Gee Exercise

Kaleb Stroman            

When I think of discourse groups I tried to become fluent in, I have a hard time thinking of the ones I failed in. The reason being is because I’m so focused on the ones that I am currently in that I have almost forgot about the ones that came and went. Although one specific one comes to mind, the golf community. Throughout my life I enjoyed golfing for fun with my grandfather and brother, and it wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school that I took it seriously. That year I spent a few days at my grand parents house and went golfing with my grandpa every day. After the round of golf, I went and took lessons with a family friend for a couple of hours. The next week with tryouts coming up, I felt confident in my abilities, however that was not the case. Long story short I got cut. Thinking about this discourse community, what makes a person fluent in this is not just understanding and learning the game, but also being able to play the game extremely well. You have to be successful it seems like to be fluent in the golf community. The tests most people pass are tryouts or qualifiers. For me this was a problem because this was a test I did not pass, and therefore I did not become fluent. In terms of the social goods, these members don’t give much. The reputation seems accurate when saying that they aren’t necessarily generous to people who aren’t successful at the game. For me this was a struggle because again, I was not successful at the game and didn’t pass the test, so people could say that I was not a part of this discourse community because of that, and therefore do not receive the social goods.