Category: U2 blog post 2 – DISCOURSE COMMUNITIES

my experience in discourse communities was relaying, i was introduced to it by my friends who i met thought my video games and that made a new way to communicate to them and it made me and my friends close, and then i branch into other gores about topics and it was really cool. so i would say my experience would be very good, obviously there have been bullying for other people but for me it was very wholesome.

A time I tried to join a new discourse community was going to a new middle school. Whenever I become a freshman in school, I move to another village, city, or country. Back then, I was very nervous because other classmates had their mutual friends except me. New school, new classroom, and new classmates. All thins are new and scary for me. I just passed the time without knowing what to say to the classmate, who was sitting next to me, and how to start. Then, I thought of the chocolate in my bag, and I tried to tell her, “Hello” and “Would you like to eat the chocolate?” After talking with her, I found out that she and I liked the same band. That made us closer more.

Discourse Communities.

The very first Discourse community I’ve ever joined was a brotherhood (Sisters were included too). It was during the summer a few years back can’t exactly recall the year. A summer school program in a school located near the pier located around the Hudson River Park. The owner or leader was some dark skinned individual who I believe was an advisor to the school. He talked about being a gentlemen and several other gentlemanly rules he taught. I was bored all throughout. I joined and left the same day. A year later or so I joined another Discourse community they’re like a real family to me.

A time where I had an opportunity to join a discourse community was in 2006 when my family moved to Alexandria, Egypt so that I would learn Arabic and study the religion of Islam. Moving to Egypt was probably one of the hardest things I had to live through when it came to fitting in with a community that had no common interests with me. Leaving the United States at age 6 to a whole new environment where literally everything including the air we breathe is different may be viewed as a challenge but in my opinion it could have been worse. My first two years in school were the worst, I got bullied a lot for being the American kid in my class, barely anyone wanted to be my friend because they feared being picked on for being my friends. Luckily I went to a private school so therefore I did manage to make my fair share of American friends, but I still hated it. It almost felt like the school was segregated into two different groups, The foreigners and the Egyptians. Within the two year stay at that school I witnessed countless fights and it was not fun to watch being so young and naïve. The one thing that saved me from staying at that school and possibly ending up very hurt by someone else’s carelessness was the fact that when midterms were going on, the school decided to take all the foreigners and place them all in a classroom without a teacher to hang out all day claiming that none of us payed tuition and that we would have to stay there until our parents arrived to pay it off for us. This sparked a lot of outrage with all the parents. A whole new issue occurred and this time my mother was involved. All my life I hid any of my issues from my parents because I feel like they have enough stress to deal with themselves. The whole secluding the foreign students in an empty classroom situation gave my parents no choice but to move me to another school. This new school was different, almost like a safe haven for anyone. I made so many friends and it felt like the whole school cared for me. The school I attended was so good that even my mother started to work there as a teacher which was amazing. At first I feared to show my true self so I always carried myself like I was ten times my own size to protect myself from any type of harm. Walking into that school on the second week of my first year there I felt like I was walked right through the door of my house ready to feel free of any type of stress. I fit into that discourse community almost as if it was created by myself, and when it was time to leave Egypt 4 years later, it felt like my life was ending.

The time I tried to join a discourse community was back to 2015 when I came to USA to study for the first time on high school. At that time my English wasn’t that good, so it was a little bit hard for me to meet new people, also at that time I was very good at sports such as soccer, basketball and ping pong I think that was the only way I make friend, they look at me playing sports. So, they were interested playing with me. Also, meeting people with the same language that I speak which is Spanish. Joining a Discourse community is a major part of life, because it can help you to grow as a human being, and to learn a lot of things that can turn helpful to become successful in the future.

The first time I joined a discourse community was in my new job worksite. At first I felt like I wasn’t welcomed and very uncomfortable. I had to accustom to a very new environment with new people and I didn’t know how to start. I didn’t really engage with my coworkers quickly until some guy came up to me and started a conversation then I slowly tried to get used to my work place and not feel totally weirded out by where I work.

The time I tried to join a discourse community was back when I was in High school. At  the time I was a huge baseball fan and I would always play it. So there was one day where i decided to join the baseball team in my school. I was the youngest one there, they were all either seniors or juniors and at the time I was a sophomore. So finding a way to fit in seemed like a challenge and a difficult task to do. So when i first joined I heard a group of the older kids talking about baseball and I knew a lot of it so i decided to just randomly join that conversation. After joining that conversation everyone was giving their opinions and it was a very cool situation to be in. Once that conversation was over and a few days later passed and a few more conversations regarding baseball news were discussed and I would just join those conversations out of nowhere. As time passed I saw myself fitting into this discourse community and it helped me feel much more comfortable to be on that team.

It was around middle school, I was about 14 years old. I just came to this middle school because my parents moved from place to place. I had no friends no one knew me and everyone saw me as the new kid. So I decided to join a club. I was really good at basketball so I joined the basketball team. It was everything I dreamed of I made lots of new friends played many games and won many games. Everything was perfect in my life.