Taking a piss

There are Irish conversational traditions I really enjoy. When I first started at the store, and would have to apologize for making a mistake on till, friendly customers would say "You're okay" or "You're grand". "Aww," I thought. "They can tell I'm getting flustered and want to reassure me that I'm grand. I gradually learned that "You're okay" means "IT'S okay" as in the situation, not a personal affirmation. Whatever, it's still cute.

But then there's other tendencies that I will not miss when I go home. Namely, the supposedly-comedic rudeness that people will show you when they are "taking a piss out of ya". I've noticed this a lot with Irish coworkers in particular. They will say something personal and pretty offensive and then will brush it off as just a joke. But the thing is, it's almost never actually funny, and no one laughs. "Taking a piss" is usually intended to deflate your ego a bit, take you down a couple pegs, but to do that it usually requires a grain of truth in the joke. Which makes it more difficult to just brush off when they tell you they're just "taking a piss out of ya" because they may have just underlined a paranoid feeling you already held.