It happens with every new class. You have to explain all of the cultural things that you do, so they'll understand what the hell is going on. Like today, my student sneezed. I quickly said , bless you. The entire class laughs. I stop. Ok, why are you laughing? Silence. The Chinese love to laugh, they laugh at everything. They laugh at bad news, a horror story, hell, I'm convinced these people laugh at funerals. They laugh when you are telling a gut wrenching story, they laugh when you say something they don't like, basically, the default mode of these students is laughter. When in doubt of your own emotional welfare: laugh!
A westerner would get annoyed quickly. In fact, THIS westerner spent years adjusting to it and I'm not sure I'm entirely all there yet. I still cringe when I show a documentary on the Sudan and the horrors of that conflict and I hear laughter in my classroom. What is going on in their minds, I think to myself?
I have surmised that it must be an emotional reaction. Albeit, not the correct one, but it is a reaction.
I try to address this as gently as possible. Let's face it, in this culture, there are times you laugh till you pee yourself and times that you wouldn't dare let out a peep. I'm a bridge to what they will experience here and they need to know that laughing is a very specific reaction to very specific things.
I am currently working on this. They simply can't gauge any of these cultural waters. I have three weeks left. I'm getting tired of saying Um. that is so not funny, can you all please stop laughing.
Here's the kicker, when I want them to laugh, I crack a joke...............silence......crickets. (Sigh) my left arm for an audience.
