# data[].attributes.headline
The Volleyball Literacy Community: What One Has to Know

# data[].attributes.subject
The Volleyball Literacy Community: What One Has to Know

# data[].attributes.body
In order to thrive in a volleyball-based environment, one must have a solid understanding of the technical, vigilance-requiring, uplifting nature of the volleyball language. Verbal technical communication is essential for running successful plays in game time scenarios and for discussing how to improve in practice. The lingo is unique and, although there are certain terms that are more relevant to each specific position (such as a “dump” to a setter or a “tip to the donut” to a hitter), it is important that all positions are aware of all terms. Nonverbal hand motions are equally critical to game time situations in that they allow players to communicate plays without the other team overhearing and prepping for them in advance. Due to the subtle hand signs and code words, this language requires constant vigilance in order to maintain communication between you and your teammates. For example if an outside hitter isn’t paying attention, they might miss their setter using a gun hand motion which indicates a faster, lower set- a “shoot”. The language of volleyball is radically different from that of other, more violent sports where teammates (in either subtle or obvious ways) tear each other down to get on top. Because in the sport of volleyball everyone is reliant on each other to perform their respective job (because each job leads into the next), there is more motivation to encourage and speak kindly to teammates instead of knocking them down. Body language plays into this point because constant high fives and huddles work to bond and motivate the team even as a game drags on. Overall, there are a myriad of factors that one must learn before being able to call themselves literate in the language of volleyball.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Basic White Girl Literacy Community: What One Has to Know

# data[].attributes.subject
The Basic White Girl Literacy Community: What One Has to Know

# data[].attributes.body
Meanwhile, a more slang-based literacy, spoken with friends as opposed to on the court- basic white girl- tends to involve more freeing, uniting, and subjective qualifications. To clarify, one is not required to be either white nor a girl in order to attain fluency in basic white girl, but they absolutely must be basic. The slang aspect of this literacy requires words and phrases common to the language to be integrated into conversation on a consistent basis and applied, for some words, to a variety of scenarios or, for others, tailored to a specific situation. For example, the word “sis” applied with different inflections can contain either positive or negative connotations and can convey almost any meaning depending on what the speaker is intending (e.g. greetings, surprise, indignation, question, etc.) . Meanwhile, if one were to comment that a person is “slaying” it would indefinitely mean that that person is performing a task exceptionally well and/or being a strong, fierce woman/man. Everyone who speaks basic white girl has a different idea of what inflections are appropriate, what words are still acceptable to use, and what words have been totally overdone. This is where the subjectivity of the literacy comes in, for each person is responsible for choosing which of the many words and phrases of basic white girl they will use on a consistent basis. For instance, “Spill the tea” or simply “tea” have lost their relevance to most people, but there are a treasured few who still use them consistently. This is their choice and everyone who has been fluent in this literacy for even a short period of time will understand that the exclamation of “tea!” most certainly means that drama is afoot. When multiple people use similar words in daily conversation, it often connects and unites them, allowing them to bond over words that they both find useful. As far as body language goes, basic white girl allows one to be as overdramatic and frivolous with their hands as they’d like. This invites a freeing aspect to the language and gives one permission to express themselves with as much passion as necessary. The basic white girl literacy is a fun, expressive language that bonds people and lets them make unique choices about what words and phrases they want to use in daily life.

# data[].attributes.headline
Volleyball: What I Enjoy Most About This Community

# data[].attributes.subject
Volleyball: What I Enjoy Most About This Community

# data[].attributes.body
The volleyball literacy community is incredibly special to me for a multitude of reasons. For one, being involved in a sport in which I am actually able to comprehend and apply instructions and suggestions given to me makes me feel like a valuable asset to the team. Expanding my volleyball IQ and growing in community with my teammates daily have given me a genuine feeling of purpose and belonging in my life that is unparalleled by anything else. No matter how much I know about the language of volleyball, there is always still so much for me to learn. I love my girls; the sense of camaraderie between us gives me hope for the future of sports and the futures of each of us. The constant positivity exerted by the team leaves me feeling filled up even when I’m having an off day, and I always feel accepted on the court because of the high standards of encouragement that us players hold each other to. When my team is able to successfully run a play based solely on nonverbal communication, I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do for my teammates, and our shared literacy enables us to play better as individuals and as a single unit.

# data[].attributes.headline
Basic White Girl: What I Enjoy Most About This Community

# data[].attributes.subject
Basic White Girl: What I Enjoy Most About This Community

# data[].attributes.body
Being literate in basic white girl has given me such community with the friends around me and enabled me to bond with new people over our shared method of speech. Upon meeting a person, I am usually immediately able to tell whether or not they share the basic white girl literacy by their tone, body language, and word choice. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that I enjoy people who speak the language more than those who don’t; it simply is a factor of someone’s personality that I take notice of. If they are literate in it, it gives me something in common with them and incites a spark of recognition between the two of us as having fellow basic personalities. Additionally, I admire the way that this literacy community accepts however much passion and energy that I want to put into my speech and body language. Whether or not I’m feeling the flair for dramatics on any given day, I know that I’m welcome to crank up my personality to its highest setting, moan about my lack of sleep, or find a compromise between the two. All in all, the literacy allows me to communicate with my friends easily and find immediate similarities with strangers.

# data[].attributes.headline
Volleyball and Basic White Girl: A Moderate Connection

# data[].attributes.subject
Volleyball and Basic White Girl: A Moderate Connection

# data[].attributes.body
My experiences with the volleyball and basic white girl literacies have thus far involved keeping them moderately separate, although I see no reason not to bring them together. My languages, while very diverse, don’t conflict in the way that, say, academic and friendship literacies or the Spanish and English languages would. The only way that they might intersect would be when I am using basic white girl while playing volleyball because I’m able to use my friendship literacy with my teammates due to the fact that we are all friends and a large sum of us hang out outside of the sport as well. While Jamila Lyiscott in “3 Ways to Speak English” describes her experience with different literacies to be a struggle- weaving in and out of using them and fighting back two literacies whilst speaking the third- I haven't experienced anything like this. My basic white girl literacy is acceptable on the court as long as I am able to integrate my knowledge of plays and hand signals as well and remain encouraging at the same time. Therefore, they aren’t two separate worlds that I must keep apart. It might be odd if I used my volleyball literacy with my non-volleyball playing friends because they, for the most part, wouldn’t understand what I was talking about, but this doesn’t come up very often. Volleyball lingo is only applicable on the court, and using plays and motions in regular speech would be inappropriate in most scenarios. In summary, the interaction of my literacies, while certainly there at times, is not a particularly influential aspect of them. I feel free to use both volleyball and basic white girl at almost any time, and their relevance in my life have nothing to do with how often or in what ways they intersect as I move through my day.