Short Analysis Assignment

How does language effect how comfortable a person can carry out a conversation?  The way a person use language can make them feel as following; uncomfortable, awkward, hesitant, argumentative, mad, angry, and upset. In the short story analysis, Game Literacy, because of Dr. Chandler’s direct/ bossy comments she is making Brain respond awkwardly. For example one awkward moment is when he says “yeah, but it’s just games.” This quotes means that he is disagreeing with Dr. Chandler and saying that games are not software, but her bossiness insist that they are. Another example when she becomes bossy is when she says, “Obviously it wasn't real hard for you to learn, frontpage.” This quote means that is a known fact that it wasn’t hard for him to learn frontpage. After that he responds hesitantly and says “I think it’s because I had ah, background exposure” He responds in this fashion because it seem as though Dr. Chandler is bullying him with her own words.

The reason why Brian may feel awkward throughout this conversation is because Dr. Chandler is acting like a teacher. Dr. Chandler says, “So, its interesting games aren’t really considered software are they?   Brain says, “They are.” Dr. Chandler says, “So you know lots of software” Here in the previous quotes she is portraying a teacher and student role. Because, of Dr. Chandler’s derogatory direct comments, she is expecting him to respond as a student would. Being that she comes from a teacher discourse community she views software as academic software. A discourse is known as their job title a certain society. You must perform and take on these job roles like it was your own job. Brain has a different aspect on games and he feels this way because he is a gamer. As a result of her discourse, it may come natural to her to react in such a way she is reacting to Brain. She is trying to get her point across in an aggressive way. So she is ironically questioning, but cuts him off when he tries to reply and answers the question herself. This same incident can happen when asking students questions a teacher knows what type of answer she is looking for. If the student is not right then they just rephrase the question she the student can answer correctly. Her demeanor behavior as a teacher seems very bossy.

 To some extent he is asking as a good student because he is not just sitting back into silence. If he wasn’t being a good student would his results have been the same. He is voicing his opinion on the related topics that is what makes him a good student. It is good to ask questions because what you don’t understand another classmate may be on the same page. A student who is silent and talkative may not be as effective because they may get not enough attention or overwhelming enough. According to the analysis, he says “I wasn't being graded - there's no - all right man, let's pass this class you've got to” By emphasizing this quote he feels that Dr. Chandler is grading his test and he has to pass with fine colors. Grading someone is what a teacher would do and it is relevant and common with the teaching discourse. He is relating it to teaching but he is pointing out a difference. Throughout this analysis may not have totally agreed but at the end he is coming to a conclusion and decides to agree with Dr. Chandler. By doing so, he is being a good student by voicing his opinion. Even though, she agrees that there are some commonalities between games and software such as “you got used to trial and error”, he still manages to point out a difference.  

 What can happen when two people can interpret language differently? What can happen is that one person can feel more hostility toward the other person. By analyzing this conversation it seems like it was not going so well. they are both angry at each other and this disagreement has turned into an argument In the beginning, the way Dr. Chandler is talking to Brain seems as though she is belittling him because he is very hesitant in his responses such as when he says, “I think it’s because I had ah, background exposure.” By him saying ah it makes it sound like he is unsure of his answer instead of being confident.  He knows he is the expert at games not her. It may seem like she is belittling him because her comments are so direct and bossy. I believe that because they were friends; this conversation language was handled very well. It was very clear that there was some type of animosity going on between them but as friends they never over stepped their boundary. In conclusion, the lesson here is to show you that everyone may not agree to what you have to say, just stand confident by your answer and if you make a convincing agreement then the audience shall be convinced and will listen.