Friday, September 04, 2015

Let me tell you a little about myself ;)

It had been a while since I looked up the comments at RateMyProfessors.  So, I did.  The latest comment begins:
Dr. Khe is awesome and funny! 
I don't know about the "awesome" part (thank you very much!) but, I can vouch for the "funny."

I do look forward to getting back to the classroom where I will have a captive audience for my awful jokes.  The awful, awful groaners.  Some students are amused that I find my jokes to be funny and that I laugh at my own jokes.  I have always had a staple response to that too: at least I laugh at my jokes ;)

Nah, I am not that bad.

A student once told me that I am "too intense."  I pretended that I hadn't heard similar characterization before.  "But, I kid around all the time" I said.  The student didn't bite.

Sometimes, I do let the students know that my humor is a mere facade to hide the intensely professional attitude that I bring to the classroom and to my work.  Heck, it is that same attitude in every aspect of my life.  Maybe this intensity is why despite all my attempts my smile really never comes through? ;)

As if people like me needed more groaners, the Chronicle of Higher Education has a piece about puns a few cunning linguists shared at a recent gathering.  (You know I wanted to trip you over "cunning linguists," right? hehe!)  Consider the following one, for instance:
If you don’t know what introspection is, you need to take a long, hard look at yourself. 
Don't you love that?  If you don't, well, "you need to take a long, hard look at yourself." ;)

The best ones of all will require a wee bit of thinking.  After all, the best puns are not to be as obvious as a person slipping over a banana peel.  So, consider that I have alerted you to put your thinking cap on when you read the pun that the author has rated as the best at that gathering:
Let me tell you a little about myself. It’s a reflexive pronoun that means “me.”
Get it?

Preparing for a new academic year includes reading such pieces too.  My chosen profession is a tricky one to practice.  I like to think that my sense of humor has helped me quite a bit.  It is not as if I go to each and every class with a few jokes in my Post-It note--I know really well that I am not there to entertain.  But, even the most conscientious student cannot be focused and serious all the time, right?  I was/am never such a student anyway!

3 comments:

Ramesh said...

Of course you are too intense. Just read your own posts from the vacation (furlough ?). Oh those Russians (as Boney M would say !!)

If you really mean the last two sentences of your post, you will have to feature the next post on the intensity and connection between Justin Bieber, P Diddy and Iggy Azalea :)

That groaner in the middle of your post is the worst groaner I have read here. You have surpassed yourself.

Have a good new academic year :)

Anne in Salem said...

You are intense and sometimes too intense, but that is what keeps us coming back, except when you write about Russian literature.

Puns are wonderful. My uncle is the best.

Welcome back to school. May your students be as rewarding as ever.

Sriram Khé said...

What do you mean?
In this blog, I write about my chats with barbers, checkout clerks, random strangers, blue skies, the river, bird chirping, ... I include groaners, quote from the Onion, cartoons from the New Yorker, ...
Yet, you dare to write that I am "too intense"???? tsk, tsk, tsk!!!
Muahahahaha ;)