"Job Opportunities" Topic

From the Wall Street Journal this morning, "Computer Sciences Corp., …Last year made a peculiar request to the company that teaches English to it's employees around the world. CSC wanted the company to give them lessons on detecting sarcasm."

I'm sure the finely honed skills many TMPers have developed would insure them placement and renumerative employment.

Perhaps they should contact Professor Frink; he made a sarcasm detector.
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I'm sure the finely honed skills many TMPers have developed would insure them placement and renumerative employment.

You dont say?

I'm not sure detecting sarcasm is necessarily a skill around here…

Now, producing case studies in using sarcasm and its effects – we could easily supply enough material for beginner, intermediate and advanced courses !

Others will complain that the pay isn't high enough.

As someone who actually works for CSC I can tell you that sarcasm is alive and well and doesn't need anyone to teach it!

Tom – aside from your prodigious sculpting abilities, this is why I like you.

:D

I would have thought it was a bigger problem detecting when people weren't being sarcastic.

Or is that just me?

Damn, I can only teach Irony, otherwise it would have been perfect.

"I would have thought it was a bigger problem detecting…"

You would be English yes? During my sojourn in your part of the British Isles I was fascinated with what I have always thought of as derision dueling. Where people make veiled ridicule commonly in the form of sarcastic remarks at one another. The art of the thing and how it differs from the simple harassment one sees more often amongst we colonials is the couch the jibe so that on the face of it total innocence can be claimed. The highest marks are awarded to those who can insult so that the target is not even aware of it himself while the audience is in on the joke. It's a subtle sport of nuance and inflection, to detect the exact tone of an expostulation such as ‘really' which differentiates the meaning ‘oh yes' from ‘'.

Generally the game takes the form of sparring banter but occasionally you see a duel in earnest where the first to lose his cool and resort to open insult is the loser. A fascinating pastime, has anyone ever considered forming a league perhaps televising contests?

You would think they would rather have their emplyees just be good at regular use of english. And in some instances learn english :)

My most unfavorite jibe I've seen among the British is the following question:

So, what do your parents do?

I've seen some Americans come very close to what Tom describes. In the south, one hears it when someone says "God bless your little heart."

The practice T Meier and nycjadie describe is also related to "damning with faint praise."

<sarcasm> </sarcasm>

What's so difficult about that?

Dayum furriners

"is also related to "damning with faint praise.""

It's more of a complete meaning inversion, "Isn't that/ Aren't you – clever" is a good example. ‘Clever' in this context meaning, ‘underhand, simple-minded or contemptible".

Dang! For a second there I thought this was a Help Wanted add from you Tom. I had fleeting visions of, premixing green stuff, running the spinner, and cleaning up the tools.

"Bless your heart!"

I have a big bag of MG42's.

I'm sure you will understand.

Where I come from in the North of England humour is based on irony, sarcasm and subtle insults, it's so funny! No wonder Hitler admired us so. Knew he could never break our spirit.

The up side is we can go through the blackest of times and see the funny side of it. It also means we can sketch pictures of other peoples gods and chuckle at the fallout.

People take themselves far too seriously, did I mention double entendre, I just wish I could spell it.

You have a nice day now 'clever' Tom.

Tony (and yes I am available to CSC for the right price)

Great stuff. I tip my hat to you Tom (bereft of, no doubt, expected veiled mild disdain and faintly mocking stance). Someone who understands the Brits, a rare commodity indeed. If only more Brits were so self aware.

I would think a better contract would be to teach them how to "not create opportunities for sarcasm". One of the Telecom provider's that I used to do consulting for now has a large facility "offshore", in this case Bombay. Their tutors have come up with the ploy of having their agents use Anglicised aliases on the phone now. I crack up every time I hear an oviously Indian-accented voice say, "Hello, my name is "Bob", please, how may I be assisting you this day".

Bill

Thats funny! I've never understood why we must 'Anglicise' everything foreign. Do they really think that using Anglicised aliases is going to make us more 'okay' with us losing jobs to cheaper workers? On the other hand, it does make it easier to identify the person who helped you if you are the type of person who totally can not 'get' traditional Indian names.

If CSC were to switch to Japanese, they wouldn't have to worry about sarcasism as that language and culture doesn't contain sarcasism. I wonder what other languages/cultures don't contain sarcasism?

A device to detect sarcasm? But can it detect a dry sense of humor?