Think Bigger, Make it Happen
Be Happy. Be Bright. Be You.
Introduction —
Most people attend college in order to achieve future occupational goals. These aspirations include applications of business, engineering, medicine, liberal arts and education. Completion of college courses alone, however, does not entirely prepare people for their careers.
According to James Paul Gee in Literary, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction, it takes more than just an education to become a professional in these fields. A person must be immersed in the culture of the Discourse subject to fully master it. It takes more than just studying; it’s something that people need to practice repeatedly.
The Discourse of a subject reaches beyond the proficiency of head knowledge.
Language —
Amy Cuddy, in a TED Talk called “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are” explains how acting powerful and practicing power poses, such as wonder woman, can lead to a more confident attitude. She also shares the concept of “faking it till you become it.” Faking something for so long and putting in enough effort results in becoming the part. When this realization occurs, people notice that they have mastered their Discourse. They are no longer faking it. In order to enter a Discourse, a person must acquire all aspects of it including the actions, language, beliefs, and values that correspond to the particular Discourse.
Body language plays a significant role in a Discourse; a person must play the part in all aspects to be considered inside of it. “[Language] is a truism that a person can know perfectly the grammar of a language and not know how to use that language. It is not just what you say, but how you say it”(Gee 5). An example of this is someone who swims recreationally and someone who swims competitively. The person who swims for fun will most likely be good at swimming and understand the basic rules of different strokes, but they won’t fully know all the terms and be in the competitive swimming Discourse.
Communication —
Being fully engaged in a Discourse is much more than speaking the right language, it’s observed in how a person is acting when they talk. The combination of “what you are and do when you say it”(Gee 5) makes all the difference to whether someone has fully entered the Discourse.
Cuddy gets at the importance of body language in her TED Talk about faking it until you become it and highlights the fact that non-verbals play an essential role in communication. “Obviously when we think about nonverbal behavior, or body language — but we call it non-verbals as social scientists — it’s language, so we think about communication” (Cuddy 1). Communicating through body language is just as powerful as verbal interactions. Body language tends to tell the truth behind someone’s words. A person must acquire the values, beliefs, actions and words, and convey them through body language in addition to head knowledge.
Fake it till you BECOME it —
Most people have heard of the phrase “fake it till you make it.” This common notion in today’s society states that ambitious people will be willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals.
Cuddy twists this expression into “Fake it till you become it.” She suggests that faking it till you become it will ultimately result in fully entering a Discourse, because this behavior leads to becoming the part. Another way is through apprenticeship. Watching someone else who is already in the Discourse can lead to their entrance. Gee agrees and states, “Discourses are not mastered by overt instruction…but by enculturation (“apprenticeship”) into social practices through scaffolded and supported interaction with people who have already mastered the Discourse”(Gee 7). In order to fully be in a Discourse, people must spend time with those who have already mastered it. Mastering something takes practice and trying over and over again to succeed.
In Cuddy’s TED Talk, she mentions this concept and tells a story about a student who came into her office feeling completely defeated and assuming she didn’t belong at school. Cuddy told her that indeed she did belong, and that she needed to fake it until she became it. “So 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. So she had changed. And so I want to say to you, don’t fake it till you make it. Fake it till you become it. Do it enough until you actually become it and internalize”(Cuddy 7).
Faking it for long enough will result in becoming the part.
There will be a realization that the Discourse has been mastered, and it will be a feeling of relief and success. Learning something takes time and requires effort for the wanted results. In order to fully master being in a Discourse, one must fake it till they become it, by apprenticing those who are already in the Discourse. Learning something takes time and requires effort for the desired results.
Reaching a Discourse —
The first things humans see and come in contact with end up being the base layer of who they are. Their primary Discourse is the foundation for all others. When a child is immersed in a culture based on their parents, parts of their secondary discourses will transfer into the child’s primary Discourse. The child’s secondary discourses won’t come as naturally since they build on the primary. Entering these secondary discourses take time, courage, patience and practice by apprenticeships and faking it. One day having the realization that the Discourse has been reached is a feeling of pure power.
