Viman Gunawardana
ENG1121
Word Count: 909
2/17/20
My Discourse Community
In my discourse community we use Morse code; It’s a type of code where we use signals or show signs of communicating with one another. This is a discourse community because only my co-worker and I know about. It is our mini language. Not only do we use this language for fun, it is important that we use this language because that is the only way we can have a conversation with each other at work for work-related purposes. This is mainly important because while I speak English, my co-worker only speaks Spanish and doesn’t speak English at all, hence why this language is important to us. I really thought this wouldn’t work at first, but few months later, here we are, communicating perfectly in our own language. This way of communication couldn’t have worked any way better than we would have thought it was going to be.
My discourse community is unique because my co-worker and I are the only ones that knows about this language. In fact, this is the way we communicate for most of the time. The only things that matter in my discourse community is if we are there at work. When we are at work, we bang on objects that make loud noises. This is crucial that we have this is because our workplace is extremely large and most of the time, we tend to work a good distance away from each other. For example, I will be working near the main entrance while my co-worker works in the corner that is approximately seven cars away from me. Another crucial item to our discourse community are our ears. You must listen carefully to the other persons beat. If you don’t completely pay attention to the beat, you will most likely end up in getting the wrong tool or part. You will also waste time if this happens because the other person must go run back to the other side of the building and get the right part or tool. We can’t have this happen in our workplace because time is a key factor in our job, and it is something we don’t have. In fact, we value time the most in our job, we work at a busy motorsports shop where we modify customers cars, or their motorcycles and they give us a deadline to complete their project. It is an extremely fast paced environment. We also value each other’s presence because most of the time, there are customer projects that are big, and we need both hands-on decks. There really isn’t much room for another member in our discourse community because not only did it take us a few weeks to create a code for communication, we also had to practice getting the hang of it. It took me nearly a month in order to execute the signals perfectly, however, my co-worker took two-and-a-half months just to get the hang of it. As you can see, this is time-consuming and for the most parts, time is never on our side. My co-worker and I communicate with the everyday objects that we have around us, like car horns and motorcycle horns, toolboxes, trashcans, claps, stomps and more. I learned that there is always a way to communicate with another person, even if you don’t speak the same language. When me and my co-worker are out of work, I use google translate in order to communicate with him for fun or what we are going to do the next day. Google translate is also important because my co-worker usually goes to therapy at unexpected times, so he texts me on what needs to get done in the shop for the following day. My co-worker also uses google transalate because he would always let me know when he will come to work, if he is going to be running late, if he is going to make it on time, or even if he is not going to make it at all. My co-worker lives in the Bronx, so he always texts me with details about his trip. Same goes for me as well. It works both ways. I am the only one out of both of us that uses google translate because my co-worker doesn’t know how to read English either. Before creating the code with my co-worker, I literally had no way of communicating with him in any way. Luckily, my manager spoke Spanish and helped me speak with him translating for me. We somehow managed to communicate with each other into our way of creating the code that we use today.
All in all, I learned from my discourse community that we didn’t need to speak the same language to understand or have a full conversation with each other. Even though it was hard at first, we came up with a resolution to use the Morse code in our discourse community. The thing that surprised me the most was that me and my co-worker eventually understands each other, even though it took us months to create the code and for us to execute it properly. I initially thought that I would never find a way to work or communicate with my new co-worker, but it eventually worked out.
Works Cited
Ramirez, Flaco (co-worker), text via Google Translate, 19th of November 2019 – 21st of February 2020
Hernandez, George (Manager), In-Person, 19th of November 2019
