What are discourse communities? Discourse communities are social groups of people that share a common interest or goal. Some discourse communities I'm currently involved in are a family community and skateboarding community. I will be discussing what type of subjects are discussed within these communities as well as discourse conventions, genres, and social issues.
Family is a very important discourse community to me because I feel it is important to love and stay in touch with your family members as much as possible because they will always be there for you. Like that saying "Blood is thicker than water". Some common goals we all share within this community would be loving each other, sharing and helping with each other's personal problems, and favors. Affection is good within a family because it shows that those around you actually care for you. Problems can be discussed at home and your family members could give you good advice for your problem to try and help you with it. Favors are a big part in my family community. I can always count on my siblings to do something for me, I can't really rely on friends to do favors for me.
Discourse conventions are held within the family community very often. Usually on holidays, my whole family (cousins, aunts, uncles etc included) gets together at my grandmother's house to see each other and celebrate the holiday. My core family and I usually go out to eat or to mall and spend time together whenever we have time to. We also have family dinners mostly everyday of the week. The discourse conventions lets us spend time together and have some good old fashion quality time with the family. Though there are a lot of fights between all of us, we usually don’t hold any grudges. We get over whatever happened very quickly.
Different types of genres of communication are used in our family community only for emergencies, we don’t talk to each other for fun. My mom does not know how to text to save her life so she can only make phone calls on her cell phone. I text message my dad and siblings whenever I need something. I will usually text my brother to pick up some groceries or bring something home to eat. Another type of genre for communication would be verbal communication. Verbal communication is the type of communication we use the most in our house. Every day when I get home from class my mom will ask me how my classes are going and how I am doing etc.
There is different types of specialized vocabulary we use in our family. We use nicknames, inside jokes, and experiences. My family calls me by nickname "Poopers" (Don't ask why.) if they are trying to make fun of me but they usually call me by my full name Christopher. We share inside jokes about the family that other people with not know. We also share a lot of vacation experiences together.
I am also in another discourse community which is Skateboarding. I have been skateboarding for about 4 years now and it really helps me get my mind off of school. Skateboarders share interests such as learning new tricks, making new friends, and getting sponsored. Learning new tricks is the base of skateboarding. Mostly everyone that skates doesn’t only buy a skateboard to ride it, they want to learn tricks. Making friends makes skateboarding so much more fun and enjoyable. Skating by yourself gets old fast and can get boring. When you have friends to skate with, you learn more and you compete against each other to see who can do more tricks. Another goal we share in common would be to get sponsored. If you are good enough you can get sponsored by a skateboarding company and get money.
Skateboarding communications the genres: board graphic art, skateboarding magazines, and skating with friends. The graphic art on the boards displays the company that makes the board and or the pro skater on the board. Skateboarding magazines portray professional skaters doing tricks and has skateboarding news in it. There is communication when it comes to skating with friends. You can go hand out with friends and talk about new tricks you have learned, we usually play games of S.K.A.T.E to see who has better flat ground tricks.
Trick names, pro skaters, and skate spots are all specialized vocabulary when it comes to skateboarding. There are so many trick names it is hard to keep track of all of them, most people who don’t skate don’t know any skateboard trick names. Most people do not know about pro skaters either. My favorite pro skaters are Pj Ladd, Eric Koston, and Mike Mo Capaldi. Skate spots have different names to identify them such as Gaps, Hubbas, and sets of stairs.
Family and Skateboarding are only two out of four discourse communities that I am involved in. When I am with my family I am able to express feelings and talk about personal problems rather than bottling them up and not telling anyone at all. Skateboard helps me take my mind of school and relaxes me. I get to hang out with friends and have a good time.
