Bog #6: Identity Kit

When I was born, I was introduced to my primary discourse. The community and culture I was surrounded by shaped and formed my thoughts along with beliefs. There, I learned how to act and talk certain ways when I was around certain people. It is an eye-opener when I think about this because rarely do I ever have to consider what my primary discourse was. This reading by James Gee made me think deeper about my discourses associations.

Being bilingual for example, my first language is Vietnamese and English is my second. I can remember the time when I entered into school without knowing barely any English and I still find it funny how I made it through. But I think it was society’s way of telling me to adapt or I am going to be left behind. I pretended to understand whatever the teacher was talking about and quickly picked up the attitude of the students around me. At certain points, being nice was not good enough anymore because of the language barrier. My mushfaking was when I started to repeat common terms the other students were saying and eventually learning the definition as I start to use it in sentences (the dictionary was my savior). Now, I know that this was the beginning of my secondary discourse.

I realized I not only have to talk the talk but walk the walk in order for me to be credible. I began making friends because I was able to pick up some communication skills and joining different activities at recess. I know there were some kids who made fun of me but there were others who were very supportive. I think if I didn’t try to break down the barrier and pretended I was one of them, I would have had to eat lunch alone for a very long time.

This is all to say that till this day, I still mushfake it every time I am in unfamiliar environments. I am an introvert and I feel like I am living in a world full of extroverts. I mushfake by blending in and staying back instead of voicing my opinion unless asked to do so. I would rather observe because I think the extroverts have got it covered on the speaking front. I try to not draw attention to myself because I find it a waste of time to communicate unimportant things and it takes too much effort out of my day.

This does not mean that I won’t speak or I am timid or shy, I am just more comfortable around the discourses that I am used to. I do not mind having to answer questions when asked but it is funny that I would rather ask questions at the end of class or when people aren’t focused on me so much. Whenever I try to join a new discourse, I am very nervous and it daunts on me that I have to mushfake to get rid of my anxiety. I have to try to fit in just as I did when I was trying to learn English. Though I know that I will not master perfectly all the language and attitude of each discourse completely, it feels good to be able to continue learning and be accepted in a community. This also leaves me with the satisfaction that I am adapting to my surrounding through various ways and leaving behind the anxiety of any “social change” I encountered.

Blog #5

                This week’s readings have a special place in my heart, especially the one by Amy Tan. I moved to America when I was 9 and I started out speaking barely any English. In ninth grade, I had help learning English from my classmates and I felt so alone because I could not connect with them. Communication was key and the genres that I was surrounded by, is foreign.

                I could relate to Any Tan when I speak with my parents. I often translate for them whenever we go out because they speak broken English. I can see that they are at a disadvantage when they cannot communicate their thoughts thoroughly with other people; it’s frustrating. I have to call credit card or insurance companies for both my parents if there was a discrepancy with the bill. It is weird to think about it because that is how my family communicates at home – in both Vietnamese and broken English. I could definitely see that those who aren’t familiar with my background would be very confused. I never really noticed until I read the article.

                In high school, English was not my strongest subject but I managed to slip into an AP English class my junior year; I have no idea how that happened and how I survived it. I was the girl who got the lowest score whenever we had a writing assignment because I could not get it right even if my life depended on it. This is one of the reason why I fear English and Writing classes so much. I began steering myself towards communities that were more accepting like math, science and fun electives. My parents even put me into the after school tutoring place called Kumon. There, they gave me tedious spelling homework that I did not need however, I naturally gravitated towards the math homework given, because it is “universal” as there is only one right answer.

                I felt like high school was much more focused on how you could communicate and fit in with your peers the best. Being “cool” or “fitting in” was better than being correct because I can understand the slang and lingos invented for us teens to hang around each other. Looking back at my old English journal, all I can think of is how illiterate I was but my peers could understand me. When I spoke with my teachers, it was formal yet, the formality and correctness barely ever presented itself on my academic papers. Boy, do I feel bad for my high school English teachers.

I did not learn much about English and writing until I entered college. I remember my first English professor who had to work with me step by step to make sure that I was improving. I connect with people on a deeper level in college because I began to form a circle with those who have the same life goals as I do. The conversations I carry now are not about what songs are hip but rather what our passions and what we learned about the world.

Through discourse community, I exited my high school clique and entered into various different communities as I entered college. I understand those students who were pushed in other direction of English that Amy Tan wrote about. I wish there were some other way for immigrants and foreigners to not feel like such an alien when it comes to learning English. Today, the communities I am involved in relates to where I am at in my life – very relevant. The people who I surround myself with have the same lexis and we often communicate with the same genre(s) which helps me maintain my membership in my discourse community. 

                                

Discourse Community

            This article was so difficult for me to understand and I can understand the forehand warning about how dry it is. I had to repeatedly read it over and over yet, I am still trying to understand it as I write this blog. I feel like the beginning of every blog or paper I have to write it takes me a couple hours to days to form the right thoughts which really stinks.

Discourse Community consists of:

1. A broadly agreed set of common public goals
2. Mechanisms of intercommunication among its members
3. Uses its participatory mechanism primarily to provide information and feedback
4. Utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims
5. Acquired some specific lexis
6. Has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise

From my understanding, it was said that a discourse community share a “cluster of ideas”, in which contribute to the group’s knowledge as a whole, it then made me wonder if this is why it can be confused with speech community. It is confusing because when I think of a speech community, I think of a group of people who shares the same lingos/genres and often communicates that way inherently. A discourse community also consists of members who speaks and know a specific lexis. But that is probably the only similarity between the two.

As a “discourse community is not well defined as yet, but like many imperfectly defined terms, it is suggestive, the center of a set of ideas rather than the sign of a settled notion”, it made me realize further that a discourse community is indeed “functional”. It is functional because the sociorhetorical discourse community consists of members who agree on and pursue goals rather than to discuss or socialize. I had to separately look into the dictionary and other internet sources to understand the difference between a speech community and a discourse community and I am glad because it helped me tremendously.

When applying what a discourse community is, I think of myself in various classes at San Diego State. When I join a classroom, I experience a common goal with other students such as passing a class and hopefully, graduating. Within the classroom, we are able to discuss ideas and give feedbacks to each other and our professors. In addition, depending on what major and class I am in, I am always required to understand and communicate the genre(s) with my fellow classmates. For example, in my Economic class, we are able to speak and understand about the “demand and supply” genre while being able to casually explaining it to those who aren’t familiar with the terms and are new to the subject. The survival of each major depends on how much a major itself can attract or persuade new potential members in joining its community.

I think the many genres within our discourse community is impressive such as the use of emails, social media and meetings in order to achieve the common goal we have. I get invites to groups on Facebook when I attend a certain class and when I open the discussion forum, I see a chain of communication in various types of genres such as questions, study guide and class information that can help further each and every single one of us to our common goal. Which is a very neat concept as we are functioning individually but as a whole group, we specify our specialties.

Unlike a discourse community, I can think of a speech community as a group someone was born into or involved in just for the basic human needs of socialization to survive. Such groups such as the Nazis, KKKs or cults are example of a speech community that comes together for a goal(s), however, such common goal(s)/belief(s) are often outdated and not relevant in today’s society. Their chain of communication is narrowed with falsely believed information passed onto their vulnerable and misinformed members. However, they do seem to have a common genre(s) when speaking about their commonality towards their goals.