The Discourse Communities i Belong to

In today's society, people belong to many discourse communities, whether they know it or not. Communication between discourse communities can vary, and a person may have to adjust their persona to be accepted into one of them. Without written and spoken language, a group wouldn't be able to contribute their ideas to each other, and reaching a common goal would become very difficult. The communities I belonged to were my football team, my weightlifting group, and my friend group. Being involved in these discourse communities required me to communicate and adjust my persona to fit the expectations required in each of them.

I've been a huge sports fan for my entire life; not only do I like to watch them, but I also enjoy playing them. In high school, I became part of a football discourse community when I signed up to play on the football team. Our goals would vary, depending on whether we were at practice or at a game, but our main shared goal was to win the upcoming game and have fun while we were out on the field. Whenever we had practice, our goals were to improve our abilities and ensure we were prepared enough for the upcoming game. To reach these goals, we would encourage each other. For example, when our coach told us to run, we would encourage each other to keep going so we wouldn't fall behind. If we made a mistake in practice, our teammates would inform us how we could improve and ensure we wouldn't make the same mistake. Our defense ran a man-to-man coverage, which required the defender to follow a single player's movement on offense. On game days, we would communicate with the players on the field, letting the defenders know if the offense was passing or running the ball. The communication we shared helped us improve our abilities and win games.

Before the football season actually started, our coach required us to memorize our playbook, which was a notebook that contained the descriptions of all the plays and tactics used by the team. These plays required us to run routes like slants or comebacks, or to block for the running back if we were executing a running play. The playbook was essential to our success on the field because if we were to run a play and someone didn't know their role, confusion would ensue within the team. The playbook also had diagrams that helped explain the routes we were supposed to run. Perfecting these routes and improving abilities such as catching and speed were among the many requirements needed to succeed in this discourse community. To get better as a player overall, I began to study the playbook, which helped me improve and become more successful in this community.

I had to alter myself to become more successful in my weightlifting discourse community group. The common goals that the members of this community share are to become stronger and bigger over time. In this community, we had to abide by a schedule and a set of workouts to become stronger. We would follow a strict schedule that would include working out a set of muscles on one day, another set on another day, and resting in between each of these days. To record my progress further, I began to write down how many sets and reps I did that day, and I would also record my weight for the day. While I am at the gym, I communicate with others through conversation and certain workout interests. The gym is a positive environment, and if you ask someone to spot you on an exercise, they usually will help you out. We give each other motivational talks and congratulate each other when we break a plateau or reach a new weight that we wouldn't have been able to do before. Although there is a good amount of communication between members of the gym, sometimes there is a lack of communication because people are trying to stay focused on their workout and are listening to music with their headphones. Another discourse community I am a part of is my friend group back home. The common goal this discourse community had was to have fun and to find a group of people that we can trust completely. I became part of this discourse community when I first moved to Elk Grove 11 years ago. In this discourse community, our parents were the ones who introduced us all to each other because they all knew each other back in Ethiopia. We have learned and grown tremendously from spending time with each other. We communicate with each other in English, but we sometimes speak in the Ethiopian language, Amharic, when we are around each other. Since a lot of people aren't familiar with the language, they don't know what we are saying, even though we are only using basic words like "yiqirta," which means "excuse me." Our parents also used to take us to a class where we would learn how to speak and write in Amharic. Whenever I would go over to hang out at one of my friends' houses, and I would greet one of their parents, they would speak Amharic to me, and I had to reply in Amharic as well. The language was difficult to learn, but I had my friends to help me through it, and anytime we would need help, we would ask for help from each other. Compared to when I text my parents or an adult, I use formal writing and make sure my grammar and spelling are correct, but when I talk to or text a friend, we don't worry about all the formalities because we can understand each other since we have been friends for so long. Being around my friends, I also don't always have to watch what I say because I can't be punished by them. Communicating with my friends has helped balance out the other discourse communities I was a part of.

All of us are part of discourse community groups, whether being part of a family group, a school group, or a church group. They help us learn from each other and shape the individuals we are now and the individuals we will be in the future. Each of the discourse communities I have been a part of have each taught me something that helped better myself as a person. It feels good knowing that I am a part of many discourse communities because I can turn to any of them when I need help.

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