blog #10

What discourse community am I researching? Hmmmm. Honestly, I’m not super 100 percent sure I even know what a discourse community really is. Every time I think I know what it is, I do a little more research, I confuse myself.  But so I need to double check that. But the discourse community I would like to research, once I actually find out if it actually is a discourse community, is the deaf community. I’m fascinated by the deaf community because I have quite a few family members who are deaf and I am very interesting in how they communicate with each other and anyone else in general. Some of my deaf family members know sign language and the others don’t. They can still communicate with each other though. I’ve noticed that they read my lips to communicate with people. I found this out the hard way when I tried to mouth a word instead of mumbling something under my breath in front of my mom, she was not pleased. In society, it is socially acceptable to make eye contact with someone when they are talking so deaf people can come off as rude when they stare at their mouths.

            I plan on interview my family members who don’t know sign language vs the ones who do and compare their experiences in this community. The cost to be in this community is to be either to born into this community or join by accident, meaning you lose your hearing.

            There’s a lot of things that my mom and family members do that I don’t really understand but then if they run into another person who is deaf and they completely understand. Now that I’m older I understand it more now, I had to be use context clues but it really isn’t that difficult to understand their mannerisms. Of course, anyone can learn sign language or read lips so that’s what this community kinda different. It doesn’t have to be just deaf people, it can really be anyone who just have to learn and adapt to their skills and mannerisms. 

blog #8

I definitely agree with you, I wouldn’t want to be working as a waitress once I graduate college. You go to college to get some high power kind of job. Waitress is nothing to be ashamed of but I don’t think I would want to have that as a job forever. I don’t think it would make me very happy. Well I see or talk to people who are waitresses, they always seem really mad because people are always so mean to waitresses. I don’t want people to be mean to me. But people aren’t really mean to doctors or CEOs of giant corporations.

            But I think it would really suck to have to take these courses in college like organic chemistry or statistics just so you end taking some bratty teenagers order. You would have broken your brain thinking about all these number and formulas and you end up never using it ever again, I would feel really frustrated and incredibly angry. If I spent all my time, money, and energy on learning all this material, I better be using this knowledge all the time or at least in my career.

            I don’t consider customer service industry workers to “mindless” like Peter Drucker says. You have to a mind to be able to handle all the dumb and crazy stuff customer service workers have to deal with. I really don’t think people can be superior to each other just because of their job. Your job doesn’t determine your importance or your worth to society. And I’m pretty sure you have to have more than a ninth grade education to be a server, because ninth graders are still pretty stupid. Waitress are a lot smarter than any ninth grader I’ve ever met, and a whole lot nicer too.

            I work in the mall and since I haven’t graduated college yet, I could definitely say you don’t need a college diploma to work in the mall. I could’ve worked in the mall when I was in ninth grade but I would have been way worse at my job. College doesn’t just provide you with knowledge about school stuff, you learn how to act better in social situations. 

Total Mushfaker:

I am for sure a huge mushfaker. In fact, one of my favorite saying is “fake it until you make it”. Definitely words to live by! Ninety five percent of the time, I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing, the other five percent pretending I have a slight clue as to what’s going on. Well I’m not that clueless all the time but really who knows what to do all the time? No one! I’m kind of a slow learner, it takes me a while to actually properly learn how to do something but once I pick it up, I’m pretty great at it. In the time you spend faking it, you actually learn how to do it. Sometimes, you don’t even realize that you picked it up, it feels natural. Practice makes perfect.

            I’m the worst mushfaker when it comes to social situations. In social situations, I don’t think I can “fake it until I make it”. I’m a really awkward person and I’m really shy too (a dangerous combination). But once I get at least one friend, I instantly become way less awkward and shy. I just follow that one friend around and once they start a conversation with someone else, I casually chime in at times. Then I become friends with that person. And that’s how I make friends… being creepy and casually chiming into other people’s conservations.

            Honestly, when I’m mushfaking I feel way more nervous and shy than I really am. I feel really scared that someone could expose me for being a fake. The first time you enter a new environment, you don’t even know how to fake it. You have to do some people watching first then you adapt to their behaviors, language, and costumes. You can’t really fake your way your first day because you still need time to observe and adapt. Mushfaking is kind of like an art form, you really have master the craft of faking, some people can’t fake their way around something. You have appear like you fit in even though you know you don’t. Not only is it a state of being, it’s is a way of thinking. If you think you are something, you will soon become that. It’s like that saying, you think like a winner, you become a winner. Kind of cheesy but it’s true. Even if you lose, if you think like a winner, you’ll be a winner in your heart.

            A common new discourse environment is usually new job situations. When you go to an interview, you wouldn’t go in sweats and a sweater, there’s an unsaid protocol that you follow. You dress up as something you don’t normally dress up as. Not only are you dressing up your physical, you’re also dressing up your persona. You don’t present yourself to the interviewer the same way you would present yourself with friends or family. You’re mushfaking.  Then if you get the job, you still don’t really know what you’re doing, you’re mushfaking again. You’re kind of mushfaking your way through sometimes, at least during some big moments in your life. 

I’m the first in my family to go to college and that made it so much tougher because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. My parents don’t even speak English, how did I think they were going to help me or even understand me during my college adventure. Since, I didn’t know anyone who went to college, I had to base my entire expectation on movies….. it definitely isn’t the same (I’m hurt!). High school Melissa was expecting something so different and I’m definitely not living my life like the movies. I guess that’s a good thing too, don’t know how I survive my college life partying or drunk (I don’t party at all, I’m a total grandma) sorry not sorry.

            Since me going to college, two of cousins have gone to college (wohoo for female progression). So I can talk to them about and they’ll definitely get my relatable college memes that I text them. Our parents never understand us and it can get really hard because I just wanna nap everywhere and they’re not digging it. I really like learning new things and talking about important controversial things because I like knowing people’s opinions. And that annoys my family so much! When people say don’t talk about politics or religion with your family and friends, they really mean DON’T DO IT. It’s either I’m mad or they’re mad, it’s not fun. That Akon song “Lonely” starts playing in the background (it’s a good song, but it’s a sad song too. So it’s not fun to have as your background song or theme song).

            College is hard and I honestly hate it…. But Imma still go tho. Being completely immersed was definitely the toughest thing in my life. I had absolutely no idea what to do and I was so scared. I think the thing I was scared of the most was the fact that my mom couldn’t sign me out of class and have it be ok because in college, you miss five minutes of lecture and feel completely and totally lost. Shout out to my mom for signing me out of class in high school, you the realest.  

            I didn’t feel like I fit in at school, I still do. I think that’s because when I first got to college I thought there was gonna be a lot more diversity. The first Mexican person I saw was one of the construction workers that was working on campus….. really disappointed in that. I was really sad that I couldn’t speak Spanish to anyone or campus, I love speaking Spanish. I grew up speaking Spanish, everyone in my high school spoke Spanish so once I got to state, I spent a lot of times talking to my parents on the phone just to make sure I didn’t forget my Spanish (but most importantly my culture).

            College is very hard and three years and I still have no freaking idea was I’m doing. But I’m still gonna keep “college-ing” (???)… that’s not a word but you know what I mean.