Re: "Coming out" about conlanging to people in Academia [was Re: Caryatic]

I came out to my English teacher and in turn my Counselor, in return I now
have two periods of school devoted to it! Talk about a sweet deal!

Patrick

----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas R. Wier" <artabanos@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2001 5:28 AM
Subject: "Coming out" about conlanging to people in Academia [was Re:
Caryatic]


J Matthew Pearson wrote:

> He knew that I was a conlanger (I 'came out' to him about it at one of our
> dinners)--but, like most people, he expressed no particular interest in
the
> details.  Neither did he discourage me, though.  There are plenty of
> conlangers in the linguistics field, most of them flying just below the
> radar.
How many of us here have "come out" to people in academia, and what
have the responses been like?

An anecdote:
A couple months ago I attended a session of the UT Linguistic Circle, after
which everyone customarily always goes over to the Texas Union's pub for
some beer and good conversation.   Somehow, the topic got onto languages
people knew, and someone mentioned that they knew some Esperanto, at
which point I quietly affirmed the same.  I then mentioned that I had gotten
disillusioned with Esperanto and thereafter began trying to make my own.
There was a weird dichotomy:  the people who weren't in tenured or tenure-
track positions gave the verbal equivalent of a blink, and politely asked
about it, while those who were, while not acting impolitely, gave me a look
like "What a bizarre thing you have just said".   I immediately noticed
this,
and tried to play it down by quoting the joke my friend occasionally says
about
me needing to find someone else to hold up the other end of the politcal
banner
demanding language rights for speakers of my language.  The guy I was
talking to
gave a kind of nervous laugh and immediately changed the subject.  It was a
weird experience, and has made me chary of opening up publically about my
conlanging.

===================================
Thomas Wier | AIM: trwier

"Aspidi men Saiôn tis agalletai, hên para thamnôi
  entos amômêton kallipon ouk ethelôn;
autos d' exephugon thanatou telos: aspis ekeinê
  erretô; exautês ktêsomai ou kakiô" - Arkhilokhos

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