BP Jonsson wrote:
>At 10:35 2001-12-10 ?, James Campbell wrote:
>
>>... which is why I found it so comforting to find Conlang in '96 when I
got
>>online: "Wow, so many conlangers!" You don't feel quite so weird when
you're
>>surrounded by equally-weird (or at least, weird for the same reason)
people.
>
>Until your kids tell you what a nut you are who wastes time with fairy-tale
>languages...
>That one really shot me down, and I'm still trying to recover. Not that
>I'll stop conlanging, but I must find a way to convince them it is
>worthwhile. :-(
Do they read comics? Story books? Play video games? These too can be
considered wastes of time with fantastic situations....Whatever benefits
such activities may incidentally provide-- improved reading ability,
hand-eye coordination, strategizing-- are comparable, mutatis mutandis, to
"wasting" one's time pondering language questions. Ah well, they are
probably young, and will someday learn that not everything we do must have a
"practical" value.