Gee Text to Self #1

 

Gee defines his portions of a new form of looking at literacy, called Discourses, as “saying(writing)-doing-being-valuing-believing combinations”. He also claims in his writing that “At any moment we are using language we must say or write the right thing in the right way while playing the right social role and (appearing) to hold the right values, beliefs, and attitudes”. What I believe Gee is saying is that your Discourses are the different ways in which you interact within the world. Meaning that the way you interact with the world, whether saying(writing, doing, being, etc… is dependent on the who you are as a person, where you are, and what is socially acceptable. Some examples that Gee includes are American or Russian, factory worker or boardroom executive, and regular at a local bar. All of the examples he includes are have different backgrounds and social expectations, implying that a person can have multiple Discourses. That is why this is important to Gee, it explains his overall implication. Some examples of my own Discourses that apply to me include student, redhead, EMT, and freshman. The examples I included fall into Gee’s definition of Discourse because they are all different Discourses that apply to me with expectations for each. As a student, I am expected to say or write in a certain as well as to do certain things. As an EMT I am expected to hold a certain level of professionalism and expected to do certain things.

 

Gee Text to Self #2

Gee’s idea of primary and secondary Discourses is one which can cause conflicts due to the changing and adapting of a person throughout time. Gee claimed your primary Discourse is “is the one we first use to make sense of the world”. Then your secondary Discourses come from when you move away from your primary Discourse and explore new areas. Two discourses which I have that conflict each other involve politics and the way I was told to look at politics as opposed to the way I actually do. I grew up in a house with a Grandmother who is a right-wing conservative. As I grew older I became accustomed to growing up listening to Fox News and hearing my Grandmother complain about left-wing politics. I grew up with the implication that conservatism was the right way of looking at political events, never being exposed to another way of observation. That was one of the primary discourses which I socially was introduced to. Then I was introduced to the idea of staying away from politics as I grew up and began thinking for myself. This is where the conflict began, when I began to realize the options the world provided. The more I learned the more I hated politics, which went against my primary Discourse. Now I have a constant conflict between viewing the world the way I did when I originally tried to make sense of it, and the way in which I learned through age to make sense of it.

 

Text to Text Translation

Gee describes Primary Discourses as “the one we first use to make sense of the world”, meaning that what you grow up with becomes your “normal”, and this applies to language. Discourses apply to this translation from “black english” to “white english” creates a bridge of interpretation between two different Primary Discourses. This also comes to the discussion of which Discourses are more commonly accepted, in this example it is “white english”. Jordan says “Because I had never taught anyone Black English and, as far as I knew, no one, anywhere in the United States, had offered such a course”. Gee would explain how Discourses have social ties to them, and due to the social injustice between blacks and whites, the concept of “black english” is not taught due to this injustice. Gee would explain how to both groups, in their environments, their way of speech is normal , but if you switch the speeches and environments then they suddenly become abnormal due to their social connections. The translation from black to white English also does not fully translate. The two forms of english have words with their own meanings and their own powers, meaning that the translation from one to the other would not entirely do it justice to the native speaker, further proving that there is a separate Discourse between the two forms of English.