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[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

[quantumkitty.livejournal.com]

I was also reading friendsfriends and came across this.

I'm a senior at Brandeis, majoring in linguistics, math, and computer science. (Really, I'm a linguist who realizes she needs a strong math/CS background and a Plan B if grad school doesn't work out.) Along with the inevitable not-understanding-what-linguistics-is responses, I get responses assuming I have lots of work to do, like "Do you ever sleep?"

It's really not hard at all to double or triple major at Brandeis, especially if there's some overlap between the requirements for your various programs. I really work less than most people I know, because I'm lazy and don't study.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

OK, that's really odd--I thought, "I'll glance at her LJ and see what sorts of things she...why is that link already-followed colored?" Because, it turns out, I was looking at your LJ yesterday after it turned up as one of the few Google hits for "An abstraction of a cowboy leaves".

Anyway--linguistics at Brandeis, cool. I was really glad to see that they hired Sophia Malamud; I saw her speak at the LSA last year and she struck me as quite talented. And I have coffee periodically with Lotus Goldberg, who I hope you've encountered there.

So: grad school in linguistics? Or off to use the CS to actually make money?

[quantumkitty.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a coincidence. :)

I want to go to grad school in linguistics, though I am still not sure where. Money? Who cares about that?

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

You say that now; let's see if you say the same thing when you finish grad school. (Of course, I said the same thing when I was a senior, and was told by a professor what I just said to you; it never seems to stop us, does it.)

Good luck with the grad school quest; drop me a line if you've got any questions.

[quantumkitty.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[siderea]

OK, I can check off "introduce quantumkitty and tahnan" from my to-do list....