(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

[rubrick.livejournal.com]

As an Apple employee: "Can you get me a free iPod?" Although more annoying is "Why doesn't X, Y or Z product do A, B or C?"

As a juggler: "Do you do chainsaws?". Runner up: "Are you in a circus?"

Edward Jackman, one of the funniest and most successful comedy jugglers during the '80s, used to compare the attitude of (American) juggling audiences to ballet patrons shouting "Set your tights on fire! Eat poison!"