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The At 18 I Joined The Marines

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At 18 I joined the Marines. In boot camp I was introduced to new way of speaking and thinking. The new language, learned and internalized, was integral to changing my thought practices from that of a civilian, to that of a Marine. My experiences in the Marines confirm the the idea of linguistic relativity put forth in the Sapir-wharf Hypothesis, and served as my Initiation in the the Marine Corp’s Community of Practice.
During the three months spent in boot camp, recruits rarely spoke. Recruits listened, and learned an entirely new language. From the moment of arrival on Parris Island, recruits were not allowed to use pronouns. Usage of I, you, we, or me were strictly forbidden. Inability to use pronouns served to take away all …show more content…

Saying, “we are preparing for a possible NBC”, appears less psychologically frightening that stating that we were preparing for a nuclear attack. ‘
I am reminded of Carol Cohn’s work, Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals. Cohn describes the use of technistrategic discourse. The type of discourse, described in Cohn’s work, which served to desensitize, and take the human factor out of otherwise painful discussions, were tools utilized in Marine Corps. Boot camp furthermore, as I absorbed this new discourse I too began not just to speak in it but to think in it. I left Boot Camp with a new way of thinking about the world
I believe this experience confirms the idea of linguistic relativity put forth by the Sapir-wharf Hypothesis. The language, thought and culture of the Marines, all influence each each other. All of these ideas worked together, in boot camp, to change me from Jennifer the civilian. To PFC MacDonald, a Marine.
Additionally, Carol Cohn believed that the technistrategic community constituted a community of practice. I argue that the military world, specifically that of the Marine Corps, also constitutes a Community of Practice. Laura M. Ahearn’s book, Living Language, an Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology, describes a Community of Practice as follows,
A community of practice is an aggregate of people who come together around mutual engagement in an endeavor. Ways of doing

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