- A person has to be born and bred into a Primary Discourse in order to truly be part of it. A Primary Discourse is a lot different from a Secondary Discourse, as a person cannot just go and chose their Primary Discourse. Gee says “All of us, through our primary socialization early in life in the home and peer group, acquire (at least) one initial Discourse.(7)” When Gee said this, I thought it was spot on, because a Primary Discourse is a fundamental principle of self, rather than something that can be acquired through study. Gee supports this by saying that “Our Primary Discourse constitutes our original and home based sense of identity…(7-8)” If something is central in your speech or even in your state of being, then there would be no way of changing this or trying to imitate your way into it. Despite the stark differences between Gee and Cuddy, I have found that even Cuddy can agree with this fundamental principle. During her TED Talk, Cuddy says “I knew my IQ because I had identified with being smart, and I had been called gifted as a child. (15:55)” There would be no way for her to join the smart or gifted Discourse without having that be a fundamental principle of who she is within. Part of Cuddy’s Primary Discourse was influenced by her innate intelligence, and it is impossible to teach someone to be gifted or to have a high IQ just because they want to be taught it. This is why on the point of Primary Discourse, I 100% agree with Gee, and think that a person cannot pretend to be in a Primary Discourse. Although it is easy to join a Primary Discourse in youth, it becomes extremely hard once a person formulates their own views and beliefs.
- When trying to become part of a Secondary Discourse, it is crucial that one imitates the behavior and language that they want to adopt. One incredibly helpful method of imitation is Cuddy’s method of faking it till you become it. During Cuddy’s talk, she told a story about one of her students who was struggling. When the student told her that she didn’t belong, Cuddy most certainly had something to say. She said “You are supposed to be here! And tomorrow you are going to fake it, you’re going to make yourself powerful and you’re going to go into the classroom and give the best comment ever.(18:35-19:03)” This was Cuddy’s way of telling the student that she needed to fake it till she became it, and that’s exactly what she did. Now that is not saying that you don’t need to work hard to join a Discourse, but it is saying that if you work hard enough at pretending to be in a Discourse, then you will eventually become part of it. In agreement to some degree with Cuddy, Gee says that there is an ability to master a secondary Discourse through assimilation into a community and an apprenticeship in the Discourse. Gee says that “After our initial socialization in our home community, each of us interacts with various non-home-based social institutions… Each of these social institutions commands and demands one or more Discourses and we acquire these fluently to the extent that we are given access to these institutions and are allowed apprenticeships within them.(8)” When Gee says this, it sort of proves Cuddy’s theory that you can fake it till you become part of a secondary discourse. Gee states that we are given access to the institutions, and are allowed apprenticeships, which means that we are being taught. When being taught, we can pretend we know what is going on until we have actually figured it out, and very rarely will people notice the difference. It’s like me in chemistry class, pretending that I know what I’m doing until I actually figure out what is going on. Overall, I think Cuddy makes a great point when she says that we are able to fake it till we become it, but in terms of Discourse, I find that it only applies to Secondary Discourses.
English 110 J
