sawsaw 4/10

I found most of Derrida to be very difficult to understand while reading it on my own. However, after yesterday's class discussion I find I have a new understanding of his ideas. By getting students involved in the discussion helped me really comprehend what Derrida was trying to say. By looking up the words in the dictionary I realized that when we read or hear a word we are really bringing other knowledge of other words to that specific word. When we did the dictionary exercise with the word "cookie" I began to really understand Derrida's concept. Without having prior knowledge of what other words are we would never be able to understand the specific word we are trying to look up. Before this exercise I had always referred to the dictionary for understanding of words. I use to think that the dictionary was "the book of knowledge" that it held explanations for everything. Now, I realize that the dictionary can often times make things more difficult to understand. The quote that stood out in my mind from yesterday's class was, "The farther you get from a words root source the farther you get from its significance." This concept really struck me because in order to really gain significance from a word you have to know its root and organic make-up. We have to have knowledge of what other words mean in the definition.