Re: Coming out & finding-the-community stories?

Sai Emrys wrote:
> * how you 'came out' as a conlanger in any context (academic, social,
> parents, ...), their reactions to it, etc
I don't really have much of a story to tell here. I just casually told
my mom and brother one day, "Hey, I'm making my own language!" They said
something along the lines of "Cool!" or "Neat!".

The only other person I've really talked to about it (other than here,
of course) is my cousin. We had a running joke of greeting each other in
different languages. I would say "Hey!" and he'd say "Hola!", and then
we'd continue saying greetings in French, German, Russian, Japanese,
whatever I'd learned how to say. Once, I finished the little joke by
saying "Idile!" Obviously, he wanted to know what language *that* was
in. So I told him, and he was intrigued. Every now and then, he'll ask
me, "Are you still working on your language?"


> * how you found out that others do this (i.e. all of us weirdos) &
> your reactions to that.
The usual order on here seems to be: read Tolkien, make your first
conlang, find the list. Well, I guess I did it completely backwards. :)

First off, I never really liked English in school. I hated it. I'd
rather learn about Spanish or French than hear the same old lessons
about English. And I was always intrigued by other forms of writing,
especially Arabic and Chinese. I always wondered how anybody could
understand those little scribbles or stick drawings.

I never really even thought about making my *own* language until
somebody on a forum I used to read made a comment about Esperanto. After
much commenting and some arguing, someone posted a link to the Language
Construction Kit. I read it, and thought, "I wonder if *I* could do
that." But I didn't really try until after I read the rest of the links
on the LCK. One of which was a mailing list.

(The third part of the "usual order" didn't come until the LOTR movies
came out, but now I own all the Middle Earth books but two, not counting
_Children of Hurin_, since it's not out yet.)


> Consider this an open prompt; I just want to hear your stories about
> the social side of this craft.
>
> - Sai
I don't really have much of a story on the social side of things, but I
guess that's because most of the people I know in the real world see
language as a means of communication, rather than a form of art, which
is apparently the view I have come to have in the last 7 years.

(And now you all see why I hardly ever post. I can't write these essays
every day, now can I?)

--
Michael Potter
2007 - Year of Suvile: http://idzon.potterpcs.net