(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

[saxikath]

That "you must be so smart" sort of reaction is why I generally try very hard to avoid telling anyone where I went to college. (Not MIT, in my case.) That and the jaw-dropping gasping reaction. I never know what to do with that.

You ever get asked this one?

[dtm]

"So is the grade inflation there as totally shameless and rampant as the academic scuttlebutt would have it?"

Re: You ever get asked this one?

[saxikath]

No, that one doesn't much come up.