MWA1 and our common experience.

My table really found some amazing topics to dig into with MWA 1. We all found a language communities that had a profound impact on our development. Wendy, Cecelia, and Katie all wrote great scripts that taught a lot about their upbringing in a specific community.
Wendy told the story of her immigration from China to the United States using a Chinese custom of replying to a friend or colleague's greeting with, "Thank you I am fine." She discussed what it was like to find new friends and learn all about America in Colorado. We both talked about how we were motivated to make changes to our lives in order to find a place within our communities. She was guided by seniors or experienced Chinese residents, just like I found guidance from my senior teammates. Wendy continues to use, "Thank you I am fine," in every situation to help kick-start conversations. With this phrase, she could make connections with any Chinese immigrant.
Katie wrote about "kia kaha" the phrase of unity and strength among her rugby team. She talked about the bond among members of her team both in the past and present. Her coaches used the phrase to encourage them to be strong in everything they do. In a similar way, I wrote about how a split is used a tool to give a sense of accomplishment to a runner as he completed each portion of a race or workout. Our communities were both full of hardworking, blue-collar athletes.
Cecelia's community was by far the smallest, but had the most compassionate use of language. She described the acronym "IFLU" and how it bonded her to her sisters and best friend. They used many forms of both physical and verbal love language, but IFLU was the shortest and most commonly used greeting. They all used it in an endearing fashion in place of a punch to the shoulder or a forceful hug. Under the guise of a silly acronym, they had a truly heartwarming secret greeting that I admired a lot.
In general we all found terms that defined our lives both inside our language communities but in the greater social landscape. I use split ubiquitously to motivate myself as Katie does with Kia kaha. Cecelia and Wendy both found phrases that show the depth of their closest friendships. I was very inspired by everyone at our table.

MWA #1 Table Connections- Jimmy Helfrich

I really enjoyed this assignment because it was very interesting to see what certain words meant to other people rather than just myself. It is really easy to get caught up with yourself and how you interpret things rather than how other people interpret things. For example, Chandler or Jacob, because they are not from the mid-west, have no idea what "oap" is other than what they heard in my presentation. While on my side of the story, the word "cancer" does not have nearly the same meaning to me as it does to Jacob because of the multiple hardships that he endured. It is this side by side comparison that really opens our eyes to the different language communities that are all kind of meddled together when we pack up and move to college. Which is why I thought this was a great assignment because it not only forces you to get to know your classmates, but also get to know where they came from as well. I feel that I know my table members very well now because of the community traits that were evident in their use or meaning of their chosen word. In Silhey's recording she described the festival of Maha that demonstrates not only her communities generosity, but also the pride that they possess for their communities. This Pride is shown with Silhey's explanation of the festival. Overall, through her assignment we get the insight that Silhey is a very proud and generous person, and that she reflects her entire community as well; In the same sense that I reflect my communities politeness and humility with the use of my word.  Lastly, Chandler explained the close-knit community that he resides in, and it is just very cool to know that he had something like he had with his guys back home before even coming to college.
Overall, each and every person's assignment reflects not only themselves, but also they community that they came from.

table connections

   My table includes me, David, Cecelia and Wendy. David talked about how splits assigned by his coach's expertise turned him from an overconfident freshman into a true athlete, being guided to the best of his abilities. As another athlete, I can personally relate to being frustrated with inexperience, but learning a lot from coaches and how little things like splits can push you much farther towards goals.
   I learned a lot from Wendy's essay. I enjoyed hearing about how learning simple English phrases like "thank you, I am fine" seem so natural, but it means more than that because it serves as a first step to integrating into a newer community. Although she was intimidated, she wasn't alone and she had her Chinese student community in Denver learning with her and can relate to her. Although "thank you, I am fine" is a natural response when someone asks "how are you?, her and her friends all respond the same way and serves as an inside joke with her friend group.
   I can really relate to Cecilia's essay, reflecting on terms only you and your friends understand fully. The phrase shows how when true friendships are made, memories and commonalities between people also form and that's not something an outsider could possibly understand. It made me think of my friendships back home, and although things change over time there is always comfort in knowing some things, like memories, never will.
    All of the phrases that we have chosen don't impact each other on a personal level or in a way we can exactly understand, but I have noticed all of these words or phrases made me connect with memories and meanings of my own. These essays perfectly prove the point that certain words can mean so much to some and so little to others, completely disregarding the word's dictionary definition. The point being, often times there is lot more to words than the simple definition: it can bring back memories that only you and some others can understand, and that is the purpose of rhetoric.

Table Commonalities for MWA1

This writing assignment gave me a very up-close and personal stories from the members of my table. For example, Bushra's story was something I could relate to, even though I didn't know much about the Muslim culture. I found that we had similar intros to our stories, in that we both used detailed descriptions before diving right into our word that described our language community. I also think that we both tried to use our voice inflections in a way that we would just be telling this story to a friend and not a computer.
In Abbey's recording, I realized that our language communities were actually very similar. We both used a word to describe a part of our hometowns that mean a lot to both of us. I also think that our approaches were similar as well. Abbey really tried to give a good backstory and description of the retreat center, so that us outsiders would truly understand how much this word means to her. I had a similar approach with my word because I knew that no one would really know how to picture M-22 in their head without some type of description.
Madeline also had similar approaches to abbey and me in the way that she chose a word that describes something important in her hometown. I found more similarities with Madeline because her word described a location/region like mine. She also mentioned that people from her town all carry the logo of a redskin with them, whether that be on a keychain or sticker. This was a big part of my story too. Her story had a theme that described a territorial group of people in a specific region. I think that that was also a huge part of my story as well, because we are very proud of M-22 in northern Michigan, and we do everything we can to protect it's natural beauty.
All of the members of our table mentioned that we still use the language today in some way, and that we all love to share parts of our communities with our friends here in Saint Louis, or elsewhere.

Connections Table MWA 1

At my table, there are four fabulous people: Cecelia, David, Katie and me. Cecelia wrote about the acronyms of IFLU among her best friends. David introduced his cross country team and the concept "split." Kia Kaha was the phrase Katie chose to represent "being strong" in her Rugby team community. I think what is in commonality at our table is that we all valued toward the team that helps us to grow. The words are not just there as an identity for us. but it influenced our idea and expression from adolescence to adulthood.

David started his speech at an instance where he was practicing his cross country race on a hot day. "split" simply means the sections of a distance within a long cross-country run. David transformed as he values the team's pride and experience of the old runners. His greatly demonstrated how "split" carries on the athletic spirit of discipline. He paced and worked harder. David thought, using the "split" concept, he can conquer anything.

Cecilia wrote about her best friend and family, a group of 4 girls that she knew since kindergarten. Cecilia approached the relationship with physical love such as punch and hugs. The intimate relationship between the four girls is touching and lovely. I was wondering what the acronyms of IFLU means all throughout the story, but I loved how Cecilia put it in the end. That IFLU means I f*cking love you!

Katie was first introduced to Kia Kaha because of her rugby team starting high school. Kia Kaha means "be strong" and it is a minority language from New Zealand. Throughout her involvement in the rugby team, Katie begins to take on "Kia Kaha" as a magic word. It contains positive motivation in doing anything and pushes you to succeed.

Despite the uniqueness of all our stories and words, the commonalities I see within our table is that we are matured by the words that influenced us the most. Cecilia becomes certain of her childhood friendships to her friendships for life. David gained modesty and pride with his cross country team. Katie obtained positivity and strongness from Kia Kaha. And for me, "thank you I am fine" made me grow as a person to adapt to a new environment. We all grew in some way that made us better.

Schimpf- MWA 1 Group Commonalities

Madeline, Bushra, Juliana, and I all talked about something from our hometowns for this assignment. Madeline’s language community is stemmed from the word “Redskins.” This is her high school’s mascot, but because her hometown is pretty small the word is important to everyone in Morris. When their mascot was subject to change due to the negative connotation, the whole town came together to fight to keep it. They associate their mascot with strength, because they all fight for themselves. Bushra’s language community is the Islamic religion. Her word is Muslim, which is important to her and her community because it’s not a word that can simply be defined, it’s a way of life. Bushra grew up going to Islamic private schools her whole life, so she never had to explain her religion to anyone. Islam is the religion of peace. She says to be Muslim means submission to Allah, and obedience to His laws. These concepts can be hard to explain to outsiders, but Bushra says that she enjoys teaching people about her faith because she’s proud of it, and she feels that helping others understand will make them more comfortable with each other. Juliana’s word/symbol was M-22, a route that runs from her hometown of Traverse City, Michigan all the way to Leelanau County. The obvious meanings of M-22 are driving on the route itself, the black and white logo on the street signs, and the M-22 merchandise store. She said everyone in Michigan is familiar with this route, the “real” Northerners have the M-22 logo everywhere, and even people across the country are familiar with it. The logo gives her a sense of pride for where she’s from, and it brings people together from all over. All of these language communities are similar because they focus on an alternate meaning of a simple word that outsiders may not understand.

MWA#1 TABLE

My table consists of Sally Chen, Caroline Barnes, Ryan Gaines, and me. Both Sally and Caroline’s topics discussed words that were deeply ingrained into their city cultures. Caroline discusses her hometown suburb in St. Louis, MO, how the vast amount of high schools in the city leads to common questionings of where one went to high school, and the personal importance of the question at hand. As a St. Louis native myself I find it interesting that she brought this piece of community culture up because before I first heard it in class and in Caroline’s essay, that question had never crossed my mind as no one had ever brought it up before. Sally’s paper discusses the term “Portillos” and its significance to the people of Chicago, Sally’s hometown. She describes how eating at “Portillos” is a rite of passage as a Chicagoan and how “Portillos” had created a subcommunity in and of itself, comprised of various other suburbs and communities that share the same love for the restaurant. Like Sally’s community, there seems to be an aura of elitism however slight similar to my Church. Ryan discusses the term “nature” in context of community and geography. Ryan describes nature as wildlife and habitats surrounding his community of Kirkwood as well something that represents generational gaps and the aura and depth of a subject. Ryan goes into detail in describing his community and its changes over time, as well as nature’s relevance in his communities, both Kirkwood and SLU. All of my table’s members except me discuss a community term or phrase that holds geographic significance. Ryan’s description of his term is interesting because he approaches it both a literal sense regarding flora and fauna and a more abstract, metaphorical sense. Ryan’s paper also holds an element of Christianity and faith, as does mine, although he doesn’t tackle the subject like I do.

MWA 1 Table Connections

One commonality that my table members and I have written about in out first MWA is genuineness. Throughout all of our essays, we spoke of words and phrases that have changed our perspectives on the world or on life, but all of our papers were also about how genuine these words or phrases were in our lives. Jacob spoke about his and his family's struggle during his father's battle with cancer with a lot of raw emotion. Cancer is a terrible affliction that can often seem poisonous or dehumanizing, but Jacob speaks about how his dad constantly sought to take care of his family and reassure others despite the struggle going on in his life. He talks about how his dad had a positive impact on the lives of his family and others in his final months. Jacob’s father was a very kind and genuine man who remained so even in his death, and Jacob’s views on the word “cancer” seem far more true and genuine after having it affect him so closely. Chandler chose to write about his Jesuit Dallas all boys high school and the community that he found there after a history of constant moving due to his parents’ jobs. He describes the family-like atmosphere founded on several traditions, including a long history, familial lineage, and a tradition called The Yell which is a sort of chant that they did at every event in their school. The connection that Chandler formed with other boys at his school seemed to be a very genuine one founded on principles of tradition and friendship rooted in their school’s mission. Lastly, Jimmy wrote about the Midwestern phrase “oap” and how it is a sound uttered after any apologetic phrase spoken by a Midwesterner. However, he put specific emphasis on how “oap” is only let slip if the apology is truly meant or felt. “Oap” is a phrase that shows sincerity and genuineness in any Midwesterner and is a uniting factor to all that hail from that region. This basis we all have of writing about genuine words—about words that truly mean something and that we feel strongly about—and it is obvious from all of our papers that despite our different diverse backgrounds, genuineness and sincerity is something that we all value strongly.

Connections Between My Table for MWA 1

For the first major writing assignment, everyone at my table wrote about something that had to do with their hometown. I think this is important because it shows that we all still feel very connected with the places that we grew up in. Caroline, for example, explained a question that almost everyone around the country asks but a question that is uniquely prevalent in the St. Louis area. The two of us spent a lot of time talking about our cities and what makes each of them special. We both had a certain phrase that we described in depth so that others would be able to understand the meaning behind the words. Ryan also did something similar in that he picked something specific about his hometown and developed it into a descriptive term. Through the term, he helps others paint a picture in their head of what his town is like and what he loves about it. In my paper, I also tried to give listeners a feeling of community and closeness. Samuel describes a smaller type of community: his church. While our communities may seem pretty different, we both described how each of our communities impacted our upbringing and our lives at home.

All four of us at the table chose something that was/is a huge part of our lives. It allowed us to reflect on what was important and what we continue to hold near to our hearts. While we continue to change and move around, these language communities will always be there in the back of our heads, whether we like it or not. One big thing we had in common was definitely how we all chose words/phrases that were not unknown to outsiders of our communities, but were rather known in a different manner. Our individual communities treated the words/phrases as something special and only the people within those communities could speak accurately about the manner in which the words were used. I think we can all understand each other a little better now because of what we chose to write/talk about and how we chose to approach the topics.

Connections Between My Table

     My table consists of me, Abbey, Madeline, and Juliana. Madeline wrote about redskins, a word that brings a sense of admiration to the people in her language community. Juliana wrote about M-22. a word that reminds her of her hometown. And Abbey wrote about roses, a word that reminds her of her time in Bergamo.
     All four of those words that have a significant impact on our lives -specifically in high school. Madeline used her word, redskins, to show a sense of pride. It showed how much her time in high school has made her proud and loyal to who she is and what she belonged to. Juliana used her word, M 22, as a symbol that people from her community immediately recognize. It showed how the word connected people from different parts of the nation and united them together under one word. Abbey used her word, roses, as a symbol of balance. It showed how the word is a way to bring about change in her community.
    Madeline's word was similar to mine in that both of our words brought a sense of pride in us whenever we heard or spoke about it. To Madeline, redskins meant honor to her and her people. The word made her feel proud of who she was and what it meant to her. Similarly, my word, Insha'Allah, also brings a sense of pride within me because it is something that defines who I am.
     Juliana's word was smiliar to mine in that both of our words connected us to people outside of where we live. Juiliana mentioned how when she went on trips and wore M-22 on shirts or hats, people would start conversations with her of what M-22 meant to them. I feel that my word connected me to those who understood what I would say. People who say Insha'Allah have an understanding of where and why we say it and we feel comfortable enough with each other to talk about it.
     Abbeys word was similar to mine in that both of our words helped us with our time in high school. For Abbey, the word rose meant change. It meant respect and balance. Rose, for her, defined how a woman should be treated. It helped her with her viewpoint of herself and the women around her. Like her, my word helped me in a very low time in my life and anchored me back to reality.
     Despite the differences between the words and communities used, there was a clear understanding that our words helped define who we are and what our values and beliefs are.

MWA #1 Table Discussions-Pollett

I believe that something that is very important to note from my groups Major Writing Assignments, is the importance that is placed on recognizing the human qualities in each and every person.  Each of the assignments analyzed how often we can forget about the feelings and interests of the people who surround us, and how it is on us to constantly keep these in mind. In Sihley’s Major Writing Assignment she discussed her surprise to see her teacher perform at Maha.  We, as students, can often overlook that teachers have interests outside of the classroom.  When Sihley saw her teacher, she began to humanize her teacher in a way she had not done before.  She even goes on to say that she develops a “pseudo-friendship” after the festival with her teacher, because of their new found interest in similar music.  We also see this in Jimmy’s paper, where he discusses the significance of “oap” in Midwest culture.  “Oap” provides the opportunity to say sorry in a way that recognizes the other individual as more of a human.  While it is something unique to the culture in the Midwest, it provides insight into the emphasis on humanizing people around us in every day life.  In Jacob’s Major Writing Assignment, he discusses the struggles that both him and his family go through during his father’s battle with cancer.  Cancer, at its core, is a disease that dehumanizes whoever it comes in contact with.  However, it was his father who constantly sought to take care of his family during this difficult time.  This constant push to keeping our identity as humans, allows our culture to create deeper connections with the people we meet on a daily basis. For this reason, this is why we all have the desire for humanizing the people who surround us.

Table Connections

I really enjoyed this assignment and getting to learn about language in other people’s communities. I liked learning about the lovely people who sit at my table and I liked getting to know more about them as a person and what kinds of things are important to them. One big thing that we all had in common was that the language community we used was from our home towns. I talked about my home town mascot, Abbey talked about how roses represented her retreat from home, Bushra talked about her grandma and her words from their religion in their community, and Juliana talked about a route that became a brand from where she lives. These words are all personal to us in our own way. My word redskin is similar to Abbeys because Abbey’s word has to do with her retreat that she went on in high school, just like my word pertains directly to my high school. High school has a big impact on young people’s lives and it contributes to a lot of language that we use today. Another similarity is that Juliana’s word is a now a brand and you can buy things with the logo on it just as you can do with my word redskin. Route M-22 and redskin did not start off as brands, but now you are able to purchase the logos in stores. Bushra’s word was extremely cool to learn about, not only because it is a different language, but because my whole life I have gone to school and learned about Christianity, so I really enjoyed learning more about the Muslim language and religion. It’s strange to think that you spend 50 minutes with people you sit next to three times a week and you still don’t know much about them, so I’m really appreciative that I got the chance to learn about a word that means so much to them.