Quote 1: “we biologists are either skin-in skin-out”
Response: In regards to the biology department splitting into two one dealing with microbiology and the other dealing with evolution was interesting. To me this quote is like a play on words where a biologist studies how skin affects the human body and the evolutionist studies how skin pigmentation came to be. It is like either you are “in” one group or “out” against another but, the ideologies of both the biologist and the evolutionist cannot be agreed upon at the same time. To me this a strange quote since both sciences study humankind and seen interconnected.
Quote 2: “Let’s go to the VD Center for lunch”
Reponse: It was funny. Most people hearing this would probably have thought the initials vd was short for venereal disease and the guests were going to be eating at a health clinical instead of a cafeteria. I could only imagine what an uproar this phrase could have caused during a puritanical times if Mea West would have alluded to this in one of her movie. Only a handful of people who work at the Aston University would understand its true meaning; being the abbreviated name of a campus dining center.
#2. The three discourse communities, I participate in include:
- My Haitian community, my roots.
- My work community, being in the health field
- My home community, being a mother
I am Haitian descent; I migrated to this country about ten years ago. I have acculturated myself to the American “life and culture” however I have not forsaken my Haitian culture which I think it is almost impossible to uproot. I still speak creole with Haitians living in my community. Church services in creole create the perfect gospel environment due to some linguistic expressions that are almost impossible to have the same meaning. There are special ingredients in food that are only available at a Haitian merchant. There are the music, and food that are only experienced in community gathering.
My values, assumptions, and ways of communicating in my work community are special. I work in the medical field; I sit at the front desk in a radiology department. Within the protocol that is place in the clinic employees develop a system to interact with each other. There are jargon and standard set to allow us to effectively communicate with each other in front of patient and remain productive. We develop a special social work relationship where we are social to each other yet we refrain from referencing workplace data and patient privacy. I sometimes believe the medical field is like a world onto itself. I have to recognize and decode what many abbreviations are for hundreds of words including various deceases. I am sure the public does not understand what these abbreviations describe. Only other people in the health field would understand the medical jargon that I am accustomed to using. For example, qam means every morning, NPO means nothing by mouth.
I am a mom of two young children and we have a special language of our own. We are a community of three and I am the beacon of this community. The goal is to have a loving, healthy, and happy family. I try to instill respect and good habit and a lot of love into my children which I believe can help me to have a good and balance family. For example, when we say goodbye to each other because I am leaving for work in the morning, we give each other high five, use specific gesture like touching our forehead together which I think is our special way to say I love you. I want them to respect and treat others well. It is a discourse community in the making, I take their input to heart and compromise whenever possible.
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