Discourse Community Essay

What does it mean to be in a discourse community? How does it feel to be in a discourse community? A discourse community is a form that unifies people who share the same beliefs, wear the same traditional dress, worship same God, express same manners and share same culture and tradition. A discourse community helps find your own identity and makes you feel convenient in a group. There is a humongous group of Indian people residing in Fort Smith, Arkansas. As a part of this discourse community, I share certain body language, dress, manners and beliefs. We also speak a mixture of two languages, English and Tamil, called “Tanglish”. Tanglish is most commonly spoken with my family, relatives and friends in India. Tanglish is also popular in what’s

We wear traditional Indian clothes, cook Indian food and sweets, worship the God with hymns and prayers, and recite stories to children explaining about the ancient period in India and how the culture, beliefs and values are passed from generation to generation. Festivals unite us together and brings out an immense joy and happiness. During such festivals, cooking plays a vital role for women as making scrumptious sweets enlightens the whole day. Before eating those appetizing sweets, an important ritual precedes as those sweets are kept before the God and prayer occurs. Festivals are always filled with embellishing colors and joy that spreads across from children to elderly people. Another most important cultural tradition that Indians follow is respecting the elder people, usually youngsters touch elderly people’s feet to gain their blessings on important occasions and festivals. This tradition is followed wildly across India because in our tradition old people’s words and blessings are very powerful and respecting them is

Indian culture is rich and unique in its own style. Indian subculture in Fort Smith creates a nice ambiance to share and practice our culture and tradition. In addition, food plays a significant role in practicing our culture as Indian food is rich and savory filled with spices and herbs. If a guest arrives, we cook delicious and varies kinds of food including rice with chicken and vegetables in a spicy sauce and with other variety of Indian foods. Treating guests with good manners is essentially important as all family members greet the guests as they come inside the house to show respect and courtesy. Everyone talk together sometimes even in Tanglish, eat dinner, sing some Indian songs and watch movies to end the day