Week 4 Culture and Identity

Holliday et. al used an excellent analogy “A person’s gender identity is more like gold in that it is not highly situation dependent; whereas a person’s occupational identity element is probably more like oxygen in that it is highly situation dependent.((p.103)”  This analogy sums up my beliefs.  Your identity is ever changing and is different in different situations.

I had a hard time understanding the changing definitions of Discourse and discourse.  I did find a huge similarity between the systems of discourse and the many culture groups each individual belongs to: gender, generation, profession, corporate or institutional placement, regional ethnic, and other possible identities (Holliday et. al p.111).  It seems to me that you can interchange the words discourse and culture pretty easily.  I like Hall’s statement of culture identities are like cloaks that individuals can put on or take off (p.32).  I really think this resembles my understanding of how much identity plays a role in day to day life.

I have been learning to think differently since completing the readings this week.  I never realized the complexities of language, and that it isn’t just learning how to speak the language.  There are so many things to take into account such as: frameworks, contextualization cues, inferencing, facework, social identity, and rhetorical devices.  There are so many things to learn in addition to the language in order to understand and be understood.  Hall states that a traditional perspective considers culture is treated separately from language.  I think this is more often the case and language and culture are very combined.  The example of the doctor/patient in Holliday’s Intercultural Communication book really brings to light all of the complications that can arise when communicating in a language new to you.  Wrong conclusions can be made so easily when not understanding the cultural background of each individual in a situation.  Many times an ELL is talked to as they are slow or stupid.  Doctors have made hugely wrong diagnosis’ due to a few misunderstandings.  A teacher can make this same mistake.  I learned this from personal experience.

My cousins biological mother and father lived in Mexico most of their life.  Nancy was born in Illinois.  Her mom was dying of cancer and my aunt adopted her and her two older brothers who were born in Mexico.  The boys were in ELL classes getting help adjusting.  Nancy never received any ELL services;  I assume due to the fact she was born in the U.S.A.  She was just as much of and ELL student as her brothers but was not provided the same support.  It took all the way until third grade with my aunt pushing the school to complete testing, and provide additional help.  The school thought she had a learning disability, and never took into account the fact that she was an ELL student.  After being provided the proper support she ended up skipping a grade which finally put her with students her own age. 

How many times is an ELL misdiagnosed medically or educationally due to a cultural misunderstanding?  How often does ELL lose confidence by being treated as though they were stupid? 

Hall also mentions hiatus developing through the process of social categorization in which we learn to sort the world and the people within it into groups made meaningful by large socioculture forces.  This is so problematic, but is very frequent!  How we act is responsive to contextual conditions.  These are such powerful things that are taken so lightly.