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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

[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!