(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

[ennienyc.livejournal.com]

I'm often asked:

Do you make puzzles?
Do you play Scrabble? (or bridge, or chess)
Do you like that new thing, what's it called, with the Japanese name...? (this was a guaranteed one during "Wordplay" Q&A's)

Uh, no.

When researching on the game show I got, "Do you write the questions?"

There's also, "You're from Great Neck! Do you know Mike Cohen?" Answer: "EVERYONE in Great Neck is named Mike Cohen."