) she explains that the English are have a type of social lack of ease(dis-ease) and cope with this by their pervasive, all-embracing passion for humor. Humor is the English default method of operation. She says:

Humour is  one of our most ‘deeply-ingrained impulses’, a ‘default mode’ of behaviour, a ‘culture-all equivalent of the laws of gravity’.

Probably the most important of our three basic reflexes. Humour is our most effective built-in antidote to our social dis-ease. When God (or Something) cursed us with The English Social Dis-ease, He/She/It softened the blow by also giving us The English Sense of Humour. The English do not have any sort of global monopoly on humour, but what is distinctive is the sheer pervasiveness and supreme importance of humour in English everyday life and culture. In other cultures, there is ‘a time and a place’ for humour: among the English it is a constant, a given – there is always an undercurrent of humour. Virtually all English conversations and social interactions involve at least some degree of banter, teasing, irony, wit, mockery, wordplay, satire, understatement, humorous self-deprecation, sarcasm, pomposity-pricking or just silliness. Humour is not a special, separate kind of talk: it is our ‘default mode’; it is like breathing; we cannot function without it. English humour is a reflex, a knee-jerk response, particularly when we are feeling uncomfortable or awkward: when in doubt, joke. The taboo on earnestness is deeply embedded in the English psyche. Our response to earnestness is a distinctively English blend of armchair cynicism, ironic detachment, a squeamish distaste for sentimentality, a stubborn refusal to be duped or taken in by fine rhetoric, and a mischievous delight in pricking the balloons of pomposity and self-importance. (English humour is not to be confused with ‘good humour’ or cheerfulness – it is often quite the opposite; we have satire instead of revolutions and uprisings.) Key phrases include: ‘Oh, come off it!’ (Our national catchphrase, along with ‘Typical!’) Others impossible to list – English humour is all in the context, e.g. understatement: ‘Not bad’ (meaning outstandingly brilliant); ‘A bit of a nuisance’ (meaning disastrous, traumatic, horrible); ‘Not very friendly’ (meaning abominably cruel); ‘I may be some time’ (meaning ‘I’m going to die’ – although, come to think of it, that one was possibly not intended to be funny). [402-3]

Many people who work with or for UK companies find English (or British) humour a major problem, but spare a moment to pity those who are deeply British acculturated, but live and/or work in other cultures. In US culture,  their “straight-faced but intentionally-humorous insult as opening conversational gambit” is seldom appreciated. Their tantalizing but oblique puns are ignored or congratulated. Black humour falls into the category of “talking about disagreeable things is disagreeable” and their whole beloved realm of politics and religion (which is the natural area of British conversation after the weather) is suddenly tabboo!

Culture … infinitely fascinating. On Wednesday I am off to Korea to find other ways to get into cultural trouble. And to see what it is like to do everything bali bali! (Fast. Fast.)

1: The business case for writing skills:

You achieve many results by writing. Your team works through text. You hate meetings and you probably can’t reach people by phone without playing telephone tag.  They are on another floor, in another building, across the city, state or planet.

Text, text, text: the information is on the server. The report’s on the ftp. See the attached pdf. Log on the the LMS. See your  email dated….

So many people skim-read, while multi-tasking. We’re swimming in a world of information, and  everyone is doing more with less.

21st Century reading and writing carries the main burden to achieve key business results. These include:

• Communicating clear, complete and accurate information, or other messages, in the Age of Complexity.
• Eliciting responses (e.g. encouraging replies with complete and accurate information, or getting cooperative, motivated assistance).
• Driving action (delivering correct actions, in the right time frame, in the right way).
• Building relationships, understanding and trust (often with people you may never meet).
• Building and supporting ongoing collaboration, teamwork, and  interactive thinking.

Even senior business people need to review their skills for these tasks. People with graduate degrees often find training in 21st Century writing as helpful as those who see themselves as ‘weaker writers’.

2. The immediately-measurable cost benefits of writing skills:  (a numbers-based approach)

Imagine that your junior-level staff member writes a couple of emails more quickly. Saving: about $600 in a 282-day year.

What if your junior-level staff member, who earns $35,000 per year, and writes many emails each day, improves his/her writing skills noticeably?  The cost benefits multiply. The time saving is now several thousand dollars a year, both in time saved, and because his/her effective writing also helps create effective communication in our text-based business system. Results include more productive processes, efficient projects, happier customers and better teamwork.

If a senior manager writes just a couple of emails more quickly each day, the simple time-saving payoff moves up to about $3,000 each year. If his/her writing skills improve, and s/he spends a significant time writing, the time pay-off for the improvement can reach 45 minutes a day. The time can be costed as annual salary, divided by 1000, x282. (S/he spends 2000 hours at work a year; cost to company of time = salary + benefits + office etc = annual salary divided by 1000.)

The bottom-line cost of management writing skills is far-reaching. It is almost impossible to put a price on the benefits of senior managers writing clear, persuasive, effective communications, as these are so valuable in an economy where customers, suppliers and knowledge workers communicate in text.

Other writing workshops:

Other CPS writing workshops include:

1. Communicating Across Distances and Differences, a workshop that specifically benefits international business people, or those who work in multi-cultural or distance situations.
2. Custom writing programs, to meet specific client needs. These may include corporate-specific reporting, writing for multiple-level audiences, presentation writing etc.

HR gurus repeatedly stress that written communication skills are a common key to job and organization success, and that these skills are becoming more and more important in a knowledge-based, text-based and global economy.

CPS staffers have succeeded with very large thinking-and-writing skills projects, that have saved companies many thousands of hours each year. Clients include Volkswagen, BMW, Ernst & Young, Coca-Cola, Sweetbay, Ceridian Benefits, and company-wide transformations for companies like Iscor and Sasol (the giant South African steel and oil-from-coal industries).