(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

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

"I work for a military contracting company" always leads to "Oh? So do you blow things up?"

"I work in artificial intelligence" almost always leads to a 2001 reference.

"I'm a software programmer" usually doesn't get too much of a response. When it does, it's almost always "So, what exactly do you do?" And that just leads to pain.

[touchstone.livejournal.com]

You missed an option. "I work for a military contracting company that does artificial intelligence" leads to a Terminator reference :)

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

This would be why I avoid that particular one.

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

(I think I'm going to adopt my Uncle's response. When asked what he did for a living, my Russian-fluent, CIA-employed relative always responded with "I type."