(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

[flynngrrl.livejournal.com]

Seconded. "Say something funny" is horrible, because then you have to be like, "It doesn't work like that" and they're all thinking, "Oh, so it's not really funny."

I used to ask for words and do a 185 on the spot, but that didn't work either, so I've settled for saying, "It's really a team effort, like Whose Line Is It Anyway? Have you ever seen that show?"

Then they talk about Wayne Brady for a minute, and we agree that the people on the show are very funny, and then it stops.