I have worked in costumer service in my grandfather’s tailoring shop. In this job I have learned to do a lot of things and I have develop multiple new skills. John Swales talks about discourse communities and how they are unique to each individual.
There are certain requirements that a discourse community has to fall into in order to be considered one. Even if it’s the smallest detail of each characteristic, each requirement needs to be met.
In costumer service in my grandfather’s tailoring shop we have a 1-week period to finish fixing our costumer’s clothes. It doesn’t matter if it’s a lot of clothes our period time is one week and we have to complete it until then. Everyone that works in my grandfather’s tailor shop are aware of this and work hard to achieve that goal. Even if one worker finishes their work the other workers will help to get the job done.
Also, something important in the tailor shop is that they also split the work differently to each worker. One person will work on dresses, another person will work on suits, another will work on shirt, etcetera. This will change every week. The reason for this is that my grandfather wants to make sure that everyone is able to handle different clothing so they become experts on them.
One of the main things that my grandfather uses as feedback are the costumers responses when they get their altered clothes. Costumers will let him know that he and his workers have done a good job. I believe that one of the clearest ways for me to notice that the costumers like the job that was done is in their tips. Most, if not all, costumers that are satisfied with the work will leave a tip. In the same way every week my grandfather will tip us after he pays everyone for the job that we have done.
As we mentioned in class, we needed to figure out which one of the characteristics was the most important in my discourse community. The one that I could think of was the lexis that we use there. For us it is one of the most important things because without it the job will never get done. My grandfather writes on clothes letters to know what the costumer needed to get done. For example, when he writes “T – B” it means “Take in from the back.” Everyone that works there knows this and if one of us happened to see something different we would not understand. Even in my part of the job, in the receipts we give out to clients I have to write “NP” which means “Not paid.” Or if the costumer pays beforehand I have to write “P. A” which means “Paid Andy.” The second letter will be the initial of the name of whoever got the money from the costumer.
For these reason each one of the characteristics that my discourse community has is vital for us. I am aware that not every tailoring shop is the same around the world and that they probably have their own specific characteristics that make them unique. Our tailoring shop has run for more than 40 years and each one of the characteristics has been the reason why the business is still going. As I said at the beginning, I have learned multiple things from this job and I would be able to notice an expert on the field and someone that is not.
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