My mother was a kind loving person all her life she was not the best at school and she was not perfect but she was full of love for everyone especially her family. She was the oldest of 5 siblings, and as the oldest she had to take care of everyone and her parents, go to school and take care of the fields. She not drop out of school and she finished her high school education. Only her and one of her brothers and one of her sisters completed high school.
It has been my mothers dream to come to America all of her life, "The richest country, the country of the free, a home for everyone, the perfect country". She thought about it all the time but in her mind she always thought to herself, "I'm crazy, how would I get to America? I dont have a college education, not many Americans even come here, and sometimes it take over 20 years to get a green card legally from those americans! But someday...just maybe...I can go to america and give my family so much more, in so many ways." And her time was soon to come....
One day she was just hanging around the street with her friends and an old woman grabbed her hand and read her palm. The woman could not speak very well but she put her hand to her heart, imitated an airplane flying with her hand implying that my mother will fly in an airplane. My mother was taken aback and thought she was crazy. But one day while she was working in the beauty shop where she was employed, my father, the American sailor walked inside and had a fondness for my mother. He had my mother do his toes (lol) and came back to chat with my mother everyday. my mom initially did not like him but started to like him more and more because he was such a nice person. He brought her ice cream, took her places, and started dating. They were in love.
They married after knowing each other for only a short time (about 8 months) and my father took my mom to live in America! My mother was thrilled and scared at the same time. Because she was going to America!
My mom knew very little about America other than the fact that is was the most powerfull country in the world, and that it is many peoples dreams to go there. She knew it would be hard to adjust. And she has never heard of Gee's concept of d/Discourse.
Discourse is an "identity kit" and it is basically all they ways that makes yourself you, how you talk, dress, look, and act. There is a primary discourse and a dominant discourse of every country. For example, America, the Dominant discourse is all the people that has all of the money and the people that control the country and economy. The primary Discourse of America is how people generally act and speak in public.
My mother came from a place other than America so she had to learn how to "fit in" in the society that she lives in now through apprenticeship (my father). Unfortunately if you want to make it in a country you must learn the Discourses associated with it. It is not particularly fair but it is the way it is.
Discourse is not just limited to countries and cities and such, but to many many other places as well, like the internets.
The internets is a mysterious place and some parts of the internet have different Discourses than others. take The Pirate Bay for example, the biggest torrent tracker on the internet was sued by the music industry for around 3 million dollars each for all 4 owners of the website.
To TPB users they find the act of stealing music, video games, and software ok, as long as it is on the internet. And the owners were sued by the music industry because it affects their profits.
These are 2 different Discourses. The people who steal files online could probably not afford it and think that it is not that bad because the internet has no rules and the website allows it. Some websites on the internet do not condone the act of piracy and the discussion of it, this is another Discourse.
Personally I do support TPB and I condone piracy, some people in this world cannot afford to buy Photoshop and Dreamweaver for over 60$ a pop. Therefore we must take it for free because we cannot afford it and because it is free.
It has been my mothers dream to come to America all of her life, "The richest country, the country of the free, a home for everyone, the perfect country". She thought about it all the time but in her mind she always thought to herself, "I'm crazy, how would I get to America? I dont have a college education, not many Americans even come here, and sometimes it take over 20 years to get a green card legally from those americans! But someday...just maybe...I can go to america and give my family so much more, in so many ways." And her time was soon to come....
One day she was just hanging around the street with her friends and an old woman grabbed her hand and read her palm. The woman could not speak very well but she put her hand to her heart, imitated an airplane flying with her hand implying that my mother will fly in an airplane. My mother was taken aback and thought she was crazy. But one day while she was working in the beauty shop where she was employed, my father, the American sailor walked inside and had a fondness for my mother. He had my mother do his toes (lol) and came back to chat with my mother everyday. my mom initially did not like him but started to like him more and more because he was such a nice person. He brought her ice cream, took her places, and started dating. They were in love.
They married after knowing each other for only a short time (about 8 months) and my father took my mom to live in America! My mother was thrilled and scared at the same time. Because she was going to America!
My mom knew very little about America other than the fact that is was the most powerfull country in the world, and that it is many peoples dreams to go there. She knew it would be hard to adjust. And she has never heard of Gee's concept of d/Discourse.
Discourse is an "identity kit" and it is basically all they ways that makes yourself you, how you talk, dress, look, and act. There is a primary discourse and a dominant discourse of every country. For example, America, the Dominant discourse is all the people that has all of the money and the people that control the country and economy. The primary Discourse of America is how people generally act and speak in public.
My mother came from a place other than America so she had to learn how to "fit in" in the society that she lives in now through apprenticeship (my father). Unfortunately if you want to make it in a country you must learn the Discourses associated with it. It is not particularly fair but it is the way it is.
Discourse is not just limited to countries and cities and such, but to many many other places as well, like the internets.
The internets is a mysterious place and some parts of the internet have different Discourses than others. take The Pirate Bay for example, the biggest torrent tracker on the internet was sued by the music industry for around 3 million dollars each for all 4 owners of the website.
To TPB users they find the act of stealing music, video games, and software ok, as long as it is on the internet. And the owners were sued by the music industry because it affects their profits.
These are 2 different Discourses. The people who steal files online could probably not afford it and think that it is not that bad because the internet has no rules and the website allows it. Some websites on the internet do not condone the act of piracy and the discussion of it, this is another Discourse.
Personally I do support TPB and I condone piracy, some people in this world cannot afford to buy Photoshop and Dreamweaver for over 60$ a pop. Therefore we must take it for free because we cannot afford it and because it is free.
|
0
comments
