Week 8: Codes

Telling the Code by Lawrence Wieder, explains his experience as a participant observer in a half way house. He described the codes used by those inhabiting the house. Codes meaning the words used to describe something else for example "ass kisser" is someone who sucks up to the authority. It got me thinking about my everyday life, everyday situations that I encounter and continual practices that I endure day to day. Codes are not exclusive to the half way house they are used everywhere. I have code words that I use with my friends, especially if we don't want the people around to understand what we are talking about. At work we have code words to describe when we are going to the bank, it is called the "lolly shop". A group of people I know use codes in their everyday speech to point where they have almost created their own language by changing words around, making the back to front or removing vowels. Codes to me develope out of context, people use them to help their everyday lives. To lessen the crudeness of something, or to emphasis their distaste or to conceal what they are talking about. Codes I'm sure are a universal concept, every culture, language, group of people must use Codes to interact everyday. Codes are an inherant part of the way I communicate. I have code words for almost every single person I interact with and they are dictated by whatever context I am in. They emerge out of different situations that occur at often in my everyday life. Some may be mundane, and boring, but some are quite humorous.