Cultural Miscommunication
America is a country that was founded on diversity. People from all over come to America and become part of the melting pot we call home. Unfortunately, with this blending there are often misunderstandings between cultures. One area that is often misunderstood between different cultures is humor. I have lived in Orange County for five years and over that entire span I have worked in restaurants. In every restaurant I have worked in or been a patron of there have been Mexican men working as the cooks. When I first started working in restaurants I found that the front of house staff (servers, managers) tended to keep to themselves and the back of the house staff (cooks, dishwashers) did as well. Well after awhile at the last place I worked, I began to try to start bridging the gap between the two cultures. I started trying to talk to the cooks at the restaurant because I knew that most of them knew a good deal of English. After a couple of weeks I started expressing my s!ense of humor by teasing them and others that we worked with. I'm not sure if making fun of people you are fond of is an American trait or a universal one but we all laughed most of the time so I stuck with what worked. My friends and I would tease each
In trying to befriend the head cook Juan at my work one night I found out that what is socially acceptable for one to joke about is strongly defined by your culture. When I didn't laugh I'm sure he realized that I didn't find it appropriate. I asked him why Juan overreacted when I made the joke about his mother. A couple of minuets later I had to go through the kitchen to take out the trash in the restaurant. Later into the night the cooks started to make jokes that were homosexual in nature. I started yelling at him and asking him "what the hell he thought he was doing. By making fun of my friends mother and vise-versa we are showing each other that you can say something about someone close to me and I know you are just kidding. Juan the head cook at my work didn't seem to understand this. He explained to me in Mexico the mothers are highly respected and that Mexican men find it very insulting to make any sort of comment about them. Once I realized what I had done I talked to Juan and explained that with all my good friends we tease each other about our mother's and that even though I said something insulting I meant no disrespect. It was both of our lack of knowledge on the impact of the messages we were communicating that lead us to discover our cultural differences. I tend to feel that jokes of this nature are taboo and so my server friend and I gave a social acceptable quick laugh to their jokes and then would leave the kitchen. I jumped away so quickly I dropped the trash. I believe that both Juan and myself want to become friends it just so happens that we both used taboo humor topics in trying to make each other laugh. But when you are with your friends certain things are deemed acceptable.
Common topics in this essay:
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People America,
,
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head cook,
trying laugh,
fun friends mother,
fun mother,
cultural differences,
cooks started,
kitchen trash,
friends tease,
considered friend,
house staff,
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Acceptance Essays
