国語国文　１年
This lesson was so interesting. There are some parts that I could not understand well. It is because I’m not a native speaker. But I could learn about the thinking of humor. Before this lesson, I could not imagine the other countries’ humor, but now I can laugh at foreign humor. It was a nice experience for me. I also learned about how black humor is enjoyed by other people all over the world. Professor Juppe’s introduction was so funny! His idea was so creative. Especially Yakiniku is difficult to answer but it’s so fun! I really enjoyed this lesson.

英米　１年

This is the funniest class I’ve ever attended. Professor Juppe told us a lot of jokes. I couldn’t understand some of them immediately, but he kindly gave us explanations. I realized that some jokes require us to have some background. For this reason, I think using cartoons or caricatures for education is efficient to stimulate students’ interest. I also want to know more jokes, so I’ll search for them by myself.

英米　３年

When I went studying abroad to America, I could not understand a lot of jokes that American college students made. They cited some words form movies, TV shows or other sources, but I could not understand them at all. I pretended that I was enjoying their jokes. However, today I found why I had such a time then. As the speaker said, any subject, such as politics or culture, can be made into joke, and we need basic knowledge in order to understand the joke. It must be tough for non-native speakers like us. But at the same time, I found that jokes are very interesting because we can learn about the culture or situations of foreign countries through the jokes.

フランス　２年

Thank you for your very exciting lecture! It was very fun to listen to your talk. I used to live in America and when I moved to Japan, I felt there’s a big difference in funny jokes between American and Japanese so I wanted to hear more jokes from you and talk about the cultural differences between the two countries. The story you told about Mr. Mori was funny and interesting because I didn’t know there’s such a big difference between Americans and Japanese about how they think about the mistakes Mr. Mori made. Your lecture using drawings was very fun and I thought I want to learn more about cultural differences of jokes between other countries, such as France because I’m a French major student.

スペイン　２年

It was an interesting presentation. There were many jokes and some of them were difficult for me to understand the punch line. But when I could understand it, I felt very good. I realized understanding jokes needs enough knowledge, for example, 6 was afraid of 7. And also, it needs understanding cultural background. To enjoy jokes we should get knowledge and learn about the cultural background of many countries.

国際　２年

It was a very funny and interesting lecture. There were some jokes that I found funny and very well-elaborated. However, I have to say that some made little sense to me. I wish I could have gotten all of them but I think jokes are much deeper. They have something to do with the culture, politics and issues that the country faces. So, the more familiar you are with those things, the more likely you will understand the jokes. I hope to get more knowledge and information of the world in order to understand them better.

国際　２年
Sometimes, it is difficult to understand American Jokes. It is not because of vocabulary or grammar problems. Most of the time, it’s because I couldn’t understand what it means or what he wanted to say. I thought it came from the difference in our sense of humor. After this speech, I could understand that we need some background knowledge to help us interpret the meaning of the joke. It becomes a key to make joke funny sometimes. I felt it is difficult to catch this key as I have less knowledge. But the American jokes were funny after listening what the point of the joke was. Thank you for your speech.

留学生

As a Westerner it was really interesting to see the reactions of my Japanese classmates when Professor Juppe explained the jokes. German humor mostly consists of sarcasm, so I have had a few very awkward conversations since I came to Japan when I ended up explaining that I didn’t want to hurt the other person. Japanese humor is so different on many levels, and understanding it is a challenge. But also, so much fun! I am looking forward to learning more about it.

留学生

Today’s talk was very interesting. He showed us that jokes are not only for fun, but also for learning vocabulary and culture. I think it is a good way to study English and other languages and cultures because each English joke has a background and also a purpose, so I find this presentation very interesting and useful for the future. Moreover, the speaker did a great job during the speech because he caught my attention the whole time, so I could learn a lot.

留学生

Why did the chicken cross the street? Because it wanted to listen to Mr. Robert Juppe’s jokes. Today’s lesson was very funny, and I also learned something: being able to understand jokes often requires knowledge; knowing which connects people together and gives us a feeling of belonging. Germans, for example, like irony. Irony is something Japanese people do not always understand. This makes situation sometimes awkward instead of creating a better mood.