(no subject)

[tahnan]

There's a question that linguists get all the time after they tell someone they're a linguist, which is, "How many languages do you speak?" It's an intensely frustrating question, because it misses much of the point of the work a linguist does.

Similarly, I know that friends who have masters' degrees in children's literature dread questions about whether that means that they're writing a children's book. (Also, nearly any question that mentions Harry Potter.)

So I ask my readers, out of curiosity. When you tell people something fundamental about who you are or what you do ("I'm a linguist"; "I have a Masters' in Children's Literature"; "I'm from Serbia"; "I have a wooden leg"; "I brew beer"; or what have you), what question is it that you dread getting in return, but which seems to be fairly inevitable?

Comments

[prog.livejournal.com]

Depending on context:

"Hey, waddaya think of that new Bill Gates thing?" (I don't know, I don't care about any of that stuff.)

"Hey, waddaya think of that new Apple thing?" (I don't know, I don't care about any of that stuff.) My parents ask me this all the time, in the modified form "Oh I saw on the news... that... um... what's it... did Apple just do something?"

One that happens the least often and I don't mind nearly as much: "You've written a book? Hey my nephew wants to write a book, it's about giant robarts or some shit. How's he do that?" I mind a little more when part of my answer inevitably makes them go "Wait, won't they just steal his ideas?!" but they have to get educated somehow I guess.