by Júlia Silveira
When we locate ourselves in a strange country, we intend to get to know its culture, particularly because the culture is everywhere around us. Culture is the form we dress, we eat, we behave and also the form we speak. In Claire Kramsch's book - Language and Culture - she reveals some connections between the language we articulate and the culture we live in. In Brazilian Portuguese, for example, we use distinctive intonations for questions and irony sentences; and to foreigners, that is very odd.
To know another culture helps to avoid stereotypes. Stereotypes are created because of a lack of knowledge in other cultures. With our English II class project, we had the opportunity to understand foreign students' opinions about a few cultural aspects from Brazil.
The use of memes is quite intense in Brazilian culture, so we had the idea of questioning international students about their use of memes. Memes are known worldwide, mainly because of Twitter. Brazil is a country where there are mostly young people who use this social media. Memes are a new form of communication because they are easy to spread. The foreign students did not know Brazilian memes, however, 87% of them knew our culture of using humor as a way of protesting and having fun. The most highlighted result that we had in our research was the fact that most of the students use more memes in Whatsapp instead of Twitter, as Brazilians do.
Our culture of '' making fun'' of significant matters was something important for the international students, a few of them were shocked that we have fun making memes of our presidents and our political problems. They also were stunned by the case that we make several memes about tv shows and music videos quickly. Brazil always had the fame of being a happy country and the use of memes reinforces that because humor is a cultural trade, especially our system of having fun in chaotic situations.
Our main purpose of questioning the international students about memes was to know if they use this form of expressing ideas as Brazilians do. The results were the opposite we thought it was going to be, although we enjoyed the experience of knowing their visions about Brazilian humor.
We were expecting a similar use of memes, but we understand that all cultures are different. For example, some students use only movie memes because political themes are a sensitive and respectful matter. Other students were more like Brazilians in this case and make memes of the presidents as a form of protesting- mostly Donald Trump memes.
With this class project, we had a new perspective about our country, especially because before we did not agree with the stereotype of a '' happy country''. But now, we see why Brazil has this image and we agreed. Our use of memes helps to understand that because it is common to use humor to deal with things in Brazil. And for foreigners, it means that we are happy people because we use our playfulness to face daily situations.
When we locate ourselves in a strange country, we intend to get to know its culture, particularly because the culture is everywhere around us. Culture is the form we dress, we eat, we behave and also the form we speak. In Claire Kramsch's book - Language and Culture - she reveals some connections between the language we articulate and the culture we live in. In Brazilian Portuguese, for example, we use distinctive intonations for questions and irony sentences; and to foreigners, that is very odd.
To know another culture helps to avoid stereotypes. Stereotypes are created because of a lack of knowledge in other cultures. With our English II class project, we had the opportunity to understand foreign students' opinions about a few cultural aspects from Brazil.
The use of memes is quite intense in Brazilian culture, so we had the idea of questioning international students about their use of memes. Memes are known worldwide, mainly because of Twitter. Brazil is a country where there are mostly young people who use this social media. Memes are a new form of communication because they are easy to spread. The foreign students did not know Brazilian memes, however, 87% of them knew our culture of using humor as a way of protesting and having fun. The most highlighted result that we had in our research was the fact that most of the students use more memes in Whatsapp instead of Twitter, as Brazilians do.
Our culture of '' making fun'' of significant matters was something important for the international students, a few of them were shocked that we have fun making memes of our presidents and our political problems. They also were stunned by the case that we make several memes about tv shows and music videos quickly. Brazil always had the fame of being a happy country and the use of memes reinforces that because humor is a cultural trade, especially our system of having fun in chaotic situations.
Our main purpose of questioning the international students about memes was to know if they use this form of expressing ideas as Brazilians do. The results were the opposite we thought it was going to be, although we enjoyed the experience of knowing their visions about Brazilian humor.
We were expecting a similar use of memes, but we understand that all cultures are different. For example, some students use only movie memes because political themes are a sensitive and respectful matter. Other students were more like Brazilians in this case and make memes of the presidents as a form of protesting- mostly Donald Trump memes.
With this class project, we had a new perspective about our country, especially because before we did not agree with the stereotype of a '' happy country''. But now, we see why Brazil has this image and we agreed. Our use of memes helps to understand that because it is common to use humor to deal with things in Brazil. And for foreigners, it means that we are happy people because we use our playfulness to face daily situations.