On Humour

You know the old stories about different languages having multiple words for the same thing? Eskimos and snow is the classic example. No doubt the Brits and French should have lots of words for cheating, while the Dutch don't need any for generosity but lots for the beneficial effects of pain. Our priest (don't worry, this blog is not likely to stray into religion anytime soon) tells a homily about how the ancient Greeks had several words for Love (Eros for passion, Agape for something else, parental type love, spiritual type and so on).

Well, on this subject, something led me to recall this week one of the neatest mantras anyone ever shared with me. It was from a Czech guy of a Shell course, and simply wrote three words on a flip chart, all starting with HU. Humour, Humility, Humanity. Keep those three front of mind and you won't go far wrong, he said, and, speaking as someone who certainly can't muster more than one and a half out of three on a good day, I'm happy to agree.

So then I thought a bit more about humour. I've had a lot of feedback about my sense of humour over years. Indeed some of the most extreme positive and negative impressions have come from humour. And I wondered, maybe one word for humour is not enough. There are many different types, some always good, some sometimes good and some always bad.

One negative humour can be the opposite of inclusiveness, akin to clan behaviour. In jokes, code restricted to those on the inside.

Another negative type is akin to mockery. Making fun at the expense of the failings of another.

One positive type is about lightening. Gentle humour can act like sunshine. Useful in 2009, that one! And supports the Humanity HU word.

Another positive works against self-importance, so supports the Humility HU word. Self-depreciation, or using exaggeration or extremes to point out that something may not be as seriousness as we like to make it falls in this category. Most satire falls in this category (though it can be clannish or mocking too).

Then there is humour as poetry or beauty, just sheer wit.

No doubt there are other areas. As someone blessed with some of all these types of humour, I expect the feedback I received over the years might have been more helpful if the English language had possessed separate words for the different types. I for one could benefit from exercising the lightening and self-deprecating humours more and the clannish and mockery ones less. But people have lacked the words to tell me that, and I've lacked the wit to work it out for myself.

We could probably do the same for Humanity and Humility. Each of those have a negative side (touchy feely-ness and subservience or lack of esteem for example) as well as their dominant positive traits.

I wonder if other words in our business lexicon similarly struggle from inadequate classification in language? Team player? And I wonder also if this is one of those areas where being a natural English speaker in an English language environment is a big advantage, because some of the better defined English concepts don't translate well?

So one message for English speakers is to be aware of this, and check back how our language is interpreted by others, even where our own language is adequate.

But I still like Humour, Humility, Humanity as a mantra. Why not get some feedback next week on how you rate on those three, focusing on the positive aspects? We could all benefit from that.