My Own Experiences

Throughout out our life most of us hold back from joining many different activities. We all have the fear that we will not fit in with those who are already part of that certain community or because we feel as though we cant get the hang of the activity. It is a shame to see how we let certain things pass us by do to those fears and many others. Looking back at my own experiences I regret not joining certain groups do to those fears. I always wanted to try many different activities such as karate, gymnastics, cheer leading, etc. I never joined because I felt incompetent to be part of those communities.     

I have had the chance to try and join many different communities while growing up. I had not always been so open minded in joining the different discourse communities though but I began to see the advantages in joining them. I had always been afraid like many people that I would not be accepted by the members in the community. When I got over that and began to try different things that I had never done my life changed completely. The first time I joined a new discourse was when I was eight years old. I had lived all of my life in Mexico and at that age my family and I moved to Alaska. I did not know any English just simple words like "chicken", "pen", "my name is". I was so afraid because I felt as though kids would not accept me for not speaking English and only knowing Spanish. That fear soon faded away, as soon as I walked into class I meet a few friends whom despite the lack of knowledge I had in English language began to try and communicate with me. Though I did not know what they were saying we all found different methods of communication and even shared laughs. They all helped me learn to speak English along with my bilingual teacher. 

Another discourse community I joined was a community of pharmacy technicians at the age of eight teen. I had never been a part of anything having to do with pharmacy. Even though I was scared that it would be difficult I did not let that fear get in my way to pursue a good opportunity. I soon found out that in this community I could involve my prior knowledge of Spanish to help me remember abbreviations that I had to know for my final exam. The abbreviations consist of two to three letters, and can be hard to remember which is which because they are very similar. As it is in the case of the abbreviation QOD: every other day and QID: every four hours, this two abbreviations can cause a major difference in the way a person takes their medications. If a pharmacy technician was to mix this up while deciphering the prescription and writing out the deciphered prescription to the patient it could be fatal for the patient. Especially is the patient is that a strong pain medication. Which is why reading, writing, and language is important in this discourse community. I used my prior knowledge of Spanish to help me remember certain abbreviations. My previous knowledge helped me make connections with the letters in the abbreviations and made it simpler to keep myself from mixing up certain abbreviations which are very similar. Such as OS: left eye and OD: right eye. In Spanish O is the first letter of ojo or eye and S sounds like the Z in izquierda or left, the O in OD again is for ojo or eye and D for Derrecha or right.

 

By being a part of various discourse communities as one can see from my own experiences and those of others like in my blog http://joinmany.blogspot.com/2014/04/join-many.html it is obvious to see the varies advantages of joining many discourses and why we all should JOIN MANY!!!

http://joinmany.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-own-experiences.html

My Argument & Purpose

In this blog I want to claim that in language and literacy everyone can use the knowledge they have learned from previous discourses to help them advance in other discourse communities, even if they have nothing that anyone can see in common certain things could apply. 

But first what are discourse communities? 

To put it plain and simple a discourse community is a group of people who share a set of discourses, understood as basic values and assumptions, and ways of communicating about those goals. Or as Linguist John Swales defines discourse communities "groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals."

I want to make a point to get high school and college students to understand that even if you have no prior knowledge of anything to relate to that discourse the new knowledge can be learned. For example as a child we had no knowledge of what we were taught in school but we all learned through time. That can apply to any discourse community. We all have the ability to learn new things. It is all up to us if we chose to join or not. I want high school and college students to see that we can be involved in many different discourse communities. To create an argument against James Paul Gee, another linguist who states that we cannot be a part of more than one discourse community.  After reading my blog I hope my readers go out and join many different discourse communities they might have been afraid of joining do to the feeling of being unable to connect with the members without giving the discourse community a chance. By joining new discourses it can also expand ones social groups and make a person more diverse in society which is helpful to get ahead in life in many different ways.

http://joinmany.blogspot.com/2014/04/join-many.html

http://joinmany.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-own-experiences.html

Join Many

Throughout our lives I know many of us have been afraid to join in on a new discourse community. Anyone can be part of any community if they set out to join. By joining the many communities that are out there we get to meet many different people. Meeting the different types of people in different communities can expand our views on the world. The diversity of people we meet is a great way to get to see the different views of different communities on beliefs, goals, social issues, etc. It helps us not be so close minded and see that we all have certain things in common and that just because we were not part of a certain group since a young age or when it start that we can still become a part of it.

In the pictures you are looking at we can clearly see how this individuals are breaking the boundaries and are part of different discourse communities. 

Mallory Rogers is a great example of someone joining a new discourse community which is completely new to her and though she was comprehensive she joined and came to love the new discourse. On top of all that she continues to be a part of her old discourse community of participating in pageants. 

click on the link below to watch the video of her story.

http://youtu.be/f-1lwfNdctA

By joining different discourses we can all open doors to more opportunities. Joining new discourse communities you might even come to be surprised that you can relate certain prior knowledge that will help you get ahead in the discourse. Threw new discourse communities we all can gain more skills, become more social, gain a lot more knowledge on different subjects, beliefs, ideas, etc. I want to encourage high school and college students to go out into the world without the fear of not fitting in because we can all get along with one another though we are different. By joining the different discourses we can all gain the ability to find a way to relate to one another. Joining many discourses can help all of us like I said before be more diverse, more friendly, more understanding, and open minded. So go out their and JOIN MANY!!! Join all the discourses that you were once afraid to try, break the barriers, forget the fears of not fitting in or being accepted, it will all end up leading you to grow and get ahead in life. You will not lose anything in trying but gain different abilities and skills, meet new interesting people, or even find a new passion which you might enjoy.



http://joinmany.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-main-argument.html
http://joinmany.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-own-experiences.html