Blog » League as a Discourse Community
Posted on 08 Mar 2013 03:00
For this assignment of Discourse community I chose the “Liga Paraguaya” or Paraguayan league at Flushing. The Paraguayan league is a soccer league takes place every weekend at Meadows-Corona Park in Queens. Although this league is titled Paraguayan but everyone is welcome to participate in this league. However, this soccer league is very different from many other leagues that are in New York City. Even though talent is found everywhere you go, the players that participate in this league are highly skilled and dominant control with the soccer ball. Many people from various parts of the city and the world come to play in this league. This Paraguayan league is said to be semi professional for the variety of competitive teams that participate in this community. Besides the abundance of talent that flows in this community, this Paraguayan league has taken it to the next level, business.
I have taken an article from the New York Daily News that was written by Matias Maciel, a person who is considered to an insider to this Discourse community. Not do only he knows the functions of this league but also provides some information on how this league was organized and the purposes it had for the future.
In this Discourse community teams, soccer players, and business people share a main goal which is live for soccer. However, another goal that in some way supports the first goal is make money. Since the Paraguayan league is very competitive, therefore, business people bet on the teams. I am not talking about 80 dollars or 300 dollars but over 4,000 dollars. Not do only these players enjoy and live for what they do best but also by participating in this community it allows them to prosper in life. For this reason only very skilled players enter this league because each player gets paid, therefore, they live for soccer.
The way communication takes a role in the Discourse community I have chosen is constructed on the way players from a team should play at the field. Communication in soccer is build through the arrangement of position the captain selects for his players. It goes the same way for everyone who is in command of a team. One main terminology often used in soccer generally is “pass the ball” or simply “pass” and “shoot” to score a goal. There are many great individual players in this league; therefore, they are described as selfish because they do not pass the ball. That’s when the words “pass” or “shoot” are often heard.
I consider myself as an insider to this community for the simple reason that I know the functions of this Paraguayan league and soccer in general, because I play it. In addition, I know a lot about this league, in fact, I have friends who have competed in this community and described to me the level of soccer that is found in this Paraguayan league. But my question is, and this is where some of my classmates were debating whether I was an insider or not, does it make me an outsider not being part of this community?
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I remember when you briefly talked about your discourse community in class on Tuesday and I thought that your question was very interesting. When I read the blog post I did not see the question being asked all over the post. Instead, it builds up to the question by introducing me to the prestige and popularity of the soccer league. You talk about how highly skilled players from around the world come to participate in this league for the sake of playing with other highly skilled players and how businessmen make investments on this league that results in the members being supported financially as well. You also mentioned that most of the communication happens when they are talking about or during a game. Right at the end is where you start to mention the question you introduced in class: "[…] does it make me an outsider not being part of this community?"
I noticed that you used the word Discourse rather than just saying discourse community. That kind of told me to look at this using Gee's model of a discourse community. In some ways it makes sense because you mentioned that the soccer players that play in the league "[…] live for soccer". I'm curious to know whether or not you feel that these players were "born" into this league. My curiosity also stems from the fact that you do ask the question of being part of the community versus being an outsider. You yourself consider yourself an outsider because you know a lot about the league and you have friends that participate in this league. I think this touches upon another question: Does your knowledge qualify more as "meta-knowledge" (you have knowledge about a group, but you don't know anything about the group)? It's a weird idea, but it would be a nice thing to look into. It might help you gain an even bigger understanding of this Discourse.
What an interesting and complicated topic you've found, Christian! I agree with you that there are some ways of thinking about the League as a discourse community. After all, the League IS a business, and everyone in the community has an investment in supporting the needs of that business, helping it succeed into the future. In that way, the members of the community would include the players themselves, but also the owners, the coaches, investors, and all the folks who do the more boring work of keeping the business afloat (accountants? administrators?). Each member of the community might serve a different function in helping the League meet its shared goals, right?
At the end of your piece, you ask what you (a non-player) contribute to this discourse community. I think that's a compelling question to pursue further.