1.The idea that you can fake being in a Discourse till you become a true member of the Discourse. Using this quote to prove so by Cuddy, “She came in totally defeated, and she said, “I’m not supposed to be here.”! ‘Like, she can fake it, she can become it.[…]She comes back to me months later, and I realized that she had not just faked it till she made it, she had actually faked it till she became it.”(17:35)
2. A second important idea is that both Gee believes you can’t join a new Discourse because of Gees First theorem “Someone can speak English, but not fluently. However, someone cannot engage in a Discourse in a less than fully fluently manner. You are either in it or you’re not.” (9)
3. A third idea is that you can change your body language which leads you to be able to “fake” knowing a Discourse. As described by Cuddy, “We decided to bring people into the lab and run a little experiment and these people adopted, for two minutes, [the] “Wonder Woman”” (Cuddy 10:20)
Two Barclay’s Formula Paragraphs
- Joining a new secondary Discourse can be a difficult task for people, however, it is not impossible. Many people believe that it is unachievable to join a new secondary Discourses. James Gee is one of these people who believe that it is nearly impossible to join a new secondary Discourse. Gee supports his idea with this statement from his first theorem.“Someone can speak English, but not fluently. However, someone cannot engage in a Discourse in a less than fully fluently manner. You are either in it or you’re not.” (9) Gee is stating that you can say you can do something like speaks another language but you can’t be part of that languages discourse. This idea is widely accepted, however, Gee over exaggerates the idea of the difficulty level of joining a new secondary Discourse. Frankly, you can’t be fully in a Discourse or not all because when you first join a new Discourse you are still learning, however, you are still a functioning member of that said Discourse. Further, those who have been in a Discourse for a long time are still learning too. This argument is that yes it is difficult to join a Discourse but not impossible as Gee said. Which leads to the next idea that you can fake being fully fluent in a Discourse and be part of it.
2. To be able to learn and master a new Discourse people need to be able to practice and participate fully in the Discourses community. A way to start practicing a Discourse is to as Cuddy says Fake it till you make it. You have to fake that you should be part of to be able to fully participate in a Discourse. Cuddy shows an example of this when she had a student who did not believe she could participate in the IVY league Discourse. “She came in totally defeated, and she said, “I’m not supposed to be here.”! ‘Like, she can fake it, she can become it.[…]She comes back to me months later, and I realized that she had not just faked it till she made it, she had actually faked it till she became it.”(17:35) Cuddy’s student was able to become successful in the IVY league Discourse once she started to pretend that she was suppose to be there. This is important to people being able to join new levels of society. They need to be able to practice and believe that they can do well in a higher Discourse. Which is why I agree with the idea that you can master and join a new Discourse if you are able to fake that you belong there so you can have time to learn and become fluent in the Discourse.
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