Peer Discourse Community Report
As learned in project two, “Peers Discourse Community”; every person is associated with a group of people who share a set of discourses, values and assumptions, and ways of communication. This is the definition of discourse community by John Swales. Humor in the discourse community forms the focus of project four. Humor is a type of language behavior and an important tool for achieving certain objectives (Bell, 2002). According to Bell, humor may be defined by two criteria. The first criterion is whether the humor elicits laughter or smiling. The second criterion is whether the produced humor has the intention to elicit laughter or smiling. Humor is evident in discourse group of people and manifests itself through linguistic rules, socio-cultural phenomena, interactional processes, communication modes, and values and beliefs. Humor entails funny and silly jokes by an individual either intendent or not intendent to create it. Therefore, this essay will identify the concepts of humor of discourse community within the group I belonged to, and call for my discourse community humor. ORDER YOUR PAPER NOW
Being part of this discourse community for eight years, I have learned a lot of humor used in communication, interaction processes, and values and beliefs of the members of the group. During the eight years, I attended a Eucharistic youth scout every Sunday where I formed a group of eight people, who we have been together since then. The group started when I was aged 10 years. It is humorous how my parents tricked me to attend Eucharistic Scout on Sundays instead of taking me to a water park. During the car ride, my father explained to me about the Eucharistic Scout but I vaguely understood it. It is humorous of my Dad who was delighted to explain to me about the Eucharistic scout calling for my attention as if I knew it. The thinking that I was going to summer school made me annoyed and irritated. When we arrived there, the immediate thing to see was a bunch of kids with some uniforms and scarfs. The imagination that I was going to be in some kind of scout was humorous. In the years I have been in that scout, I have learned who I am as an individual and made a group of 8 friends. The notion by people that one cannot form a discourse group at places that are not as closely knit as peers is a fallacy, for peers are not only made in a school environment but anywhere where people are interacting.
The healthy discussions we had at the Eucharistic youth scout incorporated me to a new common culture and feedback. In the Eucharistic youth scout, important values that were crucial to every member were exchanged and shared. For us, the idea of humor manifested itself through doing silly activities and having some fun that we altogether enjoyed (Bell, 2002). In our discussions, we incorporated jokes and poked other people’s cultures with the goals of having fun and making the discussions healthy and lively. Different perspectives on one matter or subject were taken in our discussions. It is humorous how silly activities made us achieve the objective of our discussions and made all members of the discourse community bring better views and perspectives on the matter at hand. However, we made fun and silly jokes on a light-heartedly note; as a result, everybody felt comfortable in the group. For instance, there was this one game that involved bursting balloons using our bottoms/ buttocks. We split into two teams and each team had to pop as many balloons as possible before assigned time lapsed. All participants enjoyed the game; this made us understand each other in terms of cultures, backgrounds, behaviors, and attitudes. The humor was in the use of balloons and their busting using buttocks, and how this activity helped in brings a peaceful co-existence among the discourse community. It was enjoyable to stay and interact with the team within the group. Every member has a great sense of humor.
As highlighted above, the idea of humor in the discourse group made the Eucharistic Youth Scout a success. All of us exemplified a great sense of humor in all concerts, jokes, and stories we shared. We used technology to create and share funny videos, concerts, and silly jokes for the public to view and imagine how our stay was in the event. Most of the time, we roast each other; but did it in a light-heartedly mood such that no member of the group felt amused by our acting behavior. Everybody in the discourse community enjoyed creating the funny videos and jokes and was comfortable in everything. We wore face covers and funny clothing that hidden our true images. The humor in this is that we acted in a silly manner but did not disclose our real faces to people for we only did it to have fun. This shows that I am comfortable with people in the community since I know how to be myself. Also, a humor is created here in that the funny videos and jokes created were meant to describe linguistic commonality; although we enjoyed. In this example, it is significant to note that humor can sometimes be an issue and this linguistic tool should be used with due diligence and care as it may play against the dynamics of the discourse community. For instance, one may crack a joke which might offend or hurt others. For the same reason, I crack jokes but in a reasonable manner. Lucky enough, there was no issue with my jokes within the group. My great sense of humor contained a high sense of respect to differences in our backgrounds and beliefs, and this is why the team enjoyed my fun.
The humor evident in this discourse community is predetermined, deliberate, accidental, unrealized, and even unintentional by those providing it. In reference to Swales argument, a discourse group is not necessarily neighborly or locked into a ship or prison, it may appear anywhere. Humor may cause amusement to an individual in a given setting. It was humorous how I felt unease and less comfortable in the initial days before I settled in the group. Later on, I conformed to this group of community and the amusement in me disappeared. Each member of the group came from a different culture, religion, and background. The other group members loved socializing, sharing stories, and jokes with each other; something which made me easily conforms to the new environmental culture. However, we tactically agreed on one common culture that we religiously followed. Each one of us was humorous in his jokes, gestures, and facial expressions. In this regard, the humor entertained and exposed us to ridiculous jokes against each other culture. All of us enjoyed the stay and the kind of jokes we had all though. These humorous instances provided me with different experiences than that my summer camps did. It is a humor in that the experiences I gained in the summer camps was only learning Morse codes and group activities whose fun was not close to the experiences I gained in this discourse group. ORDER YOUR PAPER NOW
In this discourse community, members employed different intercommunication strategies that were full of humor (Swales, 1988). The fact remains that Eucharistic Scout, where I found my discourse community helped me in achieving most of my goals. First and foremost, it boosted my ability to communicate effectively with others. Also, my passion towards working with others was enhanced. Further, I became more enthusiastic and dedicated to spending my time to serve others. It is a humor that is aged 10 years before joining the Eucharistic Scout, I was unable to effectively communicate with other people in the community. Also, how the Eucharistic Scout shaped my communication skills, motivation, dedication, and ambition are humorous given that this happened in the absence of my parents and in the presence of young age mates. What makes me feel special today is that I assist my aunt in doing household chores. Further, I help her children with their homework after my school. It is humorous how am able to connect with the kids, share laughter, have fun, and teach them in a more indirect way that they cannot misquote me.
Humor builds our values based on the past experiences. Interactions with discourse community members helped me build excellent values of socializing with people from all age groups in a more realistic manner. After my school, the ability to interact with adult and kids in the community has been heightened. I learn many values from them like patience, learning from play and learning from the elderly. The humor in it is that no attribute is associated to my parent’s efforts to educate me on how to help other people (Carrell, 1997). What were my parents doing to me when I was a kid until 10 years when I joined the Eucharistic youth scout? Why did my parents not teach me the importance of helping others in shaping my future goals? All these questions form the humor in my parents. However, I believe this was not intentional and intended for them to me. When I came back, my aunt was very happy and excited about seeing me help her kids. Why would she feel joyous and excited of me helping her kids while when I was a kid she did not interact, help, laugh, and teach me? This is also humorous of her as she did it to entice me or make me ignore the first. It was humorous in the manner we interacted with one another, laughed, joked, and shared funny stories with my cousins as I taught them at my aunt’s place.
In conclusion, taking humor as a mechanism of discourse community expands our understanding of different people’s behaviors, attitudes, perceptions, and values against ours. Humor in discourse community helps people embrace proper ways of assisting other people to cope with the issues they face in their lives. Combined with individuals shared norms and values, humor builds a connection with each other by reflecting on the past experiences in relation to the present activities that define their progress, ambitions, and ability to support others. In discourse community, humor brings joy, laughter, and the desire to help others feel comfortable, this then strengthens people’s connections with one another. Through connectedness, there is a strong support for each other in the community. The proper interaction, linking, and socialization within a group create a great sense of humor; and this is enjoyable to all. To me, humor plays important roles in the discourse community. I really enjoyed the stay and interaction with the discourse community members at the Eucharistic youth scout. ORDER YOUR PAPER NOW
References
Bell, N. D. (2002). Using and understanding humor in a second language: A case study.
Carrell, A. (1997). Humor communities. Humor-International Journal of Humor Research, 10(1), 11-24.
Swales, J. (1988). Discourse communities, genres, and English as an international language. World Englishes, 7(2), 211-220.