(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

[redbeard.livejournal.com]

"I'm a marine biologist."

leads to

"How are the whales?" or "So what are dolphins really saying?" or they take it on themselves with "Oh, I always wanted to do that and study the dolphins," almost without fail. (It's always "the" dolphins, which I find odd - as if they are a family or something, like the Joneses or something).

Then I drop the bomb.

"Nah, backbones are boring."