Attention Grabber!!!
Ever read articles that really captivated your attention? Or even, ever hear utterly boring lectures before, those that will get you dozing off within seconds? Yes, we’ve all been through those moments in life. Our attention fluctuates with our understanding. The less we understand, the less we pay attention (even when we should be paying more attention!). It is like those moments when you just blur out in lectures and your Physics teacher now sounds like he’s talking Greek! Now what if you’re the speaker? How could you get people to pay attention and ultimately to make them understand? Here is an interesting POV you can apply:
To be able to make people understand, a person must talk in common grounds. The human mind associates information, that means it attempts to connect the new information with its original content. This means that as long the new information is connectable; it is easier to learn and understand something. For example, a new math concept is easier to learn with a strong basic math background. I have a Chemistry teacher who often uses the process of baking a cake as an analogy toward understanding Chemistry. The result is that Chemistry is more understandable, though many have never baked a cake before, it is closer to what we know. I mean, at least people can actually visualise a cake baking right? Now try that with molecules and atoms, get my point? Even more down to earth, is that Jesus, teaches the people through the use of parables. Jesus knew that only by speaking in terms of farmers, sheep rearing, terms that the average people of Israel those days could easily understand.
The way we speak to a seven year old kid is different compared to speaking with an adult. So, to introduce something new, the best way is to relate it with something we know. It is the same with humour, people only laugh at humour they can “get”. Whether you “get it” or not depends on what you know, like perhaps a technical joke. Jokes that deal with everyday life are perhaps the ones most easy to get. It relates to your everyday life and perhaps, in some way gives you a new perspective on it. Remember the Sherlock Holmes Tent joke? It goes like this:
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson go on a camping trip. After a good dinner and a bottle of wine, they retire for the night, and go to sleep.
Some hours later, Holmes wakes up and nudges his faithful friend. “Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.”
“I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes” replies Watson.
“And what do you deduce from that?”
Watson ponders for a minute.
“Well, astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful, and that we are a small and insignificant part of the universe. What does it tell you, Holmes?”
Holmes is silent for a moment. “Watson, you idiot!” he says. “Someone has stolen our tent!”
by Geoff Anandappa
More often than not we tend to miss things right under our noses, and in that way this joke relates to us. Also, the joke uses a world renown literature figure to begin the joke with, being famous for analytical thinking and all. It is in fact that we actually take for granted that Watson will answer in the way that he did, knowing that, the twist of the joke becomes all the more humorous. To sum it up, the more we can relate to the joke, the funnier it is. One of those jokes that I can’t get is those comparing something with celebs, being the Malaysian that I am, I sometimes don’t have the background knowledge to “get it”. I’d be like asking myself, “Who the hell is so and so?” Nuff said.
